DANIEL’S RURAL SPORTS: 
Same time. We suspect that the vanity 
of the Highland fishermen led them to 
represent a rare instance as a common 
one. 
. The account of the chetodon rostra- 
tus is curious, and with it we shall close 
our account of Dr. Shaw’s important 
work. 
This fish is a native of the fresh wa- 
ters of India, and is celebrated for the ex- 
traordinary manner in which it takes its 
prey, which chiefly consists of the smaller 
kind of flying insects: when it observes 
one of these either hovering over the wa- 
ter, or seated on some aquatic plant, it 
shoots against it from its tubular snout, 
a drop of water, with so sure an aim as 
843 
generally to lay it dead, or at least stu- 
pified, on the surface. In shooting at a 
sitting insect, it is commonly observed to 
approach within the distance of from six 
to four feet, before it explodes the water. 
When kept in a state of confinement in a 
large vessel of water, it is said to afford 
high entertainment by its dexterity in 
this exercise, since if a fly or other insect 
be fastened to the edge of the vessel, the 
fish immediately perceives it, and con- 
tinues to shoot at it with such admirable 
skill as very rarely to miss the mark. 
The same faculty is possessed by the 
sparus insidiator, and some few,othersbee 
longing to very different genera. 
Arr. Il. Rural Sports: By the Rev. Witttam B. Danier. $8 Vols. large Svo. 
IT is asserted by one of our English 
‘poets in an early part of thelast century, 
that the satyric muse ought not to be 
silent,when amidst other prevailing enor- 
mities, 
Churehmen scripture for the classics quit, 
Polite apostates from God’s grace to wit. 
He probably alluded to the great Bent- 
ley, at that time in the zenith of his repu- 
tation asaclassic scholar, and to Dr. 
Zachary Pearce, afterwards Bishop of 
Rochester, who had then recently pub- 
lished an improved edition of Longinus. 
We are persuaded that every candid 
judge will pronounce the censure to be 
liberal and severe. Those eminent 
men, while they added to the treasures 
of literature and the reputation of their 
country, by their unwearied labours on 
the valuable remains of Greece and 
Rome, were so far from deserting or ne- 
gligently performing the duties of their 
sacred office, that they rendered the 
study of such authors as are usually 
stiled profane, of admirable use in the 
explanation of the holy scriptures, and 
the defence of their religion against the 
attacks ofits adversaries. Dr. Bentiey’s 
sermons at Boyle’s lectures, the first that 
were delivered on that occasion, entitle 
him toa high place in the class of divines, 
ir. Pearce’s Vindication of the Miracles 
of Christ, and his posthumous notes on 
a considerable part of the New Testa- 
ment, are a sufficient proof that he was 
not inattentive to his peculiar profession 
as a minister of the gospel, 
But if so slight a deviation from the 
direct duties of the clerical character, 
could so far* chafe’”’ the poet’s “spleen” 
asto compel him to exchange “ pane= 
gyric”’ for * satire,’ how would his 
wrath have boiled over, and how caus- 
tic would have been the ebullition, if he 
had lived at the heginning of the nine- 
teenth century, and had cast his eye 
upon Rural Sports by the Rev. Wm. B, 
Daniel! What would he have said of 
the boisterous apostates from the grace 
of God to the mysteries of the dog ken- 
nel? We honestly confess that we our- 
selves, though far from wishing to pos< 
sess an equal degree of rigorous strict- 
ness, could not avoid wishing that the 
epithet Reverend had not appeared in the 
title page, and that we should have been 
better pleased, if, instead of writing on 
the pleasures of the chace, the avowed 
ecclesiastic had been employed in col- 
lecting the various readings of Sophocles 
or Euripides. In the first effusion of a 
humour which we acknowledge was 
tinctured with somewhat of the spleen, 
we were tempted to give a paraphrastic 
translation of his motto, Vitanda est im- 
proba Syren desidia ; and to understand it 
as a declaration, that if he did not hunt 
and shoot he must be in bed all the win- 
ter, orat the best spendhisdays in anarm 
chair, dozing over a relaxing fire. We 
recollected the arch reply of a Quaker, 
more than thirty years since, to a reve- 
rend sportsman who was boasting of his 
infallible skill in finding a hare: “ If [ 
were a hare, I would take my seat ina 
place where I should be sure of not being 
disturbed by thee from the first of Ja- 
nuary to the last of December.” “ Why 
where wouldst thou go?” “ Into thy 
study.” 
Such were our feelings when we first 
