44 THE COMPLETE ANGLER 



We all acknowledge both Thy power and love 



To be exact, transcendent, and divine ; 

 Who dost so strongly and so sweetly move, 



Whilst all things have their end, yet none but Thine. 



Wherefore, most sacred Spirit, I here present, 

 For me, and all my fellows, praise to Thee ; 



And just it is that I should pay the rent, 

 Because the benefit accrues to me. 



And as concerning fish, in that psalm (Psalm civ.), 

 wherein, for height of poetry and wonders, the prophet 

 David seems even to exceed himself ; how doth he there 

 express himself in choice metaphors, even to the amaze- 

 ment of a contemplative reader, concerning the sea, the 

 rivers, and the fish therein contained ! And the great 

 naturalist, Pliny, says, " that nature's great and wonderful 

 power is more demonstrated in the sea than on the land." 

 And this may appear by the numerous and various 

 creatures inhabiting both in and about that element ; as 

 to the readers of Gesner,* Rondeletius,f Pliny, Ausonius,J 

 Aristotle, and others, may be demonstrated. But I will 

 sweeten this discourse also out of a contemplation in 

 divine Du Bartas, (in the fifth day), who says : 



* Conrade Gesner, an eminent physician and naturalist, was 

 born at Zurich, in 1516. His skill in botany and natural history 

 was such as procured him the appellation of the Pliny of Germany ; 

 and Beza, who knew him, scruples not to assert, that he concentred 

 in himself the learning of Pliny and Varro. He died in 1565. 



t Guillaume Rondelet, an eminent physician, born at Montpelier, 

 in Languedoc, 1507. He wrote several books, and a treatise De 

 Piscibus Marinis, where all that Walton has taken from him is to be 

 found. He died very poor, of a surfeit occasioned by eating of figs 

 to excess, in 1566. 



J Decius Ausonius, a native of Bordeaux, was a Latin poet, consul 

 of Rome, and preceptor to the Emperor Gratian. He died about 

 390. 



Guillaume de Saluste, Sieur du Bartas, was a poet of great 

 reputation in Walton's time. He wrote, in French, a poem called 

 " Divine Weeks and Works," from whence the passage in the text 

 and many others cited in this work are extracted. This, with his 

 other delightful works, was translated into English by Joshua 

 Sylvester. H. 



