THE COMPLETE ANGLER 47 



women are said to do, to outlive his or her mate, and this 

 is taken for a truth ; and if the survivor shall ever couple 

 with another, then not only the living but the dead, be 

 it either the he or the she, is denied the name and honour 

 of a true turtle-dove. 



And to parallel this land-rarity, and teach mankind 

 moral faithfulness, ^nd to condemn those that talk of 

 religion, and yet come short of the moral faith of fish and 

 fowl ; men that violate the law affirmed by St. Paul, 

 Rom. ii. 14, 15, to be writ in their hearts, and which he 

 says shall at the last day condemn and leave them without 

 excuse ; I pray hearken to what Du Bartas sings, for the 

 hearing of such conjugal faithfulness will be music to all 

 chaste ears, and therefore I pray hearken to what Du 

 Bartas sings of the mullet. 



But for chaste love the Mullet hath no peer ; 

 For if the fisher hath surprised her pheer [matej, 

 As mad with woe, to shore she followeth, 

 Prest to consort him both in life and death.* 



On the contrary, what shall I say of the house-cock, 

 which treads any hen, and then, contrary to the swan, the 

 partridge, and pigeon, takes no care to hatch, to feed, or 

 to cherish his own brood, but is senseless, though they 

 perish. 



And it is considerable that the hen, which, because she 

 also takes any cock, expects it not, who is sure the chickens 

 be her own, hath by a moral impression her care and 

 affection to her own brood more than doubled, even to such 

 a height that our Saviour, in expressing his love to .Jeru- 

 salem, Matt, xxiii. 37, quotes her for an example of tender 

 affection ; as His Father had done Job for a pattern of 

 patience. 



* All that Walton writes about the habits of fish, from the para- 

 graph beginning, " The cuttle-fish," down to this point, has no 

 foundation in fact. It deserves, however, the compliment paid to 

 it by Venator " Your discourse seems to be music, and charms me 

 to an attention." E. 



