104 THE COMPLETE ANGLER 



to know, that every one cannot make music with my 

 words, which are fitted to my own mouth." And so, 

 my scholar, you are to know, that as the ill pronunciation 

 or ill accenting of words in a sermon spoils it, so the ill 

 carriage of your line, or not fishing even to a foot in a 

 right place, makes you lose your labour : and you are to 

 know, that though you have my fiddle, that is, my very 

 rod and tacklings with which you see I catch fish, yet you 

 have not my fiddlestick, that is, you yet have not skill 

 to know how to cany your hand and line, nor how to 

 guide it to a right place : and this must be taught you : for 

 you are to remember, I told you angling is an art, either 

 by practice or a long observation, or both. But take this 

 for a rule, When you fish for a trout with a worm, let your 

 line have so much, and not more lead than will fit the 

 stream in which you fish ; that is to say, more in a great 

 troublesome stream than in a smaller that is quieter ; as 

 near as may be, so much as will sink the bait to the 

 bottom, and keep it still in motion, and not more. 



But now let's say grace and fall to breakfast : what say 

 you, scholar, to the providence of an old angler ? Does 

 not this meat taste well ? and was not this place well 

 chosen to eat it ? for this sycamore-tree will shade us 

 from the sun's heat. 



VEN. All excellent good, and my stomach excellent 

 good too. And now I remember and find that true which 

 devout Lessius * says : " That poor men, and those that 

 fast often, have much more pleasure in eating than rich 

 men and gluttons, that always feed before their stomachs 

 are empty of their last meat, and call for more : for by 



Leonard Lessius, a very learned Jesuit, professor of divinity 

 in the College of Jesuits at Louvain. He was born at Antwerp, 

 1554, and became very famous for his skill in divinity, civil law, 

 mathematics, physic, and history : he wrote several theological 

 tracts, and a book entitled, Hygiasticon, seu vera ratio valetudinis 

 bonae, et vitae ad extremam seneclutem conservandae. From this 

 work of Lessius, it is probable the passage in the text is cited. He 

 died 1623. 



