DIES PISCATORI^. 493 



once got and practised," " they will find, like virtue, to be its own reward," 

 and the more commending it to all true men by the showing that the 

 angler should, like our worthy father, " the rather prove himself a gentle- 

 man by being learned and humble, valiant and inoffensive, temperate, vir- 

 tuous, and communicative, than by any fond ostentation of riches." 



Let it be seen that the true angler is not an insatiate slayer of fishes, 

 but that he taketh thereof in moderation, and remembering the future, for 

 himself and his brother who may follow him, with a wise and humane 

 forecast he returneth to life and freedom those fishes which in the thought- 

 less greediness of youth may come into his hands. Let it be known of men 

 that the angler's study is as much to people streams with new fishes, as it 

 is to take those found' therein ; and that he is the fishes' best protector from 

 the indiscriminate slaughter of net and weir. 



Let it be seen that a love of the " gentle art" openeth first the heart, 

 then the fly-book, and soon the stores of experience and knowledge gar- 

 nered up through long years, wheresoever we meet a " Brother of the 

 Angle ;" and that to us " angling is an employment of our idle time, 

 which is not then idly spent ; that therein we find " a rest to the mind, a 

 cheerer of the spirits, a diverter of sadness, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, 

 a moderator of the passions, a procurer of contentedness, and that it begets 

 habits of peace and patience in those that possess and practise it." Let 

 us so study, teach, and practise the art that in whatsoever place the angler 

 may be thrown, be there but water and fishes, he may therein find sport 

 in the taking of those fishes, in a true angling spirit, which seemeth to me 

 to be this. 



The angler is best pleased in capturing the kind of fish for which the 

 cast was made ; the fisherman is pleased according to the value of his cap- 

 ture. The taking of a good trout to a fisherman is always a jDleasure ; with 

 the angler the pleasure is lessened, had the fly been dressed and the cast 

 made especially for the capture of a chub, or in the words of an humble 

 colored brother of the angle, " When you go a cattin', go a cattin'." 



And for him who may think this is but sentiment, and therefore to be 

 undervalued, let me say, in this world, so given to work and trade, senti- 

 ment doth not so abound that we may wisely reject that which may beget 

 even thus little. So, my friends, rather let us thank God for even this, 

 and store it near our hearts. As I began, so let me conclude in the lan- 

 guage of Walton : — " When I would beget content and increase confidence 

 in the power and wisdom and providence of Almighty God, I will walk 



