NORTHERN MEMOIRS. 353 



vite him only to fish for recreation. How few 

 pretenders to the rod then, would covet the 

 death of fish for fancy ? Nay, who would not 

 study to prolong their lives, were it for no -other 

 end than to furnish the fords, to relieve the ne- 

 cessitous, and divert the angler ? Were not the 

 ends jof the creation made answerable to the 

 means of preservation ? Who disputes it ? Then 

 if so, let me tell you that immoderate exercise 

 (in all or any one) puts a damp to pleasure; 

 and if the end of pleasure can be adjudged de- 

 struction, then no man can be satisfied without 

 excess. And what is excess but inordinate riot, 

 that makes a breach in the royal command- 

 ments, in opposition to life, so results in death ? 

 Where note, this distinction is necessary to be 

 understood ; that as rods and nets are different 

 means, so they also answer to different ends. 

 The first, if when to consult rapid and roling 

 streams ; but the latter results in such parts of 

 water, where no line nor rod claims a right of 

 privilege ; or with such a fish whose invincible 

 strength, nothing but the net can encounter and 

 overcome. 



Thus arm'd at all points with our innocent 

 artillery, and resolved to trample the redolent 

 fields, and the florid meadows of famous Trent, 

 we shall there encounter with murmuring streams 



