2 The Complete Angler 



attend you, and be eyewitnesses of the sue* 

 cess, not of your fortune, but your skill, it 

 would doubtless beget in them an emulation 

 to be like you, and that emulation might be- 

 get an industrious diligence to be so ; but I 

 know it is not attainable by common capaci- 

 ties : and there be now many men of great 

 wisdom, learning, and experience, which love 

 and practise this Art, that know I speak the 

 truth. 



Sir, this pleasant curiosity of Fish and Fish- 

 ing, of which you are so great a master, has 

 been thought worthy the pens and practices 

 of divers in other nations, that have been 

 reputed men of great learning and wisdom. 

 And amongst those of this nation, I remember 

 Sir Henry Wotton, a dear lover of this Art, 

 has told me, that his intentions were to write 

 a Discourse of the Art, and in praise of An- 

 gling ; and doubtless he had done so, if death 

 had not prevented him ; the remembrance of 

 which had often made me sorry, for if he had 

 lived to do it, then the unlearned Angler had 

 seen some better treatise of this Art, a treatise 

 that might have proved worthy his perusal, 

 which, though some have undertaken, I could 

 never yet see in English. 



But mine may be thought as weak, and as 

 unworthy of common view ; and I do here 

 freely confess, that I should rather excuse 

 myself, than censure others, my own dis- 

 course being liable to so many exceptions; 



