12 The Complete Angler 



I account them enemies to me and all that love 

 Virtue and Angling. 



And for you that have heard many grave, serious 

 men pity Anglers ; let me tell you, Sir, there be 

 many men that are by others taken to be serious 

 and grave men, whom we contemn and pity. Men 

 that are taken to be grave, because nature hath 

 made them of a sour complexion ; money-getting 

 men, men that spend all their time, first in getting, 

 and next, in anxious care to keep it ; men that are 

 condemned to be rich, and then always busy or 

 discontented : for these poor rich-men, we Anglers 

 pity them perfectly, and stand in no need to borrow 

 their thoughts to think ourselves so happy. No, 

 no, Sir, we enjoy a contentedness above the reach 

 of such dispositions, and as the learned and ingenu- 

 ous Montaigne says, like himself, freely, <c When my 

 Cat and I entertain each other with mutual apish 

 tricks, as playing with a garter, who knows but that 

 I make my Cat more sport than she makes me ? 

 Shall I conclude her to be simple, that has her 

 time to begin or refuse, to play as freely as I myself 

 have ? Nay, who knows but that it is a defect of 

 my not understanding her language, for doubtless 

 Cats talk and reason with one another, that we 

 agree no better : and who knows but that she pities 

 me for being no wiser than to play with her, and 

 laughs and censures my folly, for making sport 

 for her, when we two play together? 11 



Thus freely speaks Montaigne concerning Cats ; 

 and I hope I may take as great a liberty to blame 

 any man, and laugh at him too, let him be never so 

 grave, that hath not heard what Anglers can say in 

 the justification of their Art and Recreation ; which 

 I may again tell you, is so full of pleasure, that we 

 need not borrow their thoughts, to think ourselves 

 happy. 



