The First Day 21 



make many observations of land -creatures, that for 

 composition, order, figure, and constitution, approach 

 nearest to the completeness and understanding of 

 man ; especially of those creatures, which Moses in 

 the Law permitted to the Jews, which have cloven 

 hoofs, and chew the cud ; which I shall forbear to 

 name, because I will not be so uncivil to Mr. Piscator, 

 as not to allow him a time for the commendation of 

 Angling, which he calls an art ; but doubtless it is 

 an easy one: and, Mr. Auceps, I doubt we shall 

 hear a watery discourse of it, but I hope it will not 

 be a long one. 



AUCEPS. And I hope so too, though I fear it 

 will. 



PlSCATOR. Gentlemen, let not prejudice prepos- 

 sess you. I confess my discourse is like to prove 

 suitable to my recreation, calm and quiet ; we seldom 

 take the name of God into our mouths, but it is 

 either to praise him, or pray to him : if others use 

 it vainly in the midst of their recreations, so vainly 

 as if they meant to conjure, I must tell you, it is 

 neither our fault nor our custom ; we protest against 

 it. But, pray remember, I accuse nobody ; for as 

 I would not make a " watery discourse," so I would 

 not put too much vinegar into it ; nor would I raise 

 the reputation of my own art, by the diminution or 

 ruin of another's. And so much for the prologue to 

 what I mean to say. 



And now for the Water, the element that I trade 

 in. The water is the eldest daughter of the crea- 

 tion, the element upon which the Spirit of God did 

 first move, the element which God commanded to 

 bring forth living creatures abundantly ; and without 

 which, those that inhabit the land, even all creatures 

 that have breath in their nostrils, must suddenly re- 

 turn to putrefaction. Moses, the great lawgiver and 

 chief philosopher, skilled in all the learning of the 



