chap, i.] THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 23 



bold ? and yet, I doubt not to catch a brace or two 

 to-morrow, for a friend's breakfast : doubt not there- 

 fore, Sir, but that Angling is an art, and an art 

 worth your learning : the question is rather, whe- 

 ther you be capable of learning it ? for Angling 

 is somewhat like Poetry, men are to be born so : I 

 mean with inclinations to it, though both may be 

 heightened by discourse and practice ; but he that 

 hopes to be a good Angler, must not only bring an 

 inquiring, searching, observing, wit ; but he must 

 bring a large measure of hope and patience, and 

 a love and propensity to the art itself; but hav- 

 ing once got and practised it, then doubt not but 

 Angling will prove to be so pleasant, that it will 

 prove to be like virtue, a reward to itself. 



Ven. Sir, I am now become so full of expecta- 

 tion, that I long much to have you proceed ; and 

 in the order that you propose. 



Pise. Then first, for the antiquity of Angling, of 

 which I shall not say much, but only this ; some 

 say it is as ancient as Deucalion s flood : others, that 

 Belus, who was the first inventor of godly and vir- 

 tuous recreations, was the first inventor of Angling : 

 and some others say, for former times have had 

 their disquisitions about the antiquity of it, that 

 Seth, one of the sons of Adam, taught it to his sons, 

 and that by them it was derived to posterity : others 

 say, that he left it engraven on those pillars which 

 he erected, and trusted to preserve the knowledge 

 of the mathematics, music, and the rest of that 



