104 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part I. 



another. Oh me ! he has broke all ; there's half a 

 line and a good hook lost. 



Vex. Ay, and a good Trout too. 



Pise. Nay, the Trout is not lost ; for pray take 

 notice, no man can lose what he never had. 



Vex. Master, I can neither catch with the first 

 nor second angle : I have no fortune. 



Pise. Look you, Scholar, I have yet another. 

 And now, having caught three brace of Trouts, I will 

 tell you a short tale as we walk towards our break- 

 fast. A scholar, a preacher I should say, that was 

 to preach to procure the approbation of a parish, 

 that he might be their lecturer, had got from his 

 fellow-pupil the copy of a sermon that was first 

 preached with great commendation by him that 

 composed it : and though the borrower of it 

 preached it word for word, as it was at first, yet 

 it was utterly disliked as it was preached by the 

 second to his congregration ; which the sermon- 

 borrower complained of to the lender of it, and was 

 thus answered : " I lent you indeed my fiddle, but 

 " not my fiddlestick ; for you are to know, that every 

 " one cannot make music with my words, which are 

 " fitted for my own mouth." And so, my Scholar, 

 you are to know, that as the ill pronunciation or ill 

 accenting of words in a sermon spoils it, so the ill 

 carriage of your line, or not fishing even to a foot 

 in a right place, makes you lose your labour ; and 

 you are to know, that though you have my fiddle, 

 that is, my very rod and tacklings with which you 



