INTRODUCTION. 23 



" Sed quare prohibetur venari, et non piscari? quia forte 

 piscatio fit sine clamore, venatio non: vel quia major est 

 delectatio in venatione; dum enim quis est in venatione, 

 nihil potest de divinis cogitare." The great Ambrose, in 

 his thirty-third homily, treats this subject in the same 

 spirit ; and, indeed, the common sense of mankind, apart from 

 the authority of the church, would naturally lead to the 

 conclusion, that a recreation of so quiet and contemplative 

 a nature as the amusement of angling, is far more appro- 

 priately adapted to soothe the leisure hours of one who 

 has received a commission to treat of purely spiiitual 

 themes, to proclaim the tidings of redemption, and 

 declare the terms of human salvation to point the way 

 to heaven, and himself tread the self-denying path than 

 a bold, violent, boisterous indulgence, which must neces- 

 sarily banish gentle and patient thought, and too often 

 requires undue sacrifices to the charms of society, not 

 always of the better sort, and to the seductions of a con- 

 viviality not always confined within becoming limits. 

 When we think of the early founders of our faith, 

 and contemplate their gentle and devoted characters, a 

 fox-hunting parson does, indeed, seem a strange anomaly ; 

 and yet in the present state and condition of the English 

 church, such a one, if highly connected, or endowed 

 with a superabundance of the " mammon of unrighteous- 

 ness," may perchance obtain some distinguished mark of 

 approbation, even from the hands of a successor of the 

 Apostles. We have no wish to speak harshly of a church 

 in which we were nurtured, and which we love, perhaps, 

 a great deal more than many who bear her orders and 

 receive her emoluments ; but we must be allowed to say a 

 word or two in behalf of our "gentle craft," and with 

 all due submission, we venture to suggest it to spiritual 



