172 TROUT FISHING. 



to kill fish ill a mill-hole, when the sun is too bright 

 for the^/%, or the minnow; and also a very destructive 

 plan for night work. But I name such a diversion 

 only as a pastime for the juvenile performer, though 

 not with the contempt as does Dr. Johnson, who says, 

 " Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement ; 

 but angling, or float-fishing, I can only compare to a 

 stick and a string, with a worm at one end, and 

 afool at the other." 



If, however, the poor angler should feel sore at the 

 wit, he might, in his turn (if scavenger enough to 

 descend to verbal criticism), have a little pleasantry 

 with the philologer, by brandishing his rod and ex- 

 claiming, 



" almost as bad, good" Doctor, 



as a wag and a worm-fisher, with a comparison at 

 one end, and nothing* to compare with at the other! 

 And when he has put away the stick and the string 

 (and washed his hands) he may substantiate the pro- 

 priety of his retort by looking out the words " com- 

 pare to" in the doctor's own dictionary; which we 

 should be as unkind to the doctor, as he has been to 

 the angler, if we did not estimate as the best authority 

 in existence. 



The foregoing subject has led to a wide digression, 

 or, to have recourse to a musical comparison, has 

 thrown us into an extraordinary modulation, which, 

 as the great Albrechts Berger observes, " may asto- 

 nish" but " not please." By this rule, therefore, 

 I should not have presumed to speak on what is 



