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is only to be obtained by gentleness; and when 

 the battle is over, you have the pleasure of be- 

 holding your prostrate foe, beaten in his own 

 element, forced from it, and with weapons so 

 weak, that, if strength could compete with 

 art, you would not have been able to hold him 

 in check for a moment. You feel that you 

 could not have accomplished such a feat with- 

 out exercising great command over your own 

 faculties, without exercising patience, inge- 

 nuity, cunning of hand and of mind ; that you 

 have been putting in practice the good old 

 advice, suaviter in modo ; and that you have 

 just proved, that, in almost all contentions for 

 mastery, " an ounce of oil goes farther than a 

 pound of vinegar." Moreover, this light 

 tackle of yours is portable within a very small 

 compass ; it is easily put together; and though 

 your fingers may be as delicate, and as white, 

 and as soft, as the exquisite's, who, with hands 

 well steeped in fragrant and softening cos- 

 metics, sleeps in kid gloves, you need not be 

 afraid of tarnishing their hue, or diminishing 

 their velvet softness. You have no worms nor 

 any other disagreeable or dirty bait to finger ; 

 the materials you have to manipulate are as 

 clean and as delicate as those that enter into 

 the composition of the entomologist's cabinet. 

 Every one who goes in search of fish, either 



