42 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



am now going to see deserves no meaner a title, for 

 she usually in her flight endangers herself, like the 

 son of Daedalus, to have her wings scorched by the 

 sun's heat, she flies so near it, but her mettle makes 

 her careless of danger ; for then she heeds nothing, 

 but makes her nimble pinions cut the fluid air, and 

 so makes her highway over the steepest mountains 

 and deepest rivers, and in her glorious career looks 

 with contempt upon those high steeples and mag- 

 nificent palaces which we adore and wonder at ; 

 from which height I can make her descend by a word 

 from my mouth, which she both knows and obeys, 

 to accept of meat from my hand, to own me for 

 her master, to go home with me, and be willing the 

 next day to afford me the like recreation. 



And more : this element of air which I pro- 

 fess to trade in, the worth of it is such, and it is 

 of such necessity, that no creature whatsoever 

 not only those numerous creatures that feed on 

 the face of the earth, but those various creatures 

 that have their dwelling within the waters, 

 every creature that hath life in its nostrils stands 

 in need of my element. The waters cannot pre- 

 serve the fish without air, witness the not breaking 

 of ice in an extreme frost ; the reason is, for that 

 if the inspiring and expiring organ of any animal 

 be stopped, it suddenly yields to nature, and dies. 

 Thus necessary is air to the existence both of 

 fish and beasts, nay, even to man himself; that 

 air, or breath of life, with which God at first in- 

 spired mankind, he, if he wants it, dies presently, 



