THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 135 



fiddle, but not my fiddle-stick ; for you are to 

 know that every one cannot make music with my 

 words, which are fitted to my own mouth." And 

 so, my scholar, you are to know that as the ill 

 pronunciation or ill accenting of words in a ser- 

 mon spoils it, so the ill carriage of your line, or 

 not fishing even to a foot in a right place, makes 

 you lose your labor; and you are to know that 

 though you have my fiddle, that is, my very rod 

 and tacklings with which you see I catch fish, yet 

 you have not my fiddle-stick, that is, you yet have 

 not skill to know how to carry your hand and 

 line, or how to guide it to a right place. And this 

 must be taught you ; for you are to remember, I 

 told you, angling is an art, either by practice or 

 long observation, or both. But take this for a 

 rule when you fish for a trout with worm : let your 

 line have so much, and not more lead than will 

 fit the stream in which you fish ; that is to say, 

 more in a great troublesome stream than in a 

 smaller that is quieter ; as near as may be, so much 

 as will sink the bait to the bottom, and keep it still 

 in motion, and not more. 



But now let 's say grace, and fall to breakfast. 

 What say you, scholar, to the providence of an 

 old angler? Does not this meat taste well, and 

 was not this place well chosen to eat it ? for this 

 sycamore-tree will shade us from the sun's heat. 



Ven. All excellent good, and my stomach ex- 

 cellent good too. And now I remember and 

 find that true which devout Lessius says, "that 



