CHAP. L] THE FIRST DA Y. 25 



shall be glad to exercise your attention with what I can say con- 

 cerning my own recreation and Art of Angling, and by this means 

 we shall make the way to seem the shorter : and if you like my 

 motion, I would have Mr Falconer to begin. 



AUCEPS. Your motion is consented to with all my heart ; and 

 to testify it, I will begin as you have desired me. 



And first for the Element that I use to trade in, which is the 

 Air, an element of more worth than weight, an element that doubt- 

 less exceeds both the Earth and Water ; for though I sometimes 

 deal in both, yet the air is most properly mine, I and my Hawks use 

 that most, and it yields us most recreation. It stops not the high 

 soaring of my noble generous Falcon ; in it she ascends to such a 

 height, as the dull eyes of beasts and fish are not able to reach to ; 

 their bodies are too gross for such high elevations ; in the Air my 

 troops of Hawks soar up on high, and when they are lost in the 

 sight of men, then they attend upon and converse with the Gods ; 

 therefore I think my Eagle is so justly styled Jove's servant in ordi- 

 nary : and that very Falcon, that I 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 she then 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 magnificent palaces which we adore 

 and wonder at ; from which height, I can make her to 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 profess 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 dwell- 

 ing within the waters, every creature that hath life in its nostrils, 

 stands in need of my clement. The waters cannot preserve 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 inspired mankind, he, if he wants it, dies presently, 



