26 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART I. 



becomes a sad object to all that loved and beheld him, and in an 

 instant turns to putrefaction. 



Nay more ; the very birds of the air, those that be not Hawks, 

 are both so many and so useful and pleasant to mankind, that I 

 must not let them pass without some observations. They both 

 feed and refresh him ; feed him with their choice bodies, and 

 refresh him with their heavenly voices : I will not undertake to 

 mention the several kinds of Fowl by which this is done : and his 

 curious palate pleased by day, and which with their very excre- 

 ments afford him a soft lodging at night : These I will pass by, 

 but not those little nimble musicians of the air, that warble forth 

 their curious ditties with which nature hath furnished them to the 

 shame of art. 



As first the Lark, when she means to rejoice, to cheer herself 

 and those that hear her ; she then quits the earth, and sings as 

 she ascends higher into the air, and having ended her heavenly 

 employment, grows then mute, and sad, to think she must descend 

 to the dull earth, which she would not touch, but for necessity. 



How do the Blackbird and Thrassel with their melodious voices 

 bid welcome to the cheerful Spring, and in their fixed months 

 warble forth such ditties as no art or instrument can reach to ! 



Nay, the smaller birds also do the like in their particular 

 seasons, as namely the Laverock, the Tit-lark, the little Linnet, 

 and the honest Robin that loves mankind both alive and dead. 



But the Nightingale, another of my airy creatures, breathes such 

 sweet loud music out of her little instrumental throat, that it 

 might make mankind to think miracles are not ceased. He that 

 at midnight, when the very labourer sleeps securely, should hear, 

 as I have very often, the clear airs, the sweet descants, the natural 

 rising and falling, the doubling and redoubling of her voice, might 

 well be lifted above earth, and say, " Lord, what music hast thou 

 provided for the Saints in Heaven, when thou affordest bad men 

 such music on Earth ! " * 



And this makes me the less to wonder at the many Aviaries in 

 Italy, or at the great charge of Varro's Aviary, the ruins of which 

 are yet to be seen in Rome, and is still so famous there, that it is 

 reckoned for one of those notables which men of foreign nations 



* This passage has been frequently noticed for its great beauty. Bishop Home has 

 quoted it in his Commentary on the Psalms, in consequence of its natural piety. 

 Psalm civ. Dr Drake considers that the description of the Nightingale surpasses all 

 that the poets have written on the subject. Literary Hours, No. xxxiv. : and Headley 

 had before made the same observation in his Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry ; 

 Notes, vol. ii. p. 167. P. 



