CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DA Y. 37 



more watchful and timorous than your high-mettled Merlin is 

 bold ? and yet I doubt not to catch a brace or two to-morrow for 

 a friend's breakfast : doubt not, therefore, Sir, but that Angling is 

 an art, and an art worth your learning. The question is rather, 

 whether you be capable of learning it ? for angling is somewhat 

 like poetry, men are to be born so : I mean, with inclinations to 

 it, though both may be heightened by discourse and practice : 4 

 but he that hopes to be a good angler, must not only bring an 

 inquiring, searching, observing wit, but he must bring a large 

 measure of hope and patience, and a love and propensity to the 

 art itself; * but having once got and practised it, then doubt not 

 but angling will prove to be so pleasant, that it will prove to be, 

 like virtue, a reward to itself. 



5 VENATOR. Sir, I am now become so full of expectation, 

 that I long much to have you proceed, and in the order that you 

 propose. 



PlSCATOR. Then first, for the antiquity of Angling, of which 

 I shall not say much, but only this ; some say it is as ancient as 

 Deucalion's flood : others, that Belus, who was the first inventor 

 of godly and virtuous recreations, was the first inventor of 

 Angling : t and some others say, for former times have had their 

 disquisitions about the antiquity of it, that Seth, one of the sons 



VARIATIONS. 



4 heightened by practice and experience. Until $th edit. 



> 1 iator. Sir, I am now become so full of expectation, that I long much to have you 

 proceed in your discourse : and first, I pray, Sir, let me hear concerning the antiquity 

 of it. 



Piscator. Sir, I will preface no longer, but proceed in order as you desire me : and 



like better) say that Belus (who was 



first for the antiquity of Angling, I shall not say much ; but only this ; some say it is as 

 ancient as Deucalion's flood : and others (which I like better) say t 

 the inventor of godly and virtuous recreations) was the inventor of it. 



not occur in any edition before the,/?/?//, because in all the others the passage, " Is it 

 not an art to deceive a trout with an artificial fly? a trout that is more sharp-sighted 

 than any hawk you [r friend has] have named, and more watchful and timorous than 

 your [his] high-mettled Merlin is bold; and yet I doubt not to catch a brace or two 

 to-morrow for a friend's breakfast. Doubt not, therefore, Sir, that Angling is an art." 

 is omitted ; and Piscator's reply reads thus, " O, Sir, doubt not but that Angling is an 

 art, and an art worth your learning." The objection would be removed by the alter- 

 ations suggested within brackets. 



* Markham, in his Country Contentments, has a whole chapter on the subject of the 

 Angler's At>parel, and inward Qualities: some of which are', "That he be a general 

 scholar, and seen in all the liberal sciences ; as a grammarian, to know how to write, 

 or discourse, of his art in true and fitting terms. He should," says he, " have sweetness 

 of speech, to entice others to delight in an exercise so much laudable. He should have 

 strength oj 'argument, to defend and maintain his profession against envy and slander." 

 "Then must he be strong- and -valiant: neither to be amazed with storms, nor affrighted 

 with thunder : and if he is not temperate, but has a gnawing stomach that will not endure 

 much fasting, but must observe hours ; it troubleth the mind and body, and loseth that 

 delight which maketh the pastime only pleasing." H. 



t Opposite to this passage in the first edition, " J. Da. Jer. Mar." occur, by which 

 was probably meant John Davors, author of the Secrets of Angling, a poem, from which 

 Walton has given an extract in a subsequent page, and Jcrvasc Maikham. The passage 



