$0 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 



Earth and Water; for though I sometimes deal IIL 

 both, yet the Air is most properly mine, I and my 

 Hawks use that, and it yields us most recreation; it 

 stops not the high soaring of my noble, generous Fal- 

 con ; in it she ascends to such an 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 tioops 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 stiled Jove's servant in ordinary : 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 then she heed* 

 nothing, but makes her nimble Pinions cut the fluid 

 air, and so makes her highway over the steepest moun- 

 tains and deepest rivers, and in her glorious career looks 

 with contempt upon those high Steeples and magnifi- 

 cent 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 ne- 

 cessity, that no creature whatsoever not only those 

 numerous creatures that feed on the face of the earth r 

 but those various creatures that have their dwelling 

 within the waters, every creature that hath life in it* 

 nostrils, stands in need of my element. 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, becomes a sad object to 



