96 fHE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART It 



Hunting is a game for princes and noble persons ; it 

 hath been highly prized in all ages ; it was one of the 

 qualifications that Xenophon bestowed on his Cyrus ^ 

 that he was a hunter of wild beasts. Hunting trains 

 up the younger nobility to the use of manly exercises in 

 their riper age. What more manly exercise than 

 hunting the Wild Boar, the Stag, the Buck, the Fox, 

 or the Flare ? How doth it preserve health, and increase 

 strength and activity ! 



And for <he dogs that we use, who can commend 

 their excellency to that height which they deserve ? 

 How perfect is the hound at smelling, who never leaves 

 or forsakes his first scent, but follows it through so 

 many changes and varieties of other scents, even over, 

 and in, the water, and into the earth ! What musick 

 doth a pack of clogs then make to any man, whose 

 heart and ears are so happy as to be set to the tune of 

 such instruments ! How will a right Greyhound fix his 

 eye on the best Buck in a herd, single him out, and 

 follow him, and him only, through "a whole herd of 

 rascal game, and still know and then kill him ! For 

 my hounds, 1 know the language of them, and they 

 know the language and meaning of one another, as 

 perfectly as we know the voices of those with whom we 

 discourse daily. 



I might enlarge myself in [he commendation of Hunt- 

 ing, and of the noble Hound especially, as also of the 

 docibleness of dogs in general ; and I might make 

 many observations of land-creatures, that for compo- 

 sition, order, figure, and constitution, approach nearest 

 to the completeness and understanding of man ; espe- 

 cially of those oreatures, which Moses in the Law per- 

 mitted to the Jews, which have cloven hoofs, and chew 

 the cud ; which I shall forbear to name, because I will 

 not be so uncivil to Mr. Piscator^ as not to allow him 

 a time for the commendation of Angling, which he calls 

 an art ; but doubtless it is an easy one : . and Mr. Au- 

 ccps, I doubt we shall hear a watery discourse of it, but 

 I hope it will not be a long one. 



Auc. And I hope so too, though I fear it will. 



Pise. Gentlemen, let not prejudice prepossess you. 



