172 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PARTI. 



to procure the approbation of a parish that he might 

 be their lecturer, had got from his fellow pupil the 

 copy of a sermon that was first preached with great 

 commendation by him that composed it : and though 

 the borrower of it preached it, word for word as it was 

 at first ; yet it was utterly disliked, as it was preached 

 by the second to his congregation which the sermon- 

 borrower complained of to the lender of it : and was 

 thus answered : " I lent you, indeed, my fiddle, but 

 " not my fiddle stick ; for you are to know, that every 

 " one cannot make musick with my words, which are 

 66 fitted to my own mouth." And so, niy scholar, you 

 are to know, That as the ill pronunciation or ill ac- 

 centing of words in a sermon spoils it, so the ill car- 

 riage of your line, or not fishing even to a foot in a 

 right place, makes you lose your labour : and you are 

 to know, That "though you have my fiddle, that is, 

 my very rod and tacklings with which you see I catch 

 fish, yet you have not my fiddle-stick, that is, you 

 yet have not skill to know how to carry your hand and 

 line, or how to guide it to a right place ; and this 

 must be taught you ;. for you are to remember, I told 

 you, Angling is an art, either by practice or a Ions; ob- 

 servation, or both. But take this for a rule, When 

 you fish for a Trout, with a worm, let your line have 

 so much, and not more lead than will fit the stream in 

 which you fish : that is to say, more in a great, trou- 

 blesome stream than in a smaller that is quieter ; as near 

 as may be, so much as will sink the bait to the bottom, 

 and keep it still in motion, and riot more. 



But now let's say grace, and fall to breakfast. What 

 say you, scholar, to the providence of an old angler ? 

 does not this meat taste well ? and was not this place 

 well chosen to eat it ? for this sycamore tree will shade 

 us from the sun's heat. 



Ven. All excellent good; and my stomach ex- 

 cellent good ; too. And now I remember and find 

 that true which devout Lessius* says, u that poor 



* Leonard Lessius, a very learned Jesuit, professor of divinity in 

 the college of Jesuits at Louvain; he was born at Antwerp, 1554: 



