xxiv DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING 



the first trial of his patent wings fell into the Danube, 

 instead of pitching upon the opposite bank ; so, 

 as I cannot touch the summits, I must perforce be 

 content to creep on level lands ' timidus procellae : ' 

 mine shall be a work quite of another character/' 



" There is not the least doubt of that, I think," 

 said Mr. Lobworm. " Know likewise/' continued he 

 (I never knew him so loquacious or so disagreeable 

 before) " know likewise, to thy discomfort, nay, to 

 thy utter confusion, that a book has lately appeared 

 yclept The Rod and the Gun, so amusingly written 

 and so complete in all its parts, that there is not the 

 least occasion for you to burthen Mr. Murray's 

 shelves with stale precepts that no one will attend to/' 



" Pretty discouraging that, most certainly," I 

 responded. " And then we have Salmonia which 

 is, or ought to be, a settler too ; and also a scientific 

 work by Mr. Colquhoun, who touches deftly on the 

 subject. But I tell you this, Sir Oracle, that although 

 I see a hundred good reasons why I should abandon 

 my design, yet I am resolved to persist : it is my 

 destiny that is a classical reason. You know 

 that, to the great edification of our youth, the pious 

 ^neas gives no better reason for the hundred 

 rascally and much admired things he was in the habit 

 of executing in his expedition to Latium. 



" I only hope the public will be so good as not to 

 be discerning ; because if they are, I shall have you, 

 my most tender and amiable friend, eternally 

 dinging in my ears, ' There, did not I tell you so ? 

 But you would not be ruled by me, so you must 

 take the consequences/ J 



At the end of this colloquy, and when left alone, I 



