THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 11 



Auc. Your motion is consented to with all my heart ; and to 

 testify it, I will begin as you have desired me. 



And first, for the element that I use to trade in, which is the 

 air, an element of more worth than weight, an element that 

 doubtless exceeds both the eailh and water ; for though I some- 

 times deal in 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 falcon ; 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 troops 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 styled 

 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 Disdalus, 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 heeds nothing, 

 but makes her nimble pinions cut the fluid air, and so makes her 

 high way over the steepest mountains and deepest rivers, and in 

 her glorious career looks with contempt upon those high steeples 

 and magnificent 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 w^ith 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 necessity, that no creature 

 whatsoever, not only those numerous creatures that feed on the 

 face of the earth, but those various creatures that have their 

 dwelling within the waters, every creature that hath life in its 

 nostrils stands in need of my element. The waters cannot pre- 

 serve 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 



