Introduction 



How much better to be this angler who only dreams, to have 

 one's creel empty indeed, but one's head sweetly giddy with the 

 shining "ghosts of fish" the angler who fishes for the sake of 

 doing something else, to " some incognisable end," which certainly 

 is not trout. 



It is curious to note that that fantastic natural history, which was 

 the scorn of the fierce scientific Franck, is one of the features of 'The 

 Compleat Angler which most attracts us to-day. Aldrovandus, ^lianus, 

 Dubravius, Rondeletius what names had the scientists of those 

 days ! Names monstrous to the eye as the monsters they celebrate. 

 It is hard sometimes to make up one's mind whether Walton's 

 solemn deference to these extinct naturalists of the extinct is not a 

 form of humour with him, as indeed one sometimes wonders too of 

 his no less fantastic piety. Take, for instance, his familiar argument 

 in favour of anglers that four of Christ's disciples were fishermen, 

 and " first, that He never reproved these for their employment or 

 calling, as He did scribes and the money-changers. And secondly, 

 He found that the hearts of such men by nature were fitted for con- 

 templation and quietness ; men of mild, and sweet and peaceable 

 spirits, as indeed most anglers are . . . And it is observable, that it 

 was our Saviour's will, that these our four Fishermen should have a 

 priority of nomination in the catalogue of His Twelve Apostles, 

 Matt. x. 2-4, Acts i. 13, as namely, first St. Peter, St. Andrew, St. 

 James, and St. John, and then the rest in their order." 



It is difficult for us to realise that Walton probably meant all this 

 quite seriously, so hard is it by any stretch of imagination to transport 

 oneself into that atmosphere of primitive innocence in which the 

 childlike soul of Walton breathed. But to doubt Walton's absolute 

 seriousness in such a passage is to miss one of the essential conditions 

 of his temperament, its complete, unquestioning reliance upon 

 authority. He was entirely the product of the old order. We see 

 in him an exquisite example of that perfection of character which 

 that old order not infrequently developed. He is perhaps more the 

 ideal Churchman than the ideal Christian, a respecter of castes and an 

 unquestioning supporter of the powers that be. He is the type of 

 man who grows obediently as he is trained, and gives God the glory. 



Ixviii 



