The Compleat ^Angler 



places mixed, not any scurrility, but some innocent, harmless mirth, of 

 which, if thou be a severe, sour-complexioned man, then I here disallow 

 thee to be a competent judge ; for divines say, there are offences given, 

 and offences not given but taken. 



And I am the willinger to justify the pleasant part of it, because, 

 though it is known, I can be serious at seasonable times, yet the whole 

 Discourse is, or rather was, a picture of my own disposition, espe- 

 cially in such days and times as I have laid aside business, and gone 

 a-fishing with honest Nat. and R. Roe ; but they are gone, and with 

 them most of my pleasant hours, even as a shadow that passeth away 

 and returns not. 



And next, let me add this, that he that likes not the book, should 

 like the excellent picture of the trout, and some of the other fish ; which 

 I may take a liberty to commend, because they concern not myself. 



Next, let me tell the reader, that in that which is the more useful 

 part of this Discourse, that is to say, the observations of the nature, 

 and breeding, and seasons, and catching of fish, / am not so simple as 

 not to know that a captious reader may find exceptions against something 

 said of some of these ; and therefore, I must entreat him to consider that 

 experience teaches us to know that several countries alter the time, and 

 I think almost the manner of fishes' breeding, but doubtless of their 

 being in season ; as may appear by three rivers in Monmouthshire, 

 namely, Severn, Wye, and Usk, where Camden (British Fishes, 633) 

 observes, that in the river Wye, salmon are in season from September 

 to April ; and we are certain that in Thames and Trent, and in most 

 other rivers, they be in season the six hotter months. 



Now for the art of catching fish, that is to say, how to make a man 

 that was none to be an angler by a book-, he that undertakes it 

 shall undertake a harder task than Mr. Hales (a most valiant and 

 excellent fencer] who, in a printed book called A Private School 

 of Defence, undertook to teach that art or science, and was laughed at 

 for his labour. Not but that many useful things might be learnt by that 

 book, but he was laughed at because that art was not to be taught by 

 words, but practice ; and so must angling. And note also, that in this 

 Discourse, I do not undertake to say all that is known, or may be said 

 of it, but I undertake to acquaint the reader with many things that are 



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