The Compleat ^Angler 



" Luclan, well skllTd in scoffing^ this hath writ, 



Friend, that's your folly, which you think your wit ; 

 This, you vent oft, void both of wit and fear, 

 Meaning another, when yourself you jeer" 



If to this you add what Solomon says of scoffers, that " they are an 

 abomination to mankind," let them that think fit scoff on, and be a 

 scoffer still ; but I account them enemies to me and to all that love 

 virtue and angling. 



And for you, that have heard many grave, serious men, pity 

 Anglers ; let me tell you, sir, there be many men that are by others 

 taken to be serious and grave men, which we contemn and pity. 

 Men that are taken to be grave, because nature hath made them of 

 a sour complexion ; money-getting men, men that spend all their 

 time, first in getting, and next in anxious care to keep it ; men that 

 are condemned to be rich, and then always busy or discontented ; 

 for these poor rich men, we Anglers pity them perfectly, and stand 

 in no need to borrow their thought to think ourselves so happy. 

 No, no, sir, we enjoy a contentedness above the reach of such 

 dispositions, and as the learned and ingenuous Montaigne says like 

 himself, freely, "When my cat and I entertain each other with 

 mutual apish tricks, as playing with a garter, who knows but that I 

 make my cat more sport than she makes me ? Shall I conclude her 

 to be simple, that has her time to begin or refuse to play as freely as 

 I myself have ? Nay, who knows but that it is a defect of my not 

 understanding her language (for doubtless cats talk and reason with 

 one another), that we agree no better ? And who knows but that 

 she pities me for being no wiser than to play with her, and laughs 

 and censures my folly for making sport for her, when we two play 

 together ? " 



Thus freely speaks Montaigne concerning cats ; and I hope I 

 may take as great a liberty to blame any man, and laugh at him too, 

 let him be never so grave, that hath not heard what Anglers can say 

 in the justification of their art and recreation; which I may again 

 tell you is so full of pleasure, that we need not borrow their thoughts 

 to make ourselves happy. 



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