The C ample at ^Angler 



highly prized in all ages ; it was one of the qualifications that 

 Xenophon bestowed on his Cyrus, that he was a hunter of wild 

 beasts. Hunting trains up the younger nobility to the use of manly 

 exercises in their riper age. What more manly exercise than hunting 

 the wild boar, the stag, the buck, the fox, or the hare ? How doth 

 it preserve health, and increase strength and activity ! 



And for the dogs that we use, who can commend their excellency 

 to that height which they deserve ? How perfect is the hound at 

 smelling, who never leaves or forsakes his first scent, but follows it 

 through so many changes and varieties of other scents, even over and 

 in the water, and into the earth ! What music doth a pack of dogs 

 then make to any man, whose heart and ears are so happy as to be 

 set to the tune of such instruments ! How will a right greyhound 

 fix his eye on the best buck in a herd, single him out, and follow 

 him, and him only, through a whole herd of rascal game, and still 

 know and then kill him ! For my hounds, I know the language of 

 them, and they know the language and meaning of one another as per- 

 fectly as we know the voices of those with whom we discourse daily. 



I might enlarge myself in the commendation of hunting, and of 

 the noble hound especially, as also of the docibleness of dogs in 

 general ; and I might make many observations of land creatures, that 

 for composition, order, figure, and constitution, approach nearest to 

 the completeness and understanding of man ; especially of those 

 creatures which Moses in the law permitted to the Jews, which have 

 cloven hoofs, and chew the cud ; which I shall forbear to name, 

 because I will not be so uncivil to Mr. Piscator, as not to allow him 

 a time for the commendation of angling, which he calls an art ; but 

 doubtless 'tis an easy one ; and, Mr. Auceps, I doubt we shall hear 

 a watery discourse of it, but I hope it will not be a long one. 



Auc. And I hope so too, though I fear it will. 



Pise. Gentlemen, let not prejudice prepossess you. I confess my 

 discourse is like to prove suitable to my recreation, calm and quiet ; 

 we seldom take the name of God into our mouths but it is either to 

 praise Him or pray to Him ; if others use it vainly in the midst of 

 their recreations, so vainly as if they meant to conjure, I must tell 

 you it is neither our fault nor our custom ; we protest against it. 



35 



