HOW TO FISH FOR THE TROUT 



borrower of it preached it word for word, as it was at first, yet 

 it was utterly disliked as it was preached by the second to his 

 congregation : which the sermon-borrower complained of to the 

 lender of it, and was thus answered ; * I lent you indeed my 

 fiddle, but not my fiddlestick ' ; for you are to know, that every 

 one cannot make music with my words, which are fitted for 

 my own mouth. And so, my Scholar, you are to know, that as 

 the ill pronunciation or ill accenting of words in a sermon spoils 

 it, so the ill carriage of your line, or not fishing even to a foot 

 in a right place, makes you lose your labour : and you are to 

 know, that though you have my fiddle, that is, my very rod and 

 tacklings with which you see I catch fish, yet you have not my 

 fiddlestick ; that is, you yet have not skill to know how to 

 carry your hand and line, nor how to guide it to a right place : 

 and this must be taught you, for you are to remember I told 

 you Angling is an art, either by practice, or a long observation, 

 or both. But take this for a rule, when you fish for a Trout 

 with a worm, let your line have so much, and not more lead 

 than will fit the stream in which you fish ; that is to say, more 

 in a great troublesome stream than in a smaller that is quieter ; 

 as near as may be, so much as will sink the bait to the bottom, 

 and keep it still in motion; and not more. 



But now let 's say grace and fall to breakfast : what say 

 you, Scholar, to the providence of an old Angler? Does not 

 this meat taste well ? and was not this place well chosen to eat 

 it? for this sycamore-tree will shade us from the sun's heat. 



VEN. All excellent good, and my stomach excellent good 

 too. And now I remember and find that true which devout 

 Lessius says, 'that poor men, and those that fast often, have 

 much more pleasure in eating than rich men and gluttons, that 

 always feed before their stomachs are empty of their last meat, 

 and call for more : for by that means they rob themselves of 

 that pleasure that hunger brings to poor men.' And I do 

 seriously approve of that saying of your's, ' that you would rather 

 be a civil, well-governed, well-grounded, temperate, poor Angler, 

 than a drunken Lord.' But I hope there is none such ; however, 

 I am certain of this, that I have been at many very costly dinners 

 that have not afforded me half the content that this has done, 

 for which I thank God and you. 



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