INTRODUCTORY. xiii 



(however badly he does it) is an angler. Therefore 

 it is open to any "angler spoiled" to rectify the 

 error of fate and to turn with profit and pleasure t o ., 

 the pastime for which he is equipped in all but 

 actual knowledge. Nor do I think, in his case, that 

 lack of youthful experience is an irredeemable loss ; 

 at any rate, it need not lessen his pleasure, which 

 is the main thing to be considered. And, from 

 instances I have known in which men have taken to 

 fishing long after they were grown up, I do not 

 think it need necessarily affect his eventual skill. 

 Skill after all, given a natural aptitude, is more 

 the result of application and practice than of any- 

 thing else, and is within the reach of most people 

 who will and can fish enough. 



Therefore my answer to the uninitiated who ask 

 what they would gain by becoming anglers would 

 depend on what I imagined to be their mental 

 attitude in the matter. Suspicion that they were 

 merely looking for a new sensation after a variety 

 of other sensations all more or less unappreciated 

 would make me urge the royal and ancient game,, 

 or mountaineering, or some other pursuit in which 

 my interest is impersonal, upon them, as presenting 

 greater scope for excitement than does fishing.. 

 But in the case of the " angler spoiled " no- 

 exposition of profit and loss would really be: 



