8ALMON1A. [FIRST DAY. 



good fly-fisher, and as a proof of his passion for it, 

 continued the pursuit even with his left hand. Dr. 

 Paley was ardently attached to this amusement; so 

 much so, that when the Bishop of Durham inquired 

 of him, when one of his most important works would 

 be finished, he said, with great simplicity and good 

 humour, " My Lord, I shall work steadily at it when 

 the fly-fishing season is over/ 7 as if this were a busi- 

 ness of his life. And I am rather reserved in intro- 

 ducing living characters, or I could give a list of the 

 highest names of Britain, belonging to modern times, 

 in science, letters, arts, and arms, who are ornaments 

 of this fraternity, to use the expression borrowed from 

 the freemasonry of our forefathers. 



PffYS. I do not find much difficulty in understand- 

 ing why warriors, and even statesmen, fishers of men, 

 many of whom I have known particularly fond of 

 hunting and shooting, should likewise be attached to 

 angling; but I own, I am at a loss to find reasons for 

 a love of tins pursuit amongst pliilosophers and poets. 



HAL. The search after food is an instinct belong- 

 ing to our nature ; and from the savage in his rudest 

 and most primitive state, who destroys a piece of game, 

 or a fish, with a club or spear, to man in the most 

 cultivated state of society, who employs artifice, ma- 

 chinery, and the resources of various other animals, to 

 secure his object, the origin of the pleasure is similar, 



