X PREFACE. 



received as correct, and if the angler cannot put 

 it in practice it is his own fault. Most of our 

 readers, however, admit having derived some 

 benefit from these pages, and we have received 

 numerous letters from anglers residing in all 

 parts of the kingdom mentioning this, and 

 stating that their baskets now present a very 

 different appearance on their return from a day's 

 angling. It is, however, painful to be compelled 

 to admit that there is a very large number of 

 anglers who have never read this volume at all, 

 giving as a reason that they know all that is in 

 it already and can fish well enough. Now, if 

 these were first-rate anglers, there would be some 

 excuse for them ; but they are by no means so ; 

 and it would be difficult to understand the state 

 of their minds, but that Blackwood's Maga- 

 zine has most opportunely solved the problem. 

 The reviewer of this volume in that periodical 

 says " That darkness rather than light is the 

 deliberate choice of the million. The best 

 teaching in the world is thrown away upon 

 stupidity and self-conceit, and that not only 

 in ethics, but in such practical matters as 

 angling." 



There can be no doubt that the reviewer has 

 here hit upon the two causes of all the ignor- 

 ance that is in the world, and we, as may be 



