ETYMOLOGY OF BAIT. 55 



Milton, too, uses the word iii a similar sense, 

 when speaking of 



" Fruit like that 



Which grew in Paradise, the bait of Eve 

 Used by the tempter." 



This last quotation, sad to say, has most probably 

 given rise to the assertion made by some irreverent 

 reprobate, that Satan was the first fisher ! What 

 would good old Izaak Walton have said, if he had 

 found the following lines inscribed on the window of 

 his favourite hostelry, Bleak Hall, after passing a 

 night in the ever memorable " fresh sheets smelling 

 of lavender ?" 



" When Eve and Adam lived in peace, 

 Sans either brawl or jangling, 

 The Serpent, from his brimstone den, 

 Thought he would go an angling ; 

 He baited his hook, with fiendish look, 

 Says he, This will entangle her 

 And so, my friends, you all may see 

 The Devil was the first angler." 



The Honourable Eobert Boyle, in his Occasional 

 Reflections, improves, as some people would say, upon 

 the idea, thus : " As the Apostles were fishers of 

 men, in a good sense, so their and our grand Adversary 

 is a skilful fisher of men, in a bad sense, and too often, 

 in his attempts to cheat fond mortals, meets with a 

 success as great and easy. Certainly that tempter, as 



