"SUN-SPEARING." 131 



refection and a careful toilette before venturing into 

 the morning air. Of such a pupil it may be safely 

 predicted he -will never spear an eel well, much less 

 make the "terror" of the jungle "bite the dust," on 

 joining the Fag an beleacJis in India, There is, I own, 

 a certain spice of man's primaeval instincts, which un- 

 consciously clings to our skirts in the highest stages of 

 civilisation, necessary to the success and enjoyment 

 of this sport. But against this ruder aspect of the 

 pursuit are to be placed, on the per contra side of the 

 ledger, the humanising influences with which nature 

 surrounds its practice. I would not, for the best 

 " monkey-drake " in my flybook, figure before a mate- 

 rial age as a sentimental savage, gibbering of humanity 

 and fine feelings with a spear in my hand. Yet I can- 

 not help thinking there is a principle within us which 

 finds something to admire in the prime of the year 

 wild scenery and the hopeful hour of dawn quite as 

 much as in a heavy " balance-sheet " or the highest 

 quotations of " scrip." If any branch of our art more 

 than another tends to foster this nobler principle of 

 our nature, it is that which now engages our attention. 

 Around none clusters a more poetic combination of 

 circumstances, scenic and intellectual, than waits on 

 the exercise of this pursuit. Short indeed must be 

 the memory, and defective the organisation, of the 

 youthful debutant in this amusement, who, standing 

 on the heights overhanging the theatre of his inime- 



