THE TALE OF THE FISHES 



height, the dehrious subject has been known to act on 

 the assumption of Louis XIV., " L'etat c'est moi." So 

 I may be forgiven for taking the law into my own hands 

 and rambling afield among the esthetics and amenities 

 of angling. 



The following pages were written by an angler 

 for anglers. An angler is a true sportsman. He takes 

 fish in a chivalrous manner, never for the mere pleasure 

 of killing. He is always humane, courteous, and un- 

 selfish. He must be a gentleman. Angling is some- 

 thing more than catching fish, in that it is not a means of 

 obtaining a livelihood. It implies a certain degree of 

 aesthetic culture, and is thus pre-eminently the pastime 

 of the man of letters, the brain worker's diversion. The 

 meditative, benevolent, magnanimous nature of the an- 

 gler is proverbial — ^his sympathetic disposition, his re- 

 gard for the rights of others, his moderation in pursuit 

 of his sport. Angling may therefore be appropriately 

 defined as a "school of virtues" in which men learn 

 lessons of wisdom, resignation, forbearance, and love — 

 love for the lower forms of animal life, love for their 

 fellow-creatures, and love for the God of nature. 



The scholarly angler is naturally interested in the 



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