CHAP. I.] THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 45 



or prejudice, have possessed you with against that laudable and 

 ancient art ; for I know it is worthy the knowledge and prac- 

 tice of a wise man. 



But, Gentlemen, though I be able to do this, I am not so 

 Unmannerly as to engross all the discourse to myself: and, there- 

 fore, you two having declared yourselves, the one to be a lover 

 of Hawks, the other of Hounds, I shall be most glad to hear 

 what you can say in the commendation of that recreation 

 which each of you love and practise ; and having heard what 

 you can say, I shall be glad to exercise your attention with 

 what I can say concerning my own recreation and art of An- 

 gling, and by this means we shall make the way to seem the 

 shorter : and if you like my motion, I would have Mr. Falconer 

 to begin. 



Auc. Your motion is consented to with all my heart ; and, 

 to testify it, I will begin as you have desired me. 



And first for the element that I use to trade in, which is the 

 Air, an element of more worth than weight, an element that 

 doubtless exceeds both the earth and water ; for though I 

 sometimes deal in both, yet the air is most properly mine, I 

 and my Hawks use that most, and it yields us most recreation. 

 It stops not the high soaring of my noble, generous Falcon : in 

 it she ascends to such an height, as the dull eyes of beasts and 

 fish are not able to reach to ; their bodies are too gross for such 

 high elevations : in the air my troops of Hawks soar up on 

 high, and when they are lost in the sight of men, then they 

 attend upon and converse with the Gods ; therefore I think my 

 Eagle is so justly styled Jove' s servant in ordinary : and that 

 very Falcon, that I am now going to see, deserves no meaner a 

 title, for she usually in her flight endangers herself, like the son 

 of Daedalus, to have her wings scorched by the sun's heat, she 

 flies so near it, but her mettle makes her careless of danger ; 

 for she then heeds nothing, but makes her nimble pinions cut 

 the fluid air, and so makes her high way over the steepest 

 mountains and deepest rivers, and in her glorious career looks 



