CHAP. I.J THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 5 1 



or the Hare ! How doth it preserve health, and increase 

 strength and activity ! 



And for the dogs that we use, who can commend their ex- 

 cellency to that height which they deserve ? How perfect is 

 the Hound at smelling, who never leaves or forsakes his first 

 scent, but follows it through so many changes and varieties of 

 other scents, even over and in the water, and into the earth ! 

 What music doth a pack of dogs then make to any man, whose 

 heart and ears are so happy as to be set to the tune of such in- 

 struments ! How will a right Greyhound fix his eye on the 

 best Buck in a herd, single him out, and follow him, and him 

 only, through a whole herd of rascal game, and still know and 

 then kill him ! For my Hounds, I know the language of them, 

 and they know the language and meaning of one another, as 

 perfectly as we know the voices of those with whom we discourse 

 daily. 



I might enlarge myself in the commendation of Hunting, and 

 of the noble Hound especially, as also of the docibleness of dogs 

 in general ; and I might make many observations of land-creat* 

 ures, that for composition, order, figure, and constitution ap- 

 proach nearest to the completeness and understanding of man ; 

 especially of those creatures which Moses in the Law permitted 

 to the Jews, Lev. ix. 28, which have cloven hoofs and chew 

 the cud, which I shall forbear to name, because I will not be so 

 uncivil to Mr. Piscator as not to allow him a time for the com- 

 mendation of Angling, which he calls an Art ; but doubtless 't 

 is an easy one : and, Mr. Auceps, I doubt we shall hear a watery 

 discourse of it, but I hope 't will not be a long one. 



AUG. And I hope so too, though I fear it will. 



Pise. Gentlemen, let not prejudice prepossess you. I con- 

 fess my discourse is like to prove suitable to my recreation, calm 

 and quiet ; we seldom take the name of God into our mouths, 

 but it is either to praise him or pray to him : if others use it 

 vainly in the midst of their recreations, so vainly as if they 

 meant to conjure, I must tell you it is neither our fault nor out 



