$6 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART L 



I dare promise you my patience and diligent attention shaii 

 not be wanting. And if you shall make that to appear which 

 you have undertaken ; first, that it is an art, and an art worth 

 the learning, I shall beg that I may attend you a day or two 

 a-fishing, and that I may become your scholar, and be in- 

 structed in the art itself which you so much magnify. 



Pise. O Sir, doubt not but that Angling is an art ; is it not 

 an art to deceive a Trout with an artificial fly ? a Trout ! 

 that is more sharp-sighted than any Hawk you have named, 

 and more watchful and timorous than your high-mettled Mer- 

 lin is bold ? and yet I doubt not to catch a brace or two to- 

 morrow, for a friend's breakfast : doubt not therefore, Sir, but 

 that Angling is an art, "and an art worth your learning : th e 

 question is rather, whether you be capable of learning it ? for 

 Angling is somewhat like Poetry, men are to be born so : I 

 mean with inclinations to it, though both may be heightened 

 by discourse and practice ; but he that hopes to be a good An- 

 gler must not only bring an inquiring, searching, observing 

 wit, but he must bring a large measure of hope and patience, 

 and a love and propensity to the art itself; but having once 

 got and practised it, then doubt not but Angling will prove 

 to be so pleasant, that it will prove to be like virtue, a reward 

 to itself. 



VEN. Sir, I am now become so full of expectation, that i 

 long much to have you proceed ; and in the order that you 

 propose. 



Pise. Then first, for the antiquity of Angling, of which I 

 shall not say much, but only this : some say it is as ancient as 

 Deucalion's flood; others, that Belus, who was the first in- 

 ventor of godly and virtuous recreations, was the first inventor 

 of Angling ; and some others say, for former times have had 

 their disquisitions about the antiquity of it, that Seth, one o 

 the sons of Adam, taught it to his sons, and that by them it 

 was derived to posterity ; others say, that he left it engraveh 

 on those pillars which he erected, and trusted to preserve tnc 



