64 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART 1 



Pise. Why then, Sir, I will take a little liberty to tell, or 

 rather to remember you, what is said of Turtle-Doves ; first, 

 that they silently plight their troth and marry ; and that then 

 the survivor scorns, as the Thracian women are said to do, to 

 outlive his or her mate, and this is taken for a truth, and if the 

 survivor shall ever couple with another, then not only the living 

 but the dead, be it either the he or the she, is denied the name 

 and honor of a true Turtle- Dove. 



And to parallel this land-rarity, and teach mankind moral 

 faithfulness, and to condemn those that talk of religion, and yet 

 come short of the moral faith of fish and fowl ; men that vio- 

 late the law affirmed by St. Paul, Rom. ii. 14, 15, 16, to be 

 writ in their hearts, and which, he says, shall at the last day 

 condemn and leave them without excuse ; I pray hearken to 

 what Du Bartas sings, for the hearing of such conjugal faith- 

 fulness will be music to all chaste ears, and therefore I pray 

 hearken to what Du Bartas sings of the Mullet. 



*' But for chaste love the Mullet hath no peer ; 

 For, if the fisher hath surprised her pheer, 

 As mad with woe, to shore she followeth, 

 Prest to consort him both in life and death." 



On the contrary, what shall I say of the House-Cock, which 

 treads any hen ; and then, contrary to the Swan, the Partridge, 

 and Pigeon, takes no care to hatch, to feed, or to cherish his 

 own brood, but is senseless, though they perish. 



And 't is considerable, that the Hen, which, because she also 

 takes any Cock, expects it not, who is sure the chickens be her 

 own, hath by a moral impression her care and affection to her 

 own brood more than doubled, even to such a height, that our 

 Saviour, in expressing his love to Jerusalem, Matt, xxiii. 37, 

 quotes her for an example of tender affection ; as his father had 

 done Job for a pattern of patience. 



And to parallel this Cock, there be divers fishes that cast 

 their spawn on flags or stones, and then leave it uncovered, 



