THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 23 



And for tlie clogs that we use, who can commend their 

 excellency 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 1 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 instruments ! 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 clocibleness 

 of dogs in general ; and I might make many observations of 

 land creatures, that for composition, order, figure, and consti- 

 tution, approach nearest to the completeness and under- 

 standing of man ; especially of those creatures which Moses 

 in the law permitted to the Jews, 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 commendation of angling, which he calls an art ; 

 but doubtless it is an easy one ; and, Mr. Auceps, I doubt we 

 shall hear a watery discourse of it, but I hope it will not be 

 a long one. 



Auc. 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 that it is neither 

 our fault nor our custom ; we protest against it. But pray 

 remember, I accuse nobody ; for as I would not make a 

 " watery discourse," so I would not put too much vinegar into 

 it, nor would I raise the reputation of my own art by the 

 diminution or ruin of another's.* And so much for the pro- 

 logue to what I mean to say. 



And now for the water, the element that I trade in. The 



* Spoken not only like an angler, but like a true sportsman, who appreciates 

 every sort of field-sport, though he gives a preference to one. ED. 



