24} THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



water is the eldest daughter of the creation, the element upon 

 which the Spirit of God did first move, the element which 

 God commanded to bring forth living creatures abundantly ; 

 and without which, those that inhabit the land, even all 

 creatures that have breath in their nostrils, must suddenly 

 return to putrefaction. Moses, the great lawgiver, and chief 

 philosopher, skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians, who 

 was called the friend of God, and knew the mind of the 

 Almighty, names this element the first in the creation ; this 

 is the element upon which the Spirit of God did first move, 

 and is the chief ingredient in the creation : many philosophers 

 have made it to comprehend all the other elements, and 

 most allow it the chieiest in the mixtion of all living crea- 

 tures. 



There be that profess to believe that all bodies are made of 

 water, and may be reduced back again to water only : they 

 endeavour to demonstrate it thus : 



Take a willow, or any like speedy growing plant, newly 

 rooted in a box or barrel full of earth, weigh them all together 

 exactly when the tree begins to grow, and then weigh all 

 together after the tree is increased from its first rooting, to 

 weigh a hundred pound weight more than when it was first 

 rooted and weighed ; and you shall find this augment of the 

 tree to- be without the diminution of one drachm weight of 

 the earth. Hence they infer this increase of wood to be from 

 water of rain, or from dew, and not to be from any other 

 element. And they affirm they can reduce this wood back 

 again to water ; and they affirm also the same may be done 

 in any animal or vegetable. And this I take to be a fair tes- 

 timony of the excellency of my element of water. 



The water is more productive than the earth. Nay, the 

 earth hath no fruitfulness without showers or dews ; for all 

 the herbs and flowers and fruit are produced, and thrive by 

 the water ; and the very minerals are fed by streams that 

 run under ground, whose natural course carries them to the 

 tops of many high mountains, as we see by several springs 

 breaking forth on the tops of the highest hills ; and this is 

 also witnessed by the daily trial arid testimony of several 

 miners. 



Nay, the increase of those creatures that are bred and fed 

 in the water is not only more and more miraculous, but more 

 advantageous to man, not only for the lengthening of his life, 

 but for preventing of sickness, for it is observed by the most 



