THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 25 



.earned physicians, that the casting off of Lent and other fish 

 days, which hath not only given the lie to so many learned, 

 pious, wise founders of colleges, for which we should be 

 ashamed, hath doubtless been the chief cause of those many 

 putrid, shaking, intermitting agues, unto which this nation of 

 ours is now more subject than those wiser countries that feed 

 on herbs, salads, and plenty of fish ; of which it is observed 

 in story, that the greatest part of the world now do.* And - 

 it may be fit to remember that Moses appointed fish to be 

 the chief diet for the best commonwealth that ever yet 

 was.t 



And it is observable, not only that there are fish, as, natnelyA 

 the whale, three times as big as the mighty elephant, that is 

 so fierce in battle, but that the mightiest feasts have been of 

 fish. The Romans in the height of their glory have made 

 fish the mistress of all their entertainments ; they have had 

 music to usher in their sturgeons, lampreys, and mullets, 

 which they would purchase at rates rather to be wondered at 

 than believed. He that shall view the writings of Macrobius 

 or Yarro may be confirmed and informed of this, and of the 

 incredible value of their fish and fish-ponds. 



* The Protestants certainly have cast off Lent ; and many of them vrill eat 

 meat on Good-Friday. The majority of English Roman Catholics eat meat 

 four days out of the seven of the Lenten weeks. Very lew fast on fish from 

 Shrove Tuesday to Easter .Sunday : and in my opinion the latter would be far 

 more liable to agues or external influences in Easter week, than the Protestant 

 beef-eaters. Walton frequently tries to prove too much. The inhabitants of 

 countries that should feed on " herbs, salads, and plenty of fish," would never 

 be so healthy and physically powerful as those whose principal food might be 

 flesh-meat and bread. The golden eagle (falco cry status), which feeds on flesh 

 exclusively, is a much more powerful bird than the sea-eagle (falco cimreus), 

 whose food is fish, though the latter is the larger bird. ED. 



t Moses did not appoint fish to be the " chief diet." He merely tells the 

 members of the " best commonwealth" what fish it is lawful for them to eat, 

 and what fish they should not touch. In respect to flesh-meat he does the 

 same. Leviticus xi. 9, 10, Moses orders, " These shall ye eat of all that are in 

 the waters : whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in 

 the rivers, them shall ye eat. And all that have not fins and scales in the 

 seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing 

 which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you." In Deut. xiv. 

 9, 10, the great lawgiver repeats his fish-eating clauses : " These ye shall eat of 

 all that are in the waters : all that have fins and scales shall ye eat : and 

 whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat ; it is unclean unto you." 

 The modern Hebrews heed very little the edible interdicts of their progenitors. 

 They are, in England at least, great consumers, and the very best cooks of fish 

 without scales of plaice, soles, turbot, cod, barbel, tench, &c. If the sump- 

 tuary laws of Moses were observed by them, the economic luxuries of the fried- 

 fish shops would be lost to myriads of Jews and Gentiles. ED. 



