26 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



But, gentlemen, I have almost lost myself, which I confess 

 I may easily do in this philosophical discourse ; I met with 

 most of it very lately, and I hope, happily, in a conference 

 with a most learned physician, Dr. Wharton,* a dear friend, 

 that loves both me and my art of angling. But, however, 

 I will wade no deeper in these mysterious arguments, but 

 pass to such observations as I can manage with more pleasure, 

 and less fear of running into error. But I must not yet 

 forsake the waters, by whose help we have so many known 

 advantages. 



And first, to pass by the miraculous cures of our known 

 baths, how advantageous is the sea for our daily traffic, 

 without which we could not now subsist ! How does it not 

 only furnish us with food and physic for the bodies, but with 

 such observations for the mind as ingenious persons would 

 not want ! 



How ignorant had we been of the beauty of Florence, of 

 the monuments, urns, and rarities that yet remain in and 

 near unto old and new Home, so many as it is said will take 

 up a year's time to view, and afford to each of them but a 

 convenient consideration ! And therefore it is not to be 

 wondered at, that so learned and devout a father as St. Jerome, 

 after his wish to have seen Christ in the flesh, and to have 

 heard St. Paul preach, makes his third wish, to have seen 

 Home in her glory ; and that glory is not yet all lost, for what 

 pleasure is it to see the monuments of Livy, the choicest of 

 the historians ; of Tully, the best of orators ; and to see the 

 bay-trees that now grow out of the very tomb of Virgil ! 

 These, to any that love learning, must be pleasing. But what 

 pleasure is it to a devout Christian to see there the humble 

 house in which St. Paul was content to dwell, and to view the 

 many rich statues that are made in honour of his memory ! 

 nay, to see the very place in which St. Petert and he lie 

 buried together ! These are in and near to Rome. And how 



* Dr. Thomas "VVliarton, an eminent physician and excellent anatomist, and 

 Gresliam professor of physic. He lived in Aldersgate-street, London, and died 

 1673. 



t The Protestants deny not only that St. Peter lies buried in the Vatican, as 

 the Romish writers assert, but that he ever was at Home. See the Historia 

 Apostolica of Lud. Capellus. The sense of the Protestants on this point is ex- 

 pressed in the following epigram, alluding to the prasnomen of Peter, Simon, 

 and to the simony practised in that city 



" An Petrus fuerat Roma? sub judice lis est. 

 Simonem Romse nemo fuissc negat." H. 



