28 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



art worth the learning, I shall beg that I may attend you a 

 day or two a -fishing, and that I may become your scholar 

 and be instructed in the art itself which you so much 

 magnify. 



Pise. O sir, doubt not that angling is an art. Is it not an 

 art to deceive a trout with an artificial fly ? a trout ! that is 

 more sharp- sigli ted than any hawk you have named, and 

 more watchful and timorous than your high-mettled merlin 

 is bold ;'"" and yet I doubt not to catch a brace or two to- 

 morrow for a friend's breakfast ; doubt not, therefore, sir, but 

 that angling is an art, and an art worth your learning. The 

 question is rather, whether you be capable of learning it ? 

 v N for angling is somewhat like poetry, men are to be born so : 

 1 mean, with inclinations to it, though both may be height- 

 ened by discourse and practice : but he that hopes to be a 

 good angler, must not only bring an inquiring, searching, 

 observing wit, but he must bring a large measure of hope, 

 and patience, and a love and propensity to the art itself ; but 

 having once got and practised it, then doubt not but angling 

 will prove to be so pleasant, that it will prove to be like 

 virtue, a reward to itself. 



YEN. Sir, I am now become so full of expectation, that I 

 long much to have you proceed ; and in the order you 

 propose. 



Pise. Then first, for the antiquity of angling, of which I 

 shall not say much, but only this ; some say it is as ancient 

 as Deucalion's flood : others, that Bolus, who was the first in- 

 ventor of godly and virtuous recreations, was the first in- 

 ventor of angling ; and some others say, for former times 

 have had their disquisitions about the antiquity of it, that 

 Seth, one of the sons of Adam, taught it to his sons, and 

 that by them it was derived to posterity : others say, that he 

 left it engraven on those pillars which he erected, and trusted 

 to preserve the knowledge of the mathematics, music, and 

 the rest of that precious knowledge and those useful arts 

 which by God's appointment or allowance and his noble 

 industry, were thereby preserved from perishing in Noah's 

 flood.t 



* Walton is evidently thinking of AUCEPS, the falconer so named, who 

 parted company as they neared Theobald's House, otherwise lie would not have 

 said to Venator, the hunter with hounds and not with hawks, " your merlin." 

 It may be taken in another sense. ED. 



t Those that say this are very safe in their assertion, for there i.s no remain- 

 ing evidence to contradict it. It may, however, be observed that the same has 



