THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 29 



These, Sir, have been the opinions of several men that 

 have possibly endeavoured to make angling more ancient 

 than is needful, or may well be warranted ; but for my part, 

 I shall content myself in telling you, that angling is much 

 more ancient than the Incarnation of our Saviour ; for in 

 the prophet Amos'" mention is made of fish-hooks ; and in 

 the book of Job, which was long before the days of Amos, 

 for that book is said to be writ by Moses, mention is made 

 also of fish-hooks, which must imply anglers in those times. 



But, my worthy friend, as I would rather prove myself a 

 gentleman, by being learned and humble, valiant and inoffen- 

 sive, virtuous and communicable, than by any fond ostentation 

 of riches ; or, wanting those virtues myself, boast that these 

 were in my ancestors (and yet I grant that where a noble and 

 ancient descent, and such merit meet in any man, it is a 

 double dignificatioii of that person) ; so if this antiquity of 

 angling, which for my part I have not forced, shall, like an 

 ancient family, be either an honour or an ornament to this 

 virtuous art which I profess to love and practise, I shall be 

 the gladder that I made an accidental mention of the anti- 

 quity of it, of which I shall say no more, but proceed to that 

 just commendation which I think it deserves. 



And for that, 1 shall tell you, that in ancient times a de- 

 bate hath arisen, and it remains yet unresolved : whether the 

 happiness of man in this world, doth consist more in contem- 

 plation or action ] 



Concerning which some have endeavoured to maintain 

 their opinion of the first ; by saying, that the nearer we 

 mortals come to God by way of imitation, the more happy 



been said in favour of many other arts ; and, if I mistake not, of the hermetic 

 science and freemasonry : concerning the former whereof Ashmole has the con- 

 fidence to affirm, that by means of it Adam and the fathers before the flood, as 

 also Abraham, Moses and Solomon, wrought many wonders. See the Prole- 

 gomena to his TJieatrum Chemicum Britannicum , in which there is more such 

 nonsense and absurdity. If. 



* In the book of Amos, iv. 2, we find " The Lord God hath sworn by His 

 holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that He will take you away 

 with hooks, and your posterity with fish-hooks." In Jeremiah xvi. 16, are 

 these words : "Behold 1 will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they 

 shall fish them ; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt 

 them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the 

 rocks. Finally, in Habakkuk i. 15 it is written : " They take up all of them 

 with the angle, they catcli them in their net, and gather them in their drag," 

 etc. Angling and hunting are unquestionably the most primitive of field 

 sports. Necessity as well as pleasure led to the pursuit of bird, beast, and fish. 



ED. 



