52 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



learning it ? for angling is somewhat like poetry, men are 

 to be born so : I mean, with inclinations to it, though both 

 may be heightened 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; 6 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. 



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

 I long much to have you proceed, and in the order you 

 propose. 



PlSC. 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 Belus, who was the first 

 inventor 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. 



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 



