THE CONFERENCE. 55 



banished all mirth and music from their pensive hearts, and 

 having hung up their then mute harps upon the willow-trees 

 growing by the rivers of Babylon, sat down upon these 

 banks, bemoaning the ruins of Sion, and contemplating 

 their own sad condition. 



And an ingenious Spaniard 15 says, that "rivers and the 

 inhabitants of the watery element were made for wise men 

 to contemplate, and fools to pass by without consideration/' 

 And though I will not rank myself in the number of the 

 first, yet give me leave to free myself from the last, by offer- 

 ing to you a short contemplation, first of rivers and then of 

 fish ; concerning which I doubt not but to give you many 

 observations that will appear very considerable : I am sure 

 they have appeared so to me, and made many an hour to 

 pass away more pleasantly, as I have sat quietly on a flowery 

 bank by a calm river, and contemplated what I shall now 

 relate to you. 



And first, concerning rivers : there be so many wonders 

 reported and written of them, and of the several creatures 

 that be bred and live in them, and those by authors of so 

 good credit, that we need not to deny them an historical 

 faith. 



As namely of a river in Epirus, that puts out any lighted 

 torch, and kindles any torch that was not lighted. 11 Some 

 waters being drunk cause madness, some drunkenness, and 

 some laughter to death. The river Selarus in a few hours 

 turns a rod or wand to stone ; and our Camden mentions 

 the like in England, and the like in Lochmere in Ireland. 

 There is also a river in Arabia, of which all the sheep that 

 drink thereof have their wool turned into a vermilion colour. 

 And one of no less credit than Aristotle, tells us of a merry 



