now TO FISH FOR TROUT. 163 



Pise. Look you, scholar, I have yet another. And now, 

 having caught three [two] brace of trouts, I will tell you a 

 short tale as we walk towards our breakfast. A scholar, a 

 preacher I should say, that was to preach to procure the 

 approbation of a parish that he might be their lecturer, had 

 got from his fellow-pupil the copy of a sermon that was 

 first preached with great commendation by him that com- 

 posed it ; and though the borrower of it preached it, word 

 for word, as it was at first, yet it was utterly disliked as it 

 was preached by the second to his congregation ; which the 

 sermon borrower complained of to the lender of it; and thus 

 was answered : " I lent you, indeed, my fiddle, but not my 

 fiddle-stick ; for you are to know, that every one cannot 

 make music with my words, which are fitted to my own 

 mouth." And so, my scholar, you are to know, that as the 

 ill pronunciation or ill accenting of words in a sermon 

 spoils it, so the ill carriage of your line, or not fishing even 

 to a foot in a right place, makes you lose your labour ; 

 and you are to know, that though you have my fiddle, that 

 is, my very rod and tacklings with which you see I catch 

 fish, yet you have not my fiddle-stick, that is, you yet have 

 not skill to know how to carry your hand and line, nor how 

 to guide it to a right place ; and this must be taught you ; 

 for you are to remember, I told you angling is an art, either 

 by practice or a long observation, or both. But take this 

 for a rule : when you fish for a trout with a worm, let your 



i line have so much and not more lead than will fit the stream 

 in which you fish ; that is to say, more in a great trouble- 

 some stream than in a smaller that is quieter ; as near as 



! may be, so much as will sink the bait to the bottom, and 



; keep it still in motion, and not more. 



112 



