12 LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. 



and not to a learned profession; for let it be remembered, 

 that, besides being well versed in the study of the Holy 

 Scriptures, and the writings of the most eminent divines of 

 his time, he appears to have been well acquainted with history, 

 ecclesiastical, civil, and natural ; to have acquired a very 

 correct judgment in poetry ; and by phrases of his own com- 

 bination and invention, to have formed a style so natural, 

 intelligible, and elegant, as to have had more admirers than 

 successful imitators. 



And although in the prosecution of his design to teach the 

 contemplative man the art of angling, there is a plainness and 

 simplicity of discourse, that indicates little more than bare 

 instruction, yet is there intermingled with it wit and gentle 

 reprehension ; and we may in some instances discover, that 

 though he professes himself no friend to scoffing, he knew 

 very well how to deal with scoffers, and to defend his art, as 

 we see he does, against such as attempted to degrade it ; 

 and particularly against those two persons in the dialogue, 

 Auceps and Venator, who affected to fear a long and watery 

 discourse in defence of his art, the former of whom he puts 

 to silence, and the other he converts and takes for his pupil. 



What reception in general the book met with may be 

 naturally inferred from the dates of the subsequent editions 

 thereof; the second came abroad in 1655, the third in 1664, 

 the fourth in 1668, and the fifth and last in 1676. It is 

 pleasing to trace the several variations which the author from 

 time to time made in these subsequent editions, as well by 

 adding new facts and discoveries, as by enlarging on the 

 more entertaining parts of the dialogue ; and so far did he 

 indulge himself in this method of improvement, that, besides 

 that in the second edition he has introduced a new interlocutor, 

 to wit, Auceps, a falconer, and by that addition gives a new 

 form to the dialogue ; he from thence takes occasion to urge 

 a variety of reasons in favour of his art, and to assert its 

 preference as well to hawking as hunting. The third and 

 fourth editions of his book have several entire new chapters ; 

 and the fifth, the last of the editions published in his lifetime, 

 contains no less than eight chapters more than the first, and 

 twenty pages more than the fourth. 



Not having the advantage of a learned education, it may 

 seem unaccountable that Walton so frequently cites authors 

 that have written only in Latin, as Gesner, Cardan, Aldro- 

 vandus, Rondeletius, and even Albertus Magnus ; but here it 

 may be observed, that the voluminous history of animals, of 



