THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 45 



ascends to such a height as the dull eyes of beasts and fish are 

 not able to reach to ; their bodies are too gross for such high 

 elevations : in the air my troops of hawks soar up on high, 

 and when they are lost in the sight of men, then they attend 

 upon and converse with the gods ; therefore I think my eagle 

 is so justly styled Jove's servant in ordinary : and that very 

 falcon that I am now going to see, deserves no meaner a 

 title, for she usually in her flight endangers herself, like the son 

 of Daedalus, to have her wings scorched by the sun's heat, she 

 flies so near it ; but her mettle makes her careless of danger, 

 for she then heeds nothing, but makes her nimble pinions cut 

 the fluid air, and so makes her highway over the steepest 

 mountains and deepest rivers, and, in her glorious career, looks 

 with contempt upon those high steeples and magnificent palaces 

 which we adore and wonder at ; from which height I can make 

 her to descend, by a word from my mouth, (which she both 

 knows and obeys,) to accept of meat from my hand, to own 

 me for her master, to go home with me, and be willing the 

 next day to afford me the like recreation. 



And more : this element of air, which I profess to trade in, the 

 worth of it is such, and it is of such necessity, that no creature 

 whatsoever not only those numerous creatures that feed on the 

 face of the earth, but those various creatures that have their 

 dwelling within the waters, every creature that hath life in its 

 nostrils, stands in need of my element. The waters cannot 

 preserve the fish without air, witness the not breaking of ice in 

 an extreme frost ; the reason is, for that if the inspiring and 

 expiring organ of any animal be stopped, it suddenly yields to 

 nature and dies. Thus necessary is air to the existence both of 

 fish and beasts, nay, even to man himself; that air, or breath of 

 life, with which God at first inspired mankind, he, if he wants it, 

 dies presently, becomes a sad object to all that loved and beheld 

 him, and in an instant turns to putrefaction. 



Nay, more, the very birds of the air, those that be not hawks, 

 are both so many, and so useful and pleasant to mankind, that I 

 must not let them pass without some observations : they both 

 feed and refresh him ; feed him with their choice bodies, and 

 refresh him with their heavenly voices : * I will not undertake to 

 mention the several kinds of fowl by which this is done : and his 

 curious palate pleased by day, and which with their very excre- 

 ments afford him a soft lodging at night. These I will pass by, 



* To these particulars may be added, that the kings of Persia were wont 

 to hawk after butterflies with sparrows and stares, or starlings, trained for 

 the purpose. Burt.-n on Melancholy, 1651, p. 268. from the relations of Sir 

 Anthony Shirley. And we are also told, that M. de Lui-nes, (c.fterwards 

 prime minister of France,) in the nonage of Louis XII I, gained much upon 

 him by making hawks catch little birds, and by making some of those little 

 birds again catch butterflies. Life of Lord Herbert ofCherbury, p 134. 



