50 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



water is the eldest daughter of the creation, the element upon 

 which the Spirit of God did first move, the element which God 

 commanded to bring forth living creatures abundantly ; and 

 without which, those that inhabit the land, even all creatures 

 that have breath in their nostrils, must suddenly return to putre- 

 faction. Moses, the great lawgiver and chief philosopher, skilled 

 in all the learning of the Egyptians, who was called the friend of 

 God, and knew the mind of the Almighty, names this element 

 the first in the creation ; * this is the element upon which the 

 Spirit of God did first move, and is the chief ingredient in the 

 creation : many philosophers have made it to comprehend all the 

 other elements, and most allow it the chiefest in the mixtion of 

 all living creatures. 



There be that profess to believe that all bodies are made of 

 water, and may be reduced back again to water only ; they 

 endeavour to demonstrate it thus : 



Take a willow, or any like speedy growing plant, newly 

 rooted in a box or barrel full of earth, weigh them all together 

 exactly when the tree begins to grow, and then weigh all together 

 after the tree is increased from its first rooting, to weigh an 

 hundred pound weight more than when it was first rooted and 

 weighed ; and you shall find this augment of the tree to be 

 without the diminution of one drachm weight of the earth. 

 Hence they infer this increase of wood to be from water of rain, 

 or from dew, and not to be from any other element : and they 

 affirm, they can reduce this wood back again to water ; and they 

 affirm also, the same may be done in any animal or vegetable. 

 And this I take to be a fair testimony of the excellency of my 

 element of water. 



The water is more productive than the earth. Nay, A.he earth 

 hath no fruitfulness without showers or dews ; for all the herbs, 

 and flowers, and fruit, are produced and thrive by the water ; 

 and the very minerals are fed by streams that run under ground, f 

 whose natural course carries them to the tops of many high 

 mountains, as we see by several springs breaking forth on the 

 tops of the highest hills ; and this is also witnessed by the daily 

 trial and testimony of several miners. 



Nay, the increase of those creatures that are bred and fed in 

 the water is not only more and more miraculous, but more 

 advantageous to man, not only for the lengthening of his life, but 

 for the preventing of sickness ; for it is observed by the most 

 learned physicians, that the casting off of Lent, and other fish 

 days, which hath not only given the lie to so many learned, 



* Pindar says, " Water is the best of all things." J. R. 



^ These are merely vague reports of inaccurate, or impossible experi- 

 ments, at variance with all that is known in vegetable physiology or in 

 chemiatry. J. R. 



