THE RIVER. 151 



the willow weep; for its shade, calm and beautiful 

 though it be, is a very Golgoltha, where thousands are 

 immolated every hour, and thousands more perish in 

 the stream. 



They who pule about the trout, have no compassion 

 for the fly, to which life is as sweet as to any other 

 living creature. They cry out at the putting of a 

 hook in its jaws, but they mention not the millions 

 of which the same jaws have been the grave ; they 

 complain that a net is spread for the fish, but they 

 never will reflect that the same fish converts the whole 

 stream into a net for the capture of his prey* If there 

 be cruelty in the one case, there must be cruelty 

 also in the other ; but the fact is, there is cruelty in 

 neither. The trout feeds upon the flies ; man feeds 

 upon the trout ; the purposes of life are served ; and 

 nature tempers the supply to the waste. 



One word more about the cruelty of angling* As 

 man is superior to all other earthly creatures-, the 

 purposes of man are those that ought first to be con- 

 sidered ; and there are two points to guide the con- 

 sideration, moral justice to ourselves, that we do not 

 waste our time, or injure our sense of right and wrong 

 by our purpose ; and moral equity, that we invade 

 not the privileges of other men. Now in any of these 

 acts that we call cruelty to the animals, we are wrong 

 when the purpose in view does not call for the act, 

 or when there are other means of accomplishing that 

 purpose, as when a brutal person attempts to beat 

 into action an animal that stands more in need of food 

 or rest. When we do the act even with a purpose, 

 there is apt to be a taint, a lessening of the delicacy 



