) N 



Jl 



83 



ting libraries, with the chance of hooking an angler 

 from the title. There is a capital blunder in his 

 first volume, where he gives a quotation from Neme- 

 sian, as illustrative of the instinct of a bitch. He 

 must have picked the passage up somewhere, ready 

 cut and dry, for it is evident he cannot have read 

 the context. The poet means that a bitch, when her 

 whelps are surrounded by a circle of fire, will rescue 

 the best first, from an instinctive knowledge of its 

 excellence. The original passage, 



" . . . . rapit rictu primum, portatque cubili, 

 Mox alium, mox deinde alium. Sic conscia mater 

 Segregat egregiam sobolem virtutis amore," 



he ignorantly renders : 



"... . with opening jaws, first one, 

 And then another, to her hutch she bears ; 

 The mother, conscious of their danger, thus 

 With an instinctive fondness saves her young." 



Conscious of their danger! What a wonderful instance 

 of instinct in the bitch, and of sagacity in the 

 plumeless biped or unplumed rather, for he appears 

 to have been feathered once who discovered such 

 a meaning in the lines ! Send the bottle round, 

 Sandy, why are you looking so glum? Angler in 

 Wales , whoever thou art, Valeas ! 



TWEDDELL. I am not looking glum, I am only 

 getting weary of your lengthy criticism on the 

 ''Angler in Wales." I have read some very clever 



