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the condemning lines in " Don Juan" he writes: 

 " It would have taught him humanity at least. 

 This sentimental savage, whom it is a mode to 

 quote (amongst the novelists) to show their sym- 

 pathy for innocent sports and old songs, teaches 

 us how to sew up frogs and break their legs, by 

 way of experiment, in addition to the art of 

 angling the cruelest, the coldest, and stupidest 

 of pretended sports. They may talk about the 

 beauties of nature, but the angler merely thinks 

 of the dish of fish ; he has no leisure to take his 

 eyes off from the streams, and a single bite is 

 worth, to him, more than all the scenery around. 

 Besides, some fish bite on a rainy day. The 

 whale, the shark, and the tunny fishing have some- 

 what of noble and perilous in them; even net 

 fishing, trawling, etc., are more humane and use- 

 ful but angling ! No angler can be a good man." 

 After writing this Byron appears to have re- 

 called the fact that he had a friend addicted to 

 angling, and we find the following : "One of the 

 best men I ever knew as humane, delicate- 

 minded, generous, and excellent a creature as any 

 in the world, was an angler. True, he angled 

 with painted flies, and would have been incapa- 

 ble of the extravagance of I. Walton." In a 



