CSPfstiom. 201 



suddenly affrighted (what with the handling and 

 what with the noise), made up again with all 

 speed possible ; the man held and the bear 

 pulled, until with main force he had drawn Dun 

 out of the mire / and then, being let go, away 

 he trots, more afeared than hurt, leaving the 

 smeared swain in a joyful fear." 



Scarcely less amusing is Butler's account of 

 honey as a medicine, or his directions to avoid 

 being stung by bees. They are as quaint as 

 some of Walton's passages, or the directions by 

 other old masters of the line for capturing a 

 wary tenant of the stream. Walton has con- 

 tributed one of the best mots that has appeared, 

 on the frog : the instruction he gives Venator 

 for baiting a hook with a live batrachian, which 

 he commands him to use " as if he loved him, 

 that he may live the longer." This is almost as 

 realistic as another injunction by a Michael An- 

 gelo of the piscatory art, mentioned by Jesse, 

 who would have a frog attached " to a goose's 

 foot, in order to see, good halynge, whether the 

 goose or the pyke shall have the better." Still 

 another master of the antique school, speaking 

 of the best bait for a pike, exclaims, with an en- 

 thusiasm for his art not to be met with in these 

 degenerate days : " But the yellow frog, of all 

 frogs, brings him to hand, for that's his dainty 

 14 



