CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 13 



those that venture upon the sea, and are there ship- 

 wrecked, drowned, and left to feed Haddocks; when we 

 that are so wise as to keep ourselves on earth, walk, and 

 talk, and live, and eat, and drink, and go a hunting : of 

 which recreation I will say a little, and then leave Mr. 

 Piscator to the commendation of Angling. 



Hunting is a game for princes and noble persons; it 

 hath been highly prized in all ages; it was one of the 

 qualifications that Xenophon bestowed on his Cyrus, that 

 he was a hunter of wild beasts. Hunting trains up the 

 younger nobility to the use of manly exercises in their 

 riper age. What more manly exercise than hunting the 

 Wild Boar, the Stag, the Buck, the Fox, or the Hare? How 

 doth it preserve health, and increase strength and activity ! 



And for the dogs that we use, who can commend 

 their excellency to that height which they deserve ? How 

 perfect is the hound at smelling, who never leaves or 

 forsakes his first scent, but follows it through so many 

 changes and varieties of other scents, even over, and 

 in, the water, and into the earth! What music doth a 

 pack of dogs then make to any man, whose heart and 

 ears are so happy as to be set to the tune of such in- 

 struments ! How will a right Greyhound fix his eye on 

 the best Buck in a herd, single him out, and follow him, 

 and him only, through a whole herd of rascal game, 

 and still know and then kill him! For my hounds, I 

 know the language of them, and they know the lan- 

 guage and meaning of one another, as perfectly as we 

 know the voices of those with whom we discourse daily. 



I might enlarge myself in the commendation of Hunt- 

 ing, and of the noble Hound especially, as also of the 

 docibleness of dogs in general ; and I might make many 

 observations of land-creatures, that for composition, order, 

 figure, and constitution, approach nearest to the com- 

 pleteness and understanding of man ; especially of those 



