14 



THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I, 



creatures, which Moses m the Law permitted to the Jews, 

 which have cloven hoofs, and chew the cud; which 

 I shall forbear to name, because I will not be so un- 

 civil to Mr. Piscator, as not to allow him a time for 

 the commendation of Angling, which he calls an art; but 

 doubtless it is an easy, one : and Mr. Auceps, I doubt 

 we shall hear a watery discourse of it, but I hope it 

 will not be a long one. 



Auc. And I hope so too, though I fear it will. 



Pise. Gentlemen, let not prejudice prepossess you. 

 I confess my discourse is like to prove suitable to my 

 recreation, calm and quiet; we seldom take the name of 

 God into our mouths, but it is either to praise him, or 

 pray to him : if others use it vainly in the midst of their 

 recreations, so vainly as if they meant to conjure, I must 

 tell you it is neither our fault nor our custom; we pro- 

 test against it. But, pray remember, I accuse nobody ; 

 for as I would not make a watery discourse, so I would 

 not put too much vinegar into it; nor would I raise the 

 reputation of my own art, by the diminution or ruin of 

 another's. And so much for the prologue to what I mean 

 to say. 



And now for the Water, the element that I trade in. 

 The water is the eldest daughter of the creation, the ele- 

 ment upon which the spirit of God did first move, the 

 element which God commanded to bring forth living crea- 

 tures abundantly ; and without which, those that inhabit 

 the land, even all creatures that have breath in their nos- 

 trils, must suddenly return to putrefaction. Moses, the 

 great lawgiver and chief philosopher, skilled in all the 

 learning of the Egyptians, who was called the friend of 

 God, and knew the mind of the Almighty, names this 

 element the first in the creation : this is the element upon 

 which the Spirit of God did first move, and is the chief 

 ingredient in the creation : many philosophers have made 



