CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 89 



fitted to my own mouth." And so, my scholar, you are 

 to know, that as the ill pronunciation or ill accenting of 

 words in a sermon spoils it, so the ill carriage of your 

 line, or not fishing even to a foot in a right place, makes 

 you lose your labour: and you are to know, that though 

 you have my fiddle, that is, my very rod and tacklings 

 with which you see I catch fish, yet you have not my 

 fiddle-stick, that is, you yet have not skill to know how 

 to carry your hand and line, nor how to guide it to a right 

 place : and this must be taught you ; for you are to remem- 

 ber, I told you Angling is an art, either by practice or a 

 long observation, or both. But take this for a rule, When 

 you fish for a Trout with a worm, let your line have so 

 much, and not more lead than will fit the stream in which 

 you fish; that is to say, more in a great troublesome 

 stream than in a smaller that is quieter; as near as may 

 be, so much as will sink the bait to the bottom, and keep 

 it still in motion, and not more. 



But now let's say grace, and fall to breakfast. What 

 say you, scholar, to the providence of an old angler? 

 Does not this meat taste well ? and was not this place 

 well chosen to eat it? for this sycamore-tree will shade us 

 torn the sun's heat. 



Ven. All excellent good ; and my stomach excellent 

 good, too. And now I remember, and find that true 

 which devout Lessius ' says, " that poor men, and those 

 that fast often, have much more pleasure in eating than 

 rich men, and gluttons, that always feed before their 

 stomachs are empty of their last meat and call for more; 



(1) Leonard Lessius, a very learned Jesuit, professor of divinity in the col- 

 lege of Jesuits at Louvain : he was born at Antwerp, 1554; and became very 

 famous for his skill in divinity, civil law, mathematics, physic, and history : he 

 wrote several theological tracts, and a book entitled, Hygiasticon , scu vera 

 ratio valetudinis bontf, vittc ad txtremam senectutem conservanda. See 

 Walton's Life prefixed. From this tract of Lessius, it is probable the passage 

 in the text is cited. He died 1623. 



