48 FISH AND FISHING. 



Dorathus was in the habit of visiting a neighbouring 

 stream, and that the fish at last became so well acquainted 

 with his person, that they allowed themselves to be 

 stroked down the back, and even to be taken out of the 

 water by him at any time. And the story goes on to say, 

 that when the holy man performed any acts of devotion, 

 his finny friends held up their heads, and seemed quite 

 sensible of the general purport or object of his worship. 4 

 Nearly the same thing is told in the life of St. Macaise, 

 who lived in a cell, on the high parts of the Nile. The 

 fish, in one of the small brooks in the vicinity of his abode, 

 were observed to display various gesticulations, whenever 

 he sang his daily hymns. 5 



In the early periods of the Church, and during the 

 greater portion of the scholastic ages, fish were con- 

 sidered the emblems of purity, and free from the general 

 curse on mankind ; the earth only, not the sea, being de- 

 nounced for man's transgression. There were, at different 

 periods in the history of ecclesiastical disputations several 

 works on this subject, which still remain, however, only in 

 manuscript, chiefly in the large libraries of the continent, 

 particularly in Spain and Portugal. There are some 

 glimpses of this notion of finny purity to be obtained in 

 some of the Catholic books of discipline ; but the theory 

 is not very prominently developed, nor the abstract argu- 

 ments on which it is based, very distinctly stated. As 



4 Les Vies des SS. Peres, Amsterdam, folio, 1704. 

 6 Vies des Peres d' Orient, Bruxelles, 1838. 



