RELIGION, SUPERSTITION, ETC. 65 



bottom baites, and his lures, and his artifices ; and when 

 his simple fish are sailing about them, they, thinking all 

 is right and safe, swallow the sweet morsels, and are thus 

 chucked out of this life, and thrust into his fishing 

 basket the great bottomless pit ! " 



In 1665, we have the Hon. Eobert Boyle's work 

 'Angling improved to Spiritual Uses,' which contains 

 likewise observations " Upon Pishing with a counterfeit 



%." 



We find that the celebrated John Bunyan did not let 

 the profession of the angler escape from giving it a 

 spiritual application. He says : 



" You see the ways the fisherman doth take 

 To catch the fish ; what engines doth he make ? 

 Behold ! how he engageth all his wits ; 

 Alan his snares, lines, angles, hooks, and nets ; 

 Yet fish there be, that neither hook nor line, 

 Nor snare, nor net, nor engine, can make thine : 

 They must be groped for, and be tickled too, 

 Or they will not be catch' d, whate'er you do." 



In one of James Hogg's Lay Sermons we have an 

 allusion to fish. The following words constitute the text : 

 "There be three things for which the earth is disquieted, 

 yea, for four which it cannot bear. For a servant when 

 he reigneth, and a fool when he is filled with drink ; for 

 an odious woman when she is married, and a handmaid 

 that is heir to her mistress." 



After a few introductory observations, the Ettrick 



M 



