PHILOSOPHY OF FLY FISHING. 11 



or to render a subject intricate and confused, which 

 is in itself so plain and unencumbered. In truth, 

 the ideas which at present prevail on the matter 

 degrade it beneath its real dignity and importance. 

 When Plato, speaking of painting, says that it is 

 merely an art of imitation, and that our pleasure 

 arises from the truth and accuracy of the likeness, 

 he is surely wrong ; for if it were so, where would 

 be the superiority of the Koman and Bolognese 

 over the Dutch and Flemish schools ? So also in 

 regard to fishing : The accomplished angler does 

 not condescend to imitate specifically, and in a 

 servile manner, the detail of things ; he attends, 

 or ought to attend, only to the great and invariable 

 ideas which are inherent in universal nature. He 

 throws his fly lightly and with elegance on the 

 surface of the glittering waters, because he knows 

 that an insect with outspread gauzy wings would 

 so fall ; but he does not imitate (or if he does so, 

 his practice proceeds upon an erroneous principle), 

 either in the air on his favourite element, the flight 

 or the motion of a particular species, because he 

 also knows that trouts are much less conversant in 

 entomology than M. Latreille, and that their om- 

 nivorous propensities induce them, when inclined 

 for food, to rise with equal eagerness at every 

 minute thing which creepeth upon the earth or 

 swimmeth in the waters. On this fact he general- 



O 



izes, and this is the philosophy of fishing. 



We are therefore of opinion that all, or a great 

 proportion, of what has been so often and some- 

 times so well said about the great variety of flies 



