THE WET HUMORIST. 13 



where exact imitation is at the same time impos- 

 sible, it is much better to have recourse to a general 

 idea, than to an awkward and bungling individual 

 representation. How often has it been asserted, 

 with all the gravity of sententious wisdom, that 

 the true mode of proceeding in fly-fishing is to busk 

 your hook by the river-side, after beating the shrubs 

 to see what colour of insect prevails. A very ex- 

 pert angler, who perhaps carried the opposite theory 

 rather too far, although he always filled his pan- 

 nier, was in the habit of stirring the briars and 

 willows to ascertain what manner of fly was not 

 there, and with that he tempted the fishes. The 

 man was a humorist in his way, and in this parti- 

 cular case, an erroneous humorist, as many wiser 

 folks have been when driven into one extreme by 

 the foolish prevalence of its opposite. But he 

 certainly had the advantage of his antagonists in a 

 wider field of action and invention, the world 

 being all before him where to choose, and no 

 especial pocket-book his guide. 



It moreover argues no small conceit in our dubber 

 of artificial flies, to fancy, that with the harlequin 

 materials of his art, his furs, feathers, silks, wor- 

 steds, gold and silver twist, 



" White, black, and grey, with all their trumpery," 



and seated complacently by some majestic though 

 unconscious river, he can rival nature. Look at 

 his monstrous hands, and still more monstrous 

 handiwork ! Oh ! Moses Harris, thou beautiful 

 limner of the insect world, what wouhTst thou or 



