240 SALMONIA. 



not live in a house, nor wear any clothes, and 

 his whole life is spent in this one business 

 making and managing a fleet of wooden 

 boats, of which he is sole admiral. How 

 near this mad youth is to a genius, a hero, 

 or to an angler, who injures his health and 

 risks his life by going into the water as 

 high as his middle, in the hope of catching 

 a fish which he sees rise, though he already 

 has a pannier full. 



HAL. Or a statesman, working by all 

 means, fair and foul, to obtain a blue riband ; 

 or a fox-hunter, risking his neck to see 

 the hounds destroy an animal which he pre- 

 serves to be destroyed, and which is good 

 for nothing. Or an aged licentious volup- 

 tuary, using all the powers of a high and 

 cultivated intellect to destroy the innocence 

 of a beautiful virgin for a transient gratifi- 

 cation to render her miserable, and by 

 making a flaw in an inestimable and brilliant 

 gem, utterly to destroy its value. 



PHYS. You might go on and give almost 

 all the objects of pursuit of rational beings, 

 as they are called. But to return to your 



