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angler. He would spare the fish, which is 

 in truth little less voracious than the pike, 

 and drown the man : " The mercies of the 

 wicked are cruel." 



In the thirteenth canto of Don Juan, Lord 

 Byron, in a fit of spleen, says of " good old 

 father Walton :" 



" The quaint, old, cruel coxcomb in his gullet 

 Should have a hook and a small trout to pull it." 



In a note upon these lines, his Lordship calls 

 him " a sentimental savage," pronounces 

 angling to be the " cruellest, the coldest, and 

 the stupidest of sports;" and by way of a 

 climax roundly declares, that " no angler 

 can be a good man." " Quot homines tot 

 sententise" is as true now as in the days of 

 Terence, and people are likely to differ about 

 the mode of breaking the ends of their eggs 

 until the end of time. The criminal identity 

 of punning and pocket-picking has not yet 

 been acknowledged in the statute book, 

 though maintained by that memorable critic, 



