8 LIFE OF WALTON. 



dates of the subsequent editions ; the second was published 

 in 1655, the third in 1664, the fourth in 1668, and the 

 fifth, and last, in 1676. It is pleasing to trace the several 

 variations which the author from time to time made in these 

 subsequent editions, as well by adding new facts and dis- 

 coveries, as by enlarging on the more entertaining parts of the 

 dialogue. And so far did he indulge in this method of 

 improvement, that in the second edition he has introduced a 

 new interlocutor, namely, Auceps, a falconer, and thereby 

 gives a new form to the dialogue, taking occasion to urge a 

 variety of reasons in favour of his art, and to assert its 

 preference, as well to hawking, as hunting. The third and 

 fourth editions have several entire new chapters ; and the fifth, 

 the last published in his life-time, contains no less than eight 

 chapters more than the first, and twenty pages more than the 

 fourth. 



Not having the advantage of a learned education, it may seem 

 unaccountable that Walton so frequently cites authors who 

 have written only in Latin, as Gesner, Cardan, Aldrovandus, 

 Eondeletius, and even Albertus Magnus ; but here it may be 

 observed, that the voluminous history of animals, of which the 

 first of these was author, is, in an abridged form, translated 

 into English by Mr. Edward Topsel. The translation was pub- 

 lished in 1658, and contains numberless particulars concerning 

 frogs, serpents, caterpillars, and other animals, though not of 

 fish, extracted from the writers above-named, with their names 

 to the respective facts, and it furnished Walton with a great 

 variety of intelligence, of which in the later editions of his 

 book he has carefully availed himself. It was through the 

 medium of this translation, that he was enabled to cite the 

 authors mentioned above ; vouching the authority of the 

 original writers, in like manner as he elsewhere does Sir 

 Francis Bacon, whenever occasion occurs to mention his 

 " Natural History," or any other of his works. Pliny was 

 translated to his hand by Dr. Philemon Holland, as were also 

 Janus Dubravius " De Piscinis et Piscium natura, " and 

 Lebault's " Maison Eustique," often referred to by him in the 

 course of his work. 



Nor did the reputation of the " Complete Angler" subsist, 

 only in the opinions of those for whose use it was more peculiarly 

 calculated ; but even the learned, either from the known 

 character of the author, or those internal evidences of judgment 

 and veracity contained in it, considered it a work of merit, 

 and referred to its authority : Dr. Thomas Fuller in his 

 " Worthies," whenever he has occasion to speak of fish, uses his 

 very words. Dr. Plot, in his " History of Staffordshire," has, on 



