CHAP. I.] . THE FIEST DAT. 73 



G-essner, 1 BoDELETius, 2 Pliny, Ausonius, 3 Aristotle, and 

 others, may be demonstrated. But I will sweeten this dis- 

 course also out of a contemplation in divine Du Bartas, 4 who 

 says : 



God quickened in the sea, and in the rivers 

 So many fishes of so many features, 

 That in the waters we may see all creatures, 

 Even all that on the earth are to be found, 

 As if the world were in deep waters drown'd. 

 For seas as well as skies have sun, moon, stars ; 

 As well as air swallows, rooks, and stares ; 5 

 As well as earth vines, roses, nettles, melons, 

 Mushrooms, pinks, gilliflowers, and many millions 

 Of other plants, more rare, more strange than these ; 

 As very fishes, living in the seas ; 



Herbert of Cherbury. These verses will be found in a printed collection of 

 his poems, called " The Temple," 1633 ; often reprinted, and recently in a 

 luxuriously illustrated quarto. ED. 



1 Conrad Gessner, an eminent physician and naturalist, was born at 

 Zurich in 1516. His skill in botany and natural history procured him the 

 appellation of the Pliny of Germany : and Beza, who knew him, scrupled 

 not to assert, that he concentred in himself the learning of Pliny and 

 Varro. Nor was he more distinguished for his learning than esteemed and 

 beloved for probity and sweetness of manners ; notwithstanding, he laboured 

 under the pressure of poverty, to a degree that compelled him to write for 

 sustenance, and that in such haste, that his works, which are very nume- 

 rous, are not exempt from marks of it. Besides a ' ' Bibliotheca sive 

 Catalogus Scriptorum Lat. Gr. et Hebr. tarn extantium quam non 

 extantium," Tig. 1545-48, he wrote "Historia Animalium," and "De 

 Serpentium Natura ; " to both which works Walton frequently refers. 

 He died in 1565. H. 



2 Gfuillaume Rondelet, an eminent physician, born in Montpelier in Lan- 

 guedoc, 1507. He wrote several books; and a treatise "De Piscibus 

 Marinis," where all that Walton has taken from him is to be found. He 

 died very poor of a surfeit occasioned by eating figs to excess, in 1666. 

 H. 



3 Decius Ausonius, a native of Bourdeaux ; was a Latin poet, Consul ot 

 Rome, and preceptor to the Emperor Gratian. He died about 390. H. 



4 Guillaume de Saluste, Sieur du Bartas, was a poet of great reputation 

 in Walton's time. He wrote, in French, a poem called "Divine Weeks 

 and Works," (a commentary on the creation of the world,) whence the 

 passage in the text, and many others cited in this work, are extracted. 

 This, with his other delightful works, was translated into English by 

 Joshua Sylvester, in folio, which is illustrated with, numerous fine wood-cuts. 

 He -is facetiously quoted in "Hudibras," in 1605, and is supposed to 

 have given Milton the idea of his " Paradise Lost." H. 



6 Or starlings, Minsheu. 



