

CHAP. 



THE FOURTH DAT. 143 



before. And now I have a bite at another. Oh me ! he has 

 broke all ; there's half a line and a good hook lost. 



Fen. Ay, and a good trout too. 



Pise. Nay, the trout is not lost ; for, pray, take notice, 

 no man can lose what he never had. 



Ven. Master ! I can neither catch with the first nor second 

 angle : I have no fortune. 



Pise. Look you, scholar ! I have yet another. And, now, 

 having caught three brace of trouts, I will tell you a short 

 tale as we walk towards our breakfast : A scholar, a preacher 

 I should say, that was to preach to procure the approbation 

 of a parish that he might be their lecturer, had got from his- 

 fellow pupil the copy of a sermon that was first preached 

 with great commendation by him that composed it : and 

 though the borrower of it preached it, word for word as it 

 was at first ; yet it was utterly disliked, as it was preached 

 by the second to his congregation which the sermon- 

 borrower complained of to the lender of it : and was thus 

 answered : " I lent you, indeed, my fiddle, but not my fiddle- 

 stick ; for you are to know, that every one cannot make 

 music with my words, which are fitten to my own mouth." 

 And so, my scholar, you are to know, that as the ill 

 pronunciation or ill accenting of words in a sermon spoils it, 

 so the ill carriage of your line, or not fishing even to a foot 

 in a right place, makes you lose your labour : and you are 

 to know, that though you have my fiddle, that is, my very 

 rod and tacklings with which you see 1 catch fish, yet you 

 have not my fiddle-stick, that is, you yet have not skill to 

 know how to carry your hand and line, or how to guide it to 

 a right place ; and this must be taught you ; for you are to 

 remember, I told you, angling is an art, either by practice or 

 long observation, or both. But take this for a rule, when 

 you fish for a trout, with a worm, let your line have so 

 much, and not more lead than will fit the stream in which 

 you fish : that is to say, more in a great, troublesome stream 

 than in a smaller that is quieter; as near as maybe, so much 

 as will sink the bait to the bottom, and keep it still in 

 motion, and not more. 



But now let's say grace, and fall to breakfast. What say 

 you, scholar, to the providence of an old angler ? does not 

 this meat taste well? and was not this place well chosen 



