CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DAT. 361 



Viat. In earnest, sir, I am ravished to meet with a friend 

 of Mr. Izaak Walton's, and one that does him so much 

 right in so good and true a character : for I must boast to 

 you, that I have the good fortune to know him too, and 

 came acquainted with him much after the same manner I do 

 with you ; that he was my master who first taugHt me to 

 love angling, and then to become an angler ; and, to be plain 

 with you, 1 am the very man deciphered in his book under 

 the name of Venator; for I \vas wholly addicted to the 

 chace, till he taught me as good, a more quiet, innocent, 

 and less dangerous, diversion. 



Pise. Sir, I think myself happy in your acquaintance ; 

 and before we part shall entreat leave to embrace you. You 

 have said enough to recommend you to my best opinion ; 

 for my father Walton will be seen twice in no man's 

 company he does not like, and likes none but such as he 

 believes to be very honest men ; which is one of the best 

 arguments, or at least of the best testimonies I have, that I 

 either am, or that he thinks me, one of those, seeing I have 

 not yet found him weary of me. 



Viat. You speak like a true friend; and, in doing so, 

 render yourself worthy of his friendship. May I be so 

 bold as to ask your name ? 



Pise. Yes surely, sir, and if you please a much nicer 



question : my name is , and I intend to stay long 



enough in your company, if I find you do not dislike mine, 

 to ask yours too. In the mean time, because we are now 

 almost at Ashbouru, I shall freely and bluntly tell you, that 

 I am a brother of the angle too ; and, peradventure, can 

 give you some instructions how to angle for a trout in a 



secrets to me." And a little after, p. 27, ''My father Backhouse, 

 lying sick in Fleet-street, told me, in syllables, the true matter of the 

 philosopher's stone, which he bequeathed to me as a legacy." See more 

 of this practice, and of the tremendous solemnities with which the secret 

 was communicated, in Ashmole's " Theat. Chem. Brit.," p. 440. In 

 imitation of this practice, Ben Jonson adopted several persons his sons, 

 to the number of twelve or fourteen ; among whom were, Cartwright, 

 Randolph, and Alexander Brome. And it should seem, by the text, 

 that Walton followed the above-mentioned examples, by adopting Cotton 

 for his son. In the English translation of the Scriptures, the disciples 

 of the Prophets are called "the Sons of the Prophets," with the same 

 signification. H. 



