XIX 



OF ANGLING TROPHIES 



MUTUAL confidence being the foundation of 

 society, we look askance at the liar as at an 

 enemy of the human race. There is, moreover, 

 no pleasure in lying for its own sake. A lie that 

 takes nobody in becomes to its inventor " a dead 

 sea fruit that turns to ashes on the lips." If he 

 be not rewarded by the open-eyed admiration of his 

 audience he had better have remained silent yea, 

 though he has lied like Ananias. For these two 

 reasons we all wish to be believed, and it is a 

 pitiful circumstance that the more untruthful we 

 are the greater is our hunger for credence. The 

 unimaginative man, who has nothing worth telling, 

 need not and does not concern himself about the 

 acceptance of his paltry stories. But the genius 

 who has struck out a first-rate figment is touched 

 in his being if the child of his fancy fails to make 

 good. 



Among anglers, therefore, a convention exists 

 that everything shall be believed. In communities 



121 



