INTRODUCTORY ix 



a memorable saying), it is the hardest 

 thing in the world for an angler to refrain 

 from giving good advice. Angling, how- 

 ever, has an advantage over life in this 

 respect : good advice has a definite place 

 in its scheme of things, and is not always 

 unwelcome. The man who can tell us 

 where to fish and wherewith earns our 

 thanks, and not, as would be the case if 

 he suggested a change in habitation or 

 deportment, our frown. Therefore I plead 

 guilty to the words of counsel, and without 

 claiming for them any value as counsel, 

 I dare to hope that they are quite innocuous 

 as words. So at the worst they should 

 meet with indifference. 



Even at the best they could not give 

 any weight of necessity to the book they 

 are happily too few and unimportant for 

 that and I am confronted once more with 

 the lack that will be plain to the critics. 

 It might, perhaps, be possible to argue 



