13 



" Is lliat so?" 



" \>s. Next day a score of men rush at the pattern wliich lie 

 favoured, regardless of the fact that conditions are altogether changed. 

 .... Again, a man takes one fly in preference to another, solely on 

 account of its superiority in point of beauty. The fly attracts tlie 

 notice of, and becomes a ' ]iet ' with, a large class of men who laud 

 it til the skies and speak of it with deliricuH delight. The result is, 

 that the unintelligent student regards the little pet, decorated in her 

 Sunday licst, as a kind of fetish which he may bring out at all times 



when other flies fail What do you think now nf the tyranny 



of tradition ? " 



"We are much indebted to you, but can you think of a worse. 



" I anticipate your question. The worst policy to pursue, at 

 least 1 think so, is that which — on the analogy of Wordsworth's 

 undiscerning clown, to whom ' a ]5rimrose on the river's brim a yellow- 

 primrose was to him anrl nothing more ' — lightly assumes that a ll\- 

 is a fly, and that one ])attrrn is as gor d as an;ither on all occasions 

 .... Are \ou aware that the majority of angling students pretend 

 to know all there is to know of tlie busiiu-s in a week ^ We iiave 

 evidence of this every day, if only by their unsolicited attentions. 

 With an air of the most rasping pedantry they will criticise the fly — 

 but stop, we must not dwell on the dismal side of the picture suffice 

 it to s.iy that, after getting a fish or two, the youth of this country 

 list(-ns with eagerness to all he's told at the riverside, and then- 

 though the fact is hardly worth the <lignity of argument thinks 

 himself f|ualified to lay down the law in some inferior company a> 

 well as in the Press." 



