the ' Compleat Angler.' 



15 



old fuperftition that, during this intermediate period, the 

 angler and his lore were alike dethroned from their high places ? 

 Pifcator, in the good old times, trod (in a figure) the dais, 

 and wore cloth of gold, as a follower of the cf Pleafure of 

 Princes." He ftood apart from the profanum vulgus, by virtue 

 alike of his grave and dignified demeanour, and of the cloud 

 of fpirituality and recondite erudition with which he furrounded 

 his art. He was fin generis. Pifcator nafcitur, non fit, was his 

 cool afTumption, even ParnafTus' hill not feeming too lofty to 

 ferve him for a parallel. 



In his decadence, on the contrary, all was changed. Cloth 

 of frieze became the fafhion of his raiment, and his pofition 

 the common every day-level (or perhaps a degree lower), with 

 the implied obligation of giving the wall to any hunting or 

 hawking paffer-by. And having defcended from his pedeftal, 

 the oi polloi, as ufual, began to pelt him, with their jeers, and 

 even a f&w 3 indeed, who were not of the oi polloi, and mould 

 have known better, ftuck their burrs on him ; and his literature, 

 as we have juft faid, was dethroned with him, and loft, alto- 

 gether, its ancient tone and ftandard. 



An angling writer (to eftablifh a comparifon) of this latter 

 period, was apt to enter on the fubject with a penny whittle 

 prelude of apology and deprecation. Smarting, it may be, 

 from the fling of the Johnfonian definition of his fport, he 

 wafted much mean and servile pleading to prove the injuftice 

 of the infinuation. He crept through his treatife on all fours, 

 as it were, and backed out of it at the clofe, ungracioufly and 

 difgracefully — fhrinking, often enough, from affixing his fign- 



