the ' Compleat Angler.' 



17 



But in this Art of Angling there is no fuch evill, no fuch finneful 

 violence, for the greateft thing it coveteth is, for much labour, 

 a little Fifh, hardly fo much as will fuffice nature in a reason- 

 able ftomacke : for the Angler muft intice, not command his 

 reward . . . mewing unto all men that will undergoe any delight 

 therein that it was firft invented, taught, and mail forever bee 

 maintained by Patience only. And yet I may not fay only 

 Patience, for her other three Sifters have likewife a commanding 

 pow r er in this exercife, for Jujiice directeth and appointeth out 

 thofe places where men may, with liberty, ufe their fport and 

 neyther doe iniury to their neighbours, nor incur the cenfure of 

 incivility. Temperance layeth downe the meafure of the action 

 and moderateth defire in fuch good proportion that no excefTe 

 is found in the overflow of their affections. Laftly Fortitude 

 inableth the minde to undergoe the travell and exchange of 

 weathers with a healthfull eafe, and not to difpaire with a little 

 expenfe of time, but to perfevere with a conftant imagination 

 in the end to obtaine both pleafure and fatisfaction . . . And thus 

 you fee this Art is good, as having no coherence of evill ; worthy 

 of ufe, inafmuch as it is mixed with a delightfull profit : and 

 moft auncient as being the recreation of the firft Patriarks." 1 



Meafure, if you can, the interval which feparatesthe pitiful 

 puerility, characteriftic of our angling lore in its intermediate 

 period, and the above folemn laudation, wherein the praife of 

 the art may be faid to culminate, aflbciated, as it is, with all 



1 " The Pleafvres of Princes, or Good mens Recreations. 

 1635. Chap. 1. 



Small 4to., 



