144 



7 ^he Poets and Nature. 



which, by the way, are said to have first reached Europe as 

 a present to the Pompadour. 



That eels grow in time familiar with the process of being 

 skinned, Byron and others jocularly note ; and Pope's 

 " hold the eel of science by the tail " is only one of the 

 many allusions to the creature's slippery character and 

 evasive habits. 



