2 PKOSE HAIilEUTICS. 



And the fishers shall mourn and lament; all those that cast the 

 hook into the river; 



And those that spread nets on the face of the waters shall lan- 

 guish; 



And those that work the fine flax shall be confounded; 



And they that weave network. 



And her stores shall be broken up, 



Even all that make a gain of pools for fish. 



Thus fishing from a remote period obtained as a craft: 



Peter and Andrew fyshed for fode, 

 Some they golde, and some they sode. 



And long before the Apostles' day, the same laborious 

 primitive vocation was pursued in Sicilyj and doubtless 

 elsewhere : 



Once, some few hours ere breake of day 

 As in their hut our fishers lay, 

 The one awaked, and waked his neighbour. 

 That both might ply their daily labour.* 



But angling or fishing for diversion's sake was an after- 

 thought, not likely to occur till the world was well peo- 

 pled, and different states sufBciently prosperous and ad- 

 vanced in civilization to spare supernumerary hands, and 

 allow the wealthier of their sons to follow less necessary 

 arts than the primary ones of war and tiUagcf The 

 Greeks and Romans, civilized beyond the rest of the 

 world, soon became enthusiastic sportsmen: neither na- 

 tion, indeed, seems to have had a collective word, like 

 our own, to designate the tribe generically; but we 

 know them to have reared, not only bold huntsmen and 

 keen fowlers, but also ardent followers of the gentler 

 field sport. The existence of togate and encnemic pro- 

 ficients ha. the art of angliag is competently attested, 

 from the scattered hints of contemporaries, and from 



* Theocritus. 



t ' n y a cette difi"&ence entre la chasse et la p^che, que cette 

 derniere convient am peuples les plus civihs^s.' — Lacipede. 



