AKCIENT AND MODERN PISHING. 3 



frescoes, gems, bas-reliefs, and coins ; whUe the ex pro- 

 fesso writings of the following piscatory poets, Numenius 

 of Heraclea, Csecius of Argos, Posidonius of Corinth, 

 Leonides of Byzantium, Pancratias the Arcadian, and 

 Seleucus of the ' no mean city' of Tarsus, though un- 

 fortunately lost to us, put this matter beyond dispute: 

 as it would weary the reader, especially if he be not an 

 angler, to hook in all the passages that might be fished 

 out of Greek and Roman poets ; which tell. 



Of beetling rooka tliat OTerhang the flood 

 Where silent anglers cast insidious food. 

 With fraudful care await the finny prize, 

 And sadden lift it quivering to the skies :* 



we shall therefore cite but two short ones, both from 

 Oppian. Every fisherman has experienced the pleasant 

 sensation of hauling safe to land a large fish after first 

 well playing him: and all who have had this satisfac- 

 tion wiU admit, that the lines in which the poet re- 

 cords Caracalla's sport in the Virginia Water of the 

 Csesars, whilst he stood by hexameterizing his success, 

 convey — however unworthy they may be, in our free 

 paraphrastic version, of that gold aureolus, or fifteen- 

 shilling bit, per line which the emperor paid for them, 

 — a lively reminiscence of what he has himself felt on 

 some similar occasion. 



A bite, hurrah! the length'ning line extends, 

 Above the tugging fish the arch'd reed bends : 

 He struggles hard, and noble sport will yield, 

 My liege, ere wearied out he quits the field. 

 See how he swims up, down, and now athwart 

 The rapid stream — now pausing as in thought ; 

 And now you force him from the azure deep : 

 He mounts, he bends, and with resilient leap 

 Bounds into air ! there see the dangler twirl, 

 Convulsive start, hang, curl, again uncurl, 



* Homer. 



B 2 



