2Z THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i. , 



an enemy to the Otter : for you are to note, that we Anglers all 

 Ipve one another, and therefore do I hate the Otter ^ both for my 

 own, and their sakes who are of my brotherhood. 



Venator. And I am a lover of Hounds ; I have followed 

 many a pack of dogs many a mile, and heard many merry 

 Huntsmen "^ make sport and scoff at Anglers. 



AuCEPS. And I profess myself a Falconer, and have heard 

 many grave, serious men pity them, it is such a heavy, contempt- 

 ible, dull recreation. 



® PISCATOR. You know. Gentlemen, it is an easy thing to scoff 

 at any art or recreation ; a little wit mixed with ill-nature, confi- 

 dence, and malice, will do it ; but though they often venture boldly, 

 yet they are often caught, even in their own trap, according to 

 that of Lucian, the father of the family of Scoffers : — 



Liician, well slcill'd in scoffing, this hath writ. 

 Friend, that's your folly, which you think your wit : 

 This you vent oft, void both of wit and fear. 

 Meaning another, when yourself you jeer.* 



, ^ If to this you add what Solomon f says of Scoffers, that they 



VARIATIONS. 



which we contemn and pity ; men of sour complexions ; money-getting men, that spend 

 all their time, first in getting, and next in anxious care to keep it : men that are con- 

 demned to be rich, and always discontented, or busy. For these poor rich men, we' 

 Anglers pity them ; and stand in no need to borrow their thoughts to think ourselves 

 happy : for, trust me, Sir, we enjoy a contentedness above the reach of such disposi- 

 tions. 



** the Otter perfectly, even for their sakes. — ^st edit, the Otter, even. — zdedit. 



7 many men. — 2d, -^d, aytd ^th edit. • 



"^ But if this satisfy not, I pray bid the Scoffer put this epigram into his pocket, and 

 read it every morning for his breakfast, for I wish him no better ; he shall find it fixed 

 before the Dialogues of Lucian, who may be justly accounted the father of the family of 

 all Scoffers: and though I owe none of that fraternity so much as good will, yet I have 

 taken a little pleasant pains tO' make such a conversion of it as may make it the fitter 

 for all of that fraternity. 



Lucian, well skill'd in scoffing, this hath writ, etc. 



9 But no more of the Scoffer ; for since Solomon says, he is an aboniination to men, 

 he shall be so to me ; and, I think, to all that love Virtue and Angling. 



* As might be inferred from the conclusion of the paragraph which precedes these 

 verses in the ^rj/ edition, they were slightly altered by Walton from the original, which 

 occurs in "Certain Select Dialogues of Lucian, together with his true History, trans- 

 lated from the Greek into English, by Mr Francis Hickes." Oxford, 1634, 4to. That 

 work was published by the son of the author, Thomas Hickes, M.A.; and at the end of 

 an address "to the honest and judicious reader" is the epigram in question, in Greek 

 and English, and signed **T. H." 



" Lucian, well skill'd in old toyes, this hath writ ; 

 For all's but folly that men thinke is wit ; 

 No settled judgement doth in men appear ; 

 But thou admirest that which others jeer." 

 That Walton has much improved on the original is obvious. — T. 



t Proverbs xxiv. g, "The tliought of foolishness is sin; and the scomer is an abom- 

 ination to men." 



