OF SEL BORNE. 
. 271 
Gold and Jtlver fjijes^ rhough originally natives of China and 
Japan, yet are become fo well reconciled to our climate as to 
thrive and multiply very faft in our ponds and ftews. Linnaus 
ranks this fpecies of fifli under the genus of cypr'mus, or carp^ and 
calls it cyprinus auratm. 
Some people exhibit this fort of fifli in a very fanciful way ; 
for they caufe a glafs bowl to be blown with a large hollow fpace 
within, that does not communicate with it. In this cavity they 
put a bird occafionally ; fo that yo\i may fee a goldfinch or a 
linnet hopping as it were in the midft of the water, and the fifhes 
fwimming in a circle round it. The fimple exhibition of the 
fiflies is agreeable and pleafant ; but in fo complicated a way 
becomes whimfical and unnatural, and liable to the objection due 
to him, 
*' Qui variare cupit rem prodiglaliter unam.'*^ 
I am, 
LETTER 
