and above all, to me at least, the fruitful vine, of which when I drink moderately, it clears my brain, cheers my heart, and sharpens my wit. How could Cleopatra have feasted Mark Antony with eight wild Boars roasted whole at one supper, and other meat suitable, if the earth had not been a bountiful mother? But to pass by the mighty Elephant, which the Earth breeds and nourisheth, and descend to the least of creatures, how doth the earth afford us a doctrinal example in the little Pismire,* who in the summer provides and lays up her winter provision, and teaches man to do the like! The earth feeds and carries those horses that carry us. If I would be prodigal of my time and your patience, what might not I say in commendations of the earth? That puts limits to the proud and raging sea, and by that means preserves both man and beast, that it destroys them not, as we see it daily doth those that venture upon the sea, and are there shipwrecked, drowned, and left to feed Haddocks; when we that are so wise as to keep ourselves on earth, walk, and talk, and live, and eat, and drink, and go a-hunting of which recreation I will say a little and then leave Mr Piscator to the commendation of Angling. (Hunting is a game for princes and noble persons; it hath been highly prized in all ages; it was one of the qualifications that Xenophon bestowed on his Cyrus, that he was a hunter of wild beasts. Hunting trains up the younger nobility to the use of manly exercises in their riper age. What more manly exercise than hunting the Wild Boar, the Stag, the Buck, the Fox, or the Hare? How doth it preserve health, and increase strength and activity!) : And for the dogs that we use, who can commend their excellency to that height which they deserve? How perfect is the hound at smelling, who never leaves 5 or forsakes his first scent but follows it through so many changes and varieties of other scents, even over, and in, the water, and into the earth! What music doth a pack of dogs then make to any man, whose heart and ears are so happy as to be set to the tune of such instruments! (How will a right Greyhound fix his eye on the best Buck in a herd, single him out, and follow him, and him only through a whole herd of rascal+ game, and still know and then kill him!) For my hounds, VARIATION.] 5 who never loses.-1st and 2d edit. * An excellent paper on this subject will be found in the Guardian, No. 156.-B. "Rascal, Saxon, a lean beast. Continued in that sense among hunters for a deer not fit to hunt or kill. 'A father that doth let loose his son to all experiences is most like a fond hunter, that letteth slip a whelp to the whole herd; twenty to one he shall fall upon a rascal, and let go the fair game.""-Ascham's Scholemaster, p. 61. Nares's I know the language of them, and they know the language and meaning of one another, as perfectly as we know the voices of those with whom we discourse daily. I might enlarge myself in the commendation of Hunting, and of the noble Hound especially, as also of the docibleness of dogs in general; and I might make many observations of landcreatures, that for composition, order, figure, and constitution, approach nearest to the completeness and understanding of man; especially of those creatures, which Moses in the Law permitted to the Jews, which have cloven hoofs, and chew the cud; which I shall forbear to name, because I will not be so uncivil to Mr Piscator, as not to allow him a time for the commendation of Angling, which he calls an art; but doubtless it is an easy one : and, Mr Auceps, I doubt we shall hear a watery discourse of it, but I hope it will not be a long one. AUCEPS. And I hope so too, though I fear it will. 6 PISCATOR. Gentlemen, let not prejudice prepossess you. I confess my discourse is like to prove suitable to my recreation, calm and quiet; we seldom take the name of God into our mouths, but it is either to praise him, or pray to him: if others use it vainly in the midst of their recreations, so vainly as if they meant to conjure, I must tell you, it is neither our fault nor our custom; we protest against it. But, pray remember, I accuse nobody; for as I would not make a watery discourse," so I would not put too much vinegar into it; nor would I raise the reputation of my own art, by the diminution or ruin of another's. And so much for the prologue to what I mean to say. 66 And now for the Water, the element that I trade in. The water is the eldest daughter of the creation, the element upon which the Spirit of God did first move, the element which God commanded to bring forth living creatures abundantly; and without which, those that inhabit the land, even all creatures that have breath in their nostrils, must suddenly return to putrefaction. Moses, the great lawgiver and chief philosopher, skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians, who was called the friend of God, and VARIATION. 6 we seldom make the welkin to roar: we seldom take the name, &c.-1st and 2d edit. Glossary. But query if rascal is not rather applied to animals of an inferor kind to those usually hunted? In the Boke of St Albans the word is thus used: "The manere of huntynge for all manere of bestys, whether they ben bestys, or venery, or chace, or rascall." After mentioning bucks, does, foxes, marterons, and wild roes: "Other bestys all Where so ye theym fynde rascall ye shall them call." knew the mind of the Almighty, names this element the first in the creation: this is the element upon which the Spirit of God did first move, and is the chief ingredient in the creation : many philosophers have made it to comprehend all the other elements, and most allow it the chiefest in the mixtion of all living creatures. There be that profess to believe that all bodies are made of water, and may be reduced back again to water only: they endeavour to demonstrate it thus: Take a willow, or any like speedy-growing plant, newly rooted in a box or barrel full of earth, weigh them all together exactly when the tree begins to grow, and then weigh all together after the tree is increased from its first rooting, to weigh a hundred pound weight more than when it was first rooted and weighed ; and you shall find this augment of the tree to be without the diminution of one drachm weight of the earth. Hence they infer this increase of wood to be from water of rain, or from dew, and not to be from any other element; and they affirm, they can reduce this wood back again to water; and they affirm also, the same may be done in any animal or vegetable. And this I take to be a fair testimony of the excellency of my element of water. The water is more productive than the earth. Nay, the earth hath no fruitfulness without showers or dews; for all the herbs, and flowers, and fruit, are produced and thrive by the water; and the very minerals are fed by streams that run under ground, whose natural course carries them to the tops of many high mountains, as we see by several springs breaking forth on the tops of the highest hills; and this is also witnessed by the daily trial and testimony of several miners. Nay, the increase of those creatures that are bred and fed in the water are not only more and more miraculous, but more advantageous to man, not only for the lengthening of his life, but for the preventing of sickness; for it is observed by the most learned physicians, that the casting off of Lent, and other fish days, which hath not only given the lie to so many learned, pious, wise founders of colleges, for which we should be ashamed, hath doubtless been the chief cause of those many putrid, shaking intermitting agues, unto which this nation of ours is now more subject, than those wiser countries that feed on herbs, salads, and plenty of fish; of which it is observed in story, that the greatest part of VARIATION. 7 names this the first in the creation: the element upon which the Spirit of God did first move, makes water the chief ingredient in the first creation.-1st and 2d edit. * the world now do. And it may be fit to remember that Moses appointed fish to be the chief diet for the best commonwealth that ever yet was. And it is observable, not only that there are fish, as, namely, the Whale, three times as big as the mighty Elephant, that is so fierce in battle, but that the mightiest feasts have been of fish. The Romans, in the height of their glory, have made fish the mistress of all their entertainments; they have had music to usher in their Sturgeons, Lampreys, and Mullets, which they would purchase at rates rather to be wondered at than believed. He that shall view the writings of Macrobius,† or Varro, may be confirmed and informed of this, and of the incredible value of their fish and fish-ponds. But, Gentlemen, I have almost lost myself, which I confess I may easily do in this philosophical discourse; I met with most of it very lately, and I hope, happily, in a conference with a most learned physician, § Dr Wharton, a dear friend, that loves both 8 VARIATION. 8 The name of "Dr Wharton" occurs for the first time in the fifth edition. Lev. xi. 9; Deut. xiv. 9. Aurelius Macrobius, a learned writer of the fourth century; he was chamberlain to the Emperor Theodosius. Fabricius makes it a question whether he was a Christian or a Pagan. His works are, A Commentary on the Somnium Scipionis of Cicero, in two books; and Saturnalia Convivia, in seven. Besides these, he was the author of many which are lost.-H. Marcus Terentius Varro, a most learned Roman, contemporary with Cicero, and author, as it is said, of nearly five hundred volumes. He is one of the best writers on agriculture.-H. Dr Wharton, who is again noticed, and in terms of great esteem, was one of the most eminent physicians of his day. He was born at Winston, in the county of Durham, in 1614, and received the first part of his University education at Pembroke Hall, in Cambridge. Afterwards, before the Civil War broke out, he entered of Trinity College in the sister University; and for a short time practised physic in the metropolis, under Dr Bathurst. In 1647, having retired to his College, he became M.D. by virtue of the Letters of Sir Thomas Fairfax.-H. Mr Oughtred, in his Key to the Mathematics, published just before, says that if any fruit is to be reaped by his new edition thereof, the thanks are due chiefly to Mr Thomas Wharton, who, as he is no mean proficient in those studies, so he may with success serve this age in the necessary mysteries of Botany, Anatomy, and Hermetic Learning; who not only amended the errors, but bestowed exceeding great pains and expense in correcting the press. About 1649, Dr Wharton appears to have settled entirely in London. In 1656 he published Adenographia; sive Glandularum totius Corporis Descriptio," in a small octavo: reprinted in duodecimo, at Amsterdam, in 1659: and again, 12mo, Vesaliæ, 1671: consisting of a Course of Lectures which Dr Prujean, the President of the College of Physicians, had imposed upon him as an exercise in 1652. During the time of the great Plague, in 1665, Dr Wharton continued in London, when many other physicians fled the contagion. He died at his house in Aldersgate Street, Nov. 14, 1673: and was buried at St Michael Bassishaw.-E. See Wood's Athena Oxon., by Bliss, vol. iii. p. 1000. Dr Wharton is frequently mentioned in Ashmole's Diary. On the 2d February 1654, he says, "I acquainted Dr Wharton with my secret for the cure of the illiaca passio; and he applied it this morn ing to Mr Faithorne the graver, and it cured him." His name is mentioned for the first time in the fifth edition, three years after Dr Wharton's death, so that he ought to have been spoken of in the past tense. C me and my art of Angling. But, however, I will wade no deeper into these mysterious arguments, but pass to such observations as I can manage with more pleasure, and less fear of running into error. But I must not yet forsake the waters, by whose help we have so many known advantages. And first, to pass by the miraculous cures of our known baths, how advantageous is the sea for our daily traffic, without which we could not now subsist. How does it not only furnish us with food and physic for the bodies, but with such observations for the mind as ingenious persons would not want! How ignorant had we been of the beauty of Florence, of the monuments, urns, and rarities that yet remain in and near unto Old and New Rome, so many as it is said will take up a year's time to view, and afford to each of them but a convenient consideration! And therefore it is not to be wondered at that so learned and devout a father as St Jerome, after his wish to have seen Christ in the flesh, and to have heard St Paul preach, makes his third wish, to have seen Rome in her glory : and9 that glory is not yet all lost, (for what pleasure is it to see the monuments of Livy, the choicest of the historians; of Tully, the best of orators; and to see the bay-trees that now grow out of the very tomb of Virgil!*) These, to any that love learning, must be pleasing. But what pleasure is it to a devout Christian to see there the humble house in which St Paul was content to dwell,1 and to view the many rich statues that are made in honour of his memory! Nay, to see the very place in which St Peter † and he lie buried VARIATIONS. 9 and yet all that beauty is not lost.—1st and 2d edit. and that beauty is not yet all lost.-3d and 4th edit. 1 to live.-1st and 2d edit. * Walton has here made a mistake. Virgil's tomb is at Naples. The Protestants deny not only that St Peter lies buried in the Vatican, as the Romish writers assert, but that he ever was at Rome. See the Historia Apostolica of Lud. Capellus. The sense of the Protestants on this point is expressed in the following epigram, alluding to the prænomen of Peter, "Simon," and to the simony practised in that city: "An Petrus fuerit Romæ, sub judice lis est; Many that Peter ne'er saw Rome declare, Of which that may be observed which I have heard said of libels, "the more true the more provoking ;" and this the author, John Owen, the famous epigrammatist, found to his cost; for his uncle, a Papist, was so stung by these lines that, in revenge, he disinherited him, and doomed him to extreme poverty the remainder of his life. Athen. Oxon. vol. i. 471. The Romanists have also taken their revenge on the book that contains them. by inserting it in their Index Expurgatorius. Ibid.-H. |