mend their excellency to that height which they deferve? How perfect is the hound at smelling, who never leaves or forfakes his first fcent, but follows it through so many changes and varieties of other scents, even over, and in the water, and into the earth? What mufick doth a pack of dogs then make to any man, whofe heart and ears are fo happy as to be fet to the tune of fuch inftruments? How will a right Greyhound fix his eye on the best Buck in a herd, fingle him out, and follow him, and him only through a whole herd of rafcal game, and still know and then kill him? For my Hounds I know the language of them, and they know the language and meaning of one another, as perfectly as we know the voices of thofe with whom we difcourfe 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 obfervations of landcreatures, that for compofition, order, figure, and conftitution, approach nearest to the compleatness and understanding of man; especially of those creatures which Mofes in the law permitted to the Jews, which have cloven hoofs and chew the cud; which I fhall forbear to name, because I will not be fo uncivil to Mr. Pifcator, as not to allow him a time for the commendation of Angling, which he calls an art; but doubtless it is an eafy one: and Mr. Auceps, I doubt we shall hear a watery discourse of it, but I hope it will not be a long one.

Auc. And I hope fo too, though I fear it will. Pifc. Gentlemen, let not prejudice prepoffefs you. I confefs my difcourfe is like to prove

fuitable

fuitable to my recreation, calm and quiet; we feldom 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 recrea tions, fo vainly as if they meant to conjure; I must tell you, it is neither our fault or our custom; we protest against it. But, pray remember I accufe no-body; for as I would not make a watery difcourfe, fo 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 fo much for the prologue to what I mean to fay.

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, thofe that inhabit the land, even all creatures that have breath in their nostrils, must suddenly return to putrefaction. Mofes, the great lawgiver and chief philofopher, fkilled in all the learning of the Egyptians, who was called the friend of God, and 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 philofophers have made it to comprehend all the other elements, and most allow it the chiefeft in the mixtion of all living creatures.

There be that profefs 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

Take a willow, or any like fpeedy growing plant, newly rooted in a box or barrel full of earth, weigh them all together exactly when the trees begin to grow, and then weigh all together after the tree is increased from its firft rooting, to weigh an hundred pound weight more than when it was first rooted and weighed, and you fhall find this augment of the tree to be without the diminution of one drachm weight of the earth. Hence they infer this increafe of wood to be from water or 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 alfo the fame may be done in any animal or vegetable. And this I take to be a fair teftimony of the excellency of my element

of water.

The water is more productive than the earth. Nay, the earth hath no fruitfulness without fhowers 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, whofe natural courfe carries them to the tops of many high mountains, as we fee by feveral fprings breaking forth on the tops of the highest hills and this is alfo witnessed, by the daily trial and teftimony of several miners.

Nay, the increase of thofe 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 fickness; for it is obferved by the most learned phyficians, that the cafting off of lent and other fifh days, which hath not only given the lie to fo many learned, pious,

wife founders of colleges, for which we should be ashamed, has doubtless been the chief caufe of those many putrid, fhaking, intermitting agues, unto which this nation of ours is now more fubject than those wiser countries that feed on herbs, fallets, and plenty of fish; of which it is observed in story, that the greatest part of the world now do. And it may be fit to remember that Mofes, Lev. xi. 9. Deut. xiv. 9. appointed fifh to be the chief diet for the beft commonwealth that ever yet was.

And it is obfervable, not only that there are fish, as namely the Whale, three times as big as the mighty Elephant, that is fo fierce in battle, but that the mightieft feasts have been of fish. The Romans, in the height of their glory, have made fish the miftrefs of all their entertainments; they have had mufick to usher in their Sturgeons, Lampreys, and Mullets, which they would pur chase 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 eafily do in this philofophical difcourfe; I met with most of it very lately,

* Aurelius Macrobius, a learned writer of the fourth century; he was chamberlain to the Emperor Theodofius: he wrote Saturnalia, a learned work on antiquities; and many other books, which are now loft.

+ Marcus Terentius Varro, a most learned Roman, cotemporary with Cicero, and author, as it is faid, of near five hundred volumes. He is one of the best writers on agri culture.

and,

and, I hope, happily, in a conference with a moft learned phyfician, Dr. Wharton *, a dear friend, that loves both me and my art of ang. ling. But however, I will wade no deeper in thefe mysterious arguments, but pafs to fuch obfervations as I can manage with more pleasure, and less fear of running into error. But I muit not yet forfake the waters, by whofe help we have fo many known advantages.

And first, to pass by the miraculous cures of our known baths, how advantageous is the fea for our daily traffick, without which we could not now fubfift? How does it not only furnish us with food and phyfick for the bodies, but with fuch obfervations for the mind as inge nious perfons 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, fo many as it is faid will take up a year's time to view, and afford to each of them but a convenient confideration; and therefore it is not to be wondered at, that fo learned and devout a father as St. Jerome, after his wifh to have feen Christ in the flesh, and to have heard St. Paul preach, makes his third wifh, to have feen Rome in ber glory; and that glory is not yet all loft, for what pleasure is it to fee the monuments of Livy, the choiceft of the hiftorians of Tully, the best of orators; and to fee the bay trees that now grow out of the very tomb of Virgil?

Dr. Thomas Wharton, an eminent phyfician and excellent anatomift, and Gresham profeffor of phyfick. He lived in Alderfgate-ftreet, London, and died 1673. Athen. Oxon. 522.

C 2

Thefe,