come to fee her Arbours and Aviaries so naturally dress'd up in the Shades of the Forest and perfum'd with Fragrancies from the redolent Meadows of Trent besides the pleasant Prospect it has into the cultivated Fields in the fruitful Vale of Belvoir then would you say that Nottingham is the Magazine for Cheshire and Lancashire and the daily supply of those Mountainous Parts in the Peak of Derby-shire These are those Ports where the Angler and Ingenious never yet entred without sober Accommodation let us therefore first consult the Virtuoso's of the Rod afterwards sweeten our Ears with Rhetorique from Apollo Th. As you have given us a fair and large Character of Nottingham so have you been as copious in your practical Experiments of Angling and brought to Test the undeniable Assertions of Truth not imaginary Fragments nor Romantick Fictions stoln or suggested by plundring Plagiaries Now every one knows that Ignorance emulates Art and Impiety above all things abominates Devotion Tradition also that truckles under Forms and Hypocrisy and Flattery are Time's Apostates But Science and Experience are the confirmation of Eye-sight and Truth the Standard of Divine Speculation By these we proportion the Measures of Vertue which is found by him that treads the Tracks of Wisdom and wades through the profound Depths of Patience for as he that devotes himself to a solitary Life lives a Life most congruous to Devotion so he that devotes himself to Piety lives a Life analogous to Contemplation For what signifies the Court but to remonstrate the Prince his Magnificence and the Palace but to heighten his Enjoyments On the other hand where Humility is celebrated to Piety there Content dwells every-where in an humble Breast and Humility and Penitency like Links concatinate content themselves with the garb of a Cottage Thus we may read the State of the World but that which I always approved of as the best State was to seek the Blessings of Content in every Condition Then welcome Woods Rocks Rivers Groves Rivulets nay it 's possible the very Shades of a Forest in some measure answer to the Comforts of Life and Life answers to the Ends of the great Creator Consider therefore that the Soul 's great Diadem is Christ and Christ by Wisdom and Sanctification every Christian knows is God And who but God created this stupendous Creation and drest up this imbelish'd Fabrick of Heaven and Earth when he made the Majesty of his Invisibility visible and placed Man in this sublunar Orb to conduct and manage his Fellow-creatures But Man imprudently transgressing in not answering the glorious Ends of his Divine Creation in Obedience to the Commands of the Sovereign Decrees of God the Almighty discharged him the Soveraignty of Government so exil'd him from the glorious Sun-shine of Paradise Of whom if you please let us have an account But I wonder at one thing to me it 's a Paradox Ar. What 's that Th. You writ your Book in 58 and spread the Net to 85. Ar. What if I do I lived in the Reign of five Kings and in the Time of four great Worthies Th. Was O. P. one Ar. I leave that Bone for you to pick. But this I assert that great English Hero was exemplary in Piety eminent in Policy prudent in Conduct magnanimous in Courage indefatigable in Vigilancy industriously laborious in Watchings Heroick in Enterprize constant in Resolution successful in War one that never wanted a Presence of Mind in the greatest Difficulties all the World owns him for a great General that influenced all Europe gave Laws to all neighbouring Nations and disciplined France with English Arms. Th. These are great Encomiums Was the Lord R. one Ar. That great Man of Worth and Honour was truly Vertuous the Patriot of his Country and the Glory of the Court beloved of the People and a lover of Piety who left Legacies of Love to the surviving Natives when he sealed his Death with noble English Blood Th. Was Col. A. S. one Ar. That great Soul was too great for the World whose Life in a manner was a continued Death signified by those Trophies of War he carried about him He died but to teach his Country-men the easy Methods of honourable Dying to the astonishment of Mankind and foreign Ambassadors Th. Was Alderman C. one Ar. That brave and worthy Citizen to his eternal Praise sealed London's Magna Chart a with a Christian Exit and a Voice from Heaven Therefore put no more questions for the Aenigma is explained but begin where you left off so let us conclude Th. Then I 'le only desire a Description of Man Arnoldus his Meditation Ar. Adam as an Angel in the Shades of Paradise typified his Creator then it was that this mortal State seemed Immortal and Man because a Signature of this admirable Creation was made to live by that Life that made him for it was the Will of the Supreamest that made him to shine a Ray of the Majesty upon him and generate in him the glorious beauteous Ray of Himself But this was done when the Divine Majesty made Man absolute Lord and commissioned him Conduct over all the Creatures So that Adam was now a Divine Substitute because the Divinity had divinely inspired him and stamp'd the Impress of his Royal Signet upon him the lively Emblem and Character of Himself whereby to demonstrate in him a Sovereign Power over all the Families of Creatures that God had made and by Wisdom bless'd in this stupendous Creation So that you may read Adam was made in the Likeness of his Maker but he begot in his own Likeness This was once the blessed State of Adam and a regenerate State to be born again in Spirit is the same with us now for Primitive Purity can never be blotted out by National Impiety Nor shall Age nor Time nor Death it self vacate the Lustre and Glory of Christianity for as the Donation of Purity is the Royal Act of him that 's pure and lives for ever so the Piety of Christianity shall out-live all Ages to the utmost Limit and Period of Time Where note the Primitive Times have liv'd till now and that that begot Time in the Bosom of Eternity is Christ in us the Hope of Glory Why then do Christians violate their Faith Does it become us to enslave it by Lust A proud Faith is as great a Contradiction as an humble Devil The glorious Hope we have of Paradise incites and invites Believers to the Duty of Repentance and Repentance leads on to a humble Submission to cruciate our selves and this temporal State that naturally resigns upon every Assault of Death for all complicated Elements melt into Obscurity Shall the Clay rebel against the Potter that moulds it Shall Man resist his Maker that made him Shall the Vice of the Times vote against Heaven and Impiety provoke us to mutiny against the Deity Must we learn no Language but Oaths and Imprecations and denounce no Dialect but the Rhetorick of
Hell Can no bounds be put to luxurious Ambition nor any Limit to the impudent Impostor who has not considered the Body sometimes diseased and how Death stands ready to blot out the Character of Life so that if ill Symptoms but happen to invade us the Grave immediately stands gaping to devour us Nor can our Limbs any sooner be touched with the Cold and icie Finger of Death but our vital Fires begin all to extinguish and the glorious shining Sparks of Life look languid and dim and so by degrees lose their sparkling Lustre Then it is that the natural Artifice of Men and Means suddenly forsake us and the secret Subtilties of our deceitful Hearts basely and cowardly renounce and desert us And then it is that our truckling Faith prostrates a false Heart on the cold and frozen Altar of Despair which formerly was the common Factorage and Receptable of impure Flames where we used to offer up adulterated Sacrifices with impious Adorations as the Athenians did to unknown Gods prophetically Prognosticating our merited Destruction So that now in a Clod or lump of Clay the lustre of Life is silently sealed up and secretly conveyed to the Sepulchres of Death and because translated from the beauteous Creation is made to cease from a natural State and embrace Corruption and the putrid Grave in eternal silence where we shall never see Light nor Day any more nor with Sorrow or Reluctancy look back upon the anguish and anxiety of those we formerly persecuted by unjust Sentences when as Judges we sat and perverted Judgment yet would seem to appear as Angels of Light But strip'd and stark naked the World now inspects us and all those Graces that naturally adorn'd us discover themselves but personal Deformities So that Disease finds as little difficulty to attempt us as Death to encounter and overcome us For have not our sensual Guards all declin'd us and the Arguments of Sense and Reason revolted from us Every Instrument and Organ has reclaim'd its natural Function whereby we perceive our selves deserted by the active shining Motions of Life and doom'd to Death by the Law of Sin we subscribe to the fatal Decrees of Mortality O fatal flattering Impiety where 's all those specious Pretences of Purity that link'd and intail'd our suborn'd Inclinations to the gaudy Temptations of luxurious Honour What if every Man had the Wealth of a Monarch and as great as Alexander in Empire and Dominion and suppose his Domesticks as numerous as the World yet Death would arrest him and send him Summons to appear before Heaven's high Tribunal where he must answer for himself and not another for him whilst Conscience as a bold and daring Accuser will accuse him for the Deeds done here in the Body So that as our Work was here upon Earth such also will be our Reward in Heaven But how sad will it be when to behold the Portals of the New Ierusalem firmly bolted and barrocaded against us when to hear the dreadful and irrevocable Sentence of eternal Excommunication pass upon us to be utterly secluded Society with the Saints and denied Community with the blessed Angels that perpetually triumph with Seraphick Hallelujahs as the Seraphims and Cherubims with heavenly Ejaculations whilst we are made to grope in Darkness unutterable and to lament there the Impiety of Life and debar'd Repentance after Death because to reject it when proffred unto us for in the Grave there 's no Contrition nor after Judgment is there any Revocation This is a sad and deplorable Sentence beyond the reach of Sorrow to contemplate for if but to consider the Janglings in Hell and the murmuring Complaints of the Damned in Torments that belch out Blasphemies to confirm their Impieties and by spiritual Pride prophane the Beauty of Holiness and would if possible corrupt the Creation prostituting to Idols and the Ides of Time and as much as in them lies pervert and poison the Sacred Oracles of Judgment and Justice But what Tongue can express the glorious Raptures and beatifical Visions the Saints enjoy with the Seraphick Harmony of the blessed Hierarchy whilst Penitents pass by the Gates of Hell to the heavenly triumphant Joys of Eternity O what Love so convincing and stupendously manifest as a Saviour to die for unregenerate Sinners to affix himself to the Cross of Death to fasten our Souls to Eternal Life to load his Body with the Burden of Sin to purchase for Sinners the Seal of Redemption This is that great and sublime Elixir that transmutes our Nature into Divinity Time into Eternity and our Souls into Himself from which supereminent Heavenly State there 's no relaxation but an intire Unity and Community with God for ever and ever to all Eternity For as Light is inseparable from it self nor can Darkness co-mingle or incorporate with it such is the Soul that is truly sanctified and sprinkled with the Blood of this Miracle of Mercy that never for the future can be separated from its Saviour but as Sin hates the Light because the Light discovers its Darkness so Light because it 's the Standard of Truth not only discovers but dissipates the Darkness The Lamb of God is the Light of the World that for ever shines and for ever frees the penitent Soul from the Shades of Darkness How great therefore must that Light be that enlightneth the World and every Man that cometh into the World Now the true State of Felicity is only attainable by Faith in Christ and Faith directs to the Portals of Humility Humility to Piety and Piety leads on to the Duties of Charity by a religious resignation of our inglorious Will to the Glory of his Will that bore our Burden of Sin on the Cross. Here let us sigh down if possible the Sins of the Age as Christ by the virtue of his pure Divinity depress'd those Mountains of Sin in the World then in obedience to this great Example let us cruciate our selves the better to enable us to triumph over Death for to conquer Self forceth the Devil to recoil and to render the Vanities of this World contemptible is to lead Hell and Captivity captive which none but Christ can do and has done yet ought we to imitate our Leader as true Volunteers of the Cross if we hope to imbrace the Royal Sanctions of him that bore his Cross in a bloody Shower for the Redemption of Mankind This I recommend to the Christian Reader that follows the Lamb the Captain of our Salvation Th. By this most excellent Description of Man he labours I perceive under great Anxiety till Christ affix him by his Sovereign Ray of Light whereby to illuminate and sublime his immortal Soul into the everlasting Arms of himself the glorious Being of his all-glorious Father where Time shall be no more for Time is but the Child of Eternity as is Generation the Child of Time Generation therefore devolves in Time and Time results in the Arms of Eternity But Eternity is the Beam
and confine them with Barrocades of Rocks and Sand Who made those stormy Winds to blow and those boisterous Hurricanes the Rage of the Almighty so tempestuously to roar and roll themselves on the Face of the Deeps O what Hand except the Divinest could make Mortal immortal and bring Salvation from the Loins of Iesse Can the Shades of Darkness speak the Wonders of thy Praise or the Night discover the Eye-lids of the Morning that when the Sun prepares his Course like a Giant will the Clouds clap their Hands and the Stars and Constellations shout for Joy But the Dead shall arise and Mortality shall be clothed with an immortal Livery that shall never tarnish nor never diminish but survive and out-live the Ides of Time and flourish when Time shall be no more Then let us consider our present State the Shortness of Time the Vanity of Things and how light all our Services and best Performances weigh in the Ballance Let us also consider the Morning-Star the illustrious Aurora is rising upon us and then it will be a perpetual Day Let us imprint on our selves the Characters of our Eminent Ancestors but above all the lively Sufferings of our blessed Saviour on the Cross and no longer paddle in these Puddles of Sin nor stumble in the Face of the Sun at Noon-day for wounding our selves by Sin makes our Saviour bleed afresh We have excellent Precedents that of David notwithstanding his Integrity and that other of Solomon tho the Prince of Wisdom of Hezekiah too tho a very good King of Iosiah and others of Paul a Convert of Peter a devout Reluctant of Iob's Patience Moses his Meekness Abraham's Faith all these were Men besides hundreds more in holy Writ now eminent Saints whose Pieties like so many Trophies hang up aloft in the new Ierusalem to adorn that Beautiful and Divine Habitation where the Lamb is the Light and where no Darkness can approach nor Night close the Casements of their Eyes any more nor the pale Aspect of Death the second time seal the Indenture of a profound Silence Consider it seriously for Piety is good Policy and a holy devout and penitent Life no Impediment to a vertuous Christian And so good Rest Theophilus that sleeps in silence Theoph. Silent I am but not asleep nor do I dream when I contemplate the everlasting Praise of the great Creator How quickly has the Night dismantled her self of those shady Sables that covered Day and concealed the flaming Steeds of the Sun when advancing to approach our Northern Horizon Arnold Come then let us rise and shake off Security for as Sleep is no solid Direction to point out to us the Way to Heaven so Death tho at a distance is no long Reprieve nor assured Protection from the Grave Theoph. Our former Ancestors lap'd not themselves in Downy Quilts but made the Earth their common Reception But this Age degenerates from Potentates to Pedanticks and carnally devote their Services to every idle and voluptuous Fancy Do we not see with what Eagerness some Men pursue all dishonest Actions whilst some others under the Consideration of Riches hug a conceal'd Joy in their ill-got Treasures whereby they contrive the Calamity of the Poor and at the same time rejoice at the Misery of the Orphan whose Morsel they swallow down as greedily as they devour the Widows Habitation Thus some contrive Calamity and sin by whole-sale magnifying their Ambitions more than Men when at the same time they dwindle into Morts Arnold But if Beginnings have Periods as certainly they have the Poor will rise up in Judgment against such and a Jog of Conscience besides the Consequence of Blood attend their Door Their Favourites and familiar Flatterers then will dismiss themselves and vanish like a Mist and the dark Night of Horror overshadow all their Enjoyments Their delicate and delectable Morsels will melt into Moonshines and themselves transform'd into Dust and Ashes This is the Lot and will be the Fate of all those that pervert Blessings into profane Impieties But I forget my self for the Sun appears and the Day will suddenly gain ground upon us let us arise and fit our selves for a solitary March Theoph. We shall soon be ready it 's only dismounting our Apartments to mount our Horses What shady Groves are those and what wandring Object 's that that courts the Sycamores and talks to the silent Rocks as if there were a Remorse in Stones surely it 's Agrippa Arnold I 'm of your Opinion what makes him there Theoph. I know not except he 's come to summons us home Arnold Pray examine him I think it 's thrice three Months since the last time I saw him Theoph. Shall I call him to us Arnold Prethee do Theoph. Agrippa from whence comest thou Agrippa From the flourishing Fields in Albion Theoph. What 's the News there this is an Age of Inquisition Arnold So it is have you brought us any thing Agrippa I 'm no competent Judg of the Times nor of National Affairs but I 'll present you with some Books and Letters Arnold Have you no Scheme of Modern Transactions nothing verbal Agrip. What can be discours'd of the Times and the various Projects of Men of the Times Arnold Recollect your Memory and refresh your self but when the Sun advanceth the Meridian repair to that solitary Grove where Theophilus with me will stay your coming besure you disappoint us not and bring your Narrative of all the Proceeds Theoph. I question not he will be very mindful Arnold Come then let us chat a while and discourse Rome divided among the Romanists Nay what will you say to see the Church look asquint at the Pope and Portugal to lift up his Heel to kick against his elder Brother of Spain It 's Madness rather than Manners to hear them wrangle and jangle about Religion when there 's nothing left on 't but bare Opinion which if you won't conform to they 'll stamp the Character of a Stelletto upon you or the bloody Impressions of an Inquisition Theoph. What no better Entertainments in the Spanish Court than such rough Salutes as Inquisitions and Stelletto's I should rather approve that Vertue in a Prince is the richest Diadem in his Crown and Clemency to his Subjects the vital part of his Kingdom more obliging than all the gilded Baits of Flattery Money it 's true is the Sinew of War and Honours and Dignities gaudy Accomplishments What of all this when all comes to all Honesty is the best Policy Arnold Let me tell you Theophilus Gold Chains best become great Men but not that Gold makes Goodness nor Dignity Greatness any otherwise than a Badg of Honour makes a Man truly honourable nor is Honour more legitimate than inherent Worth both spring from one Root originally and live above the Smiles or Frowns of Fortune Nor can such a Man be perverted that hates the nauciating Scent of a Parasite that disclaims against Pensioners that pick his Pocket and
down with me under the Shades of Rocks not far from the Brink of this Lough of Pitloil where we both Eat and Drank together till finding our selves sufficiently refresh'd and then I arose and took leave of this Honourable Peer so returned to the Boat again to steer my former Course as also to observe what interest the Lough would now afford me for those Hooks and Lines I left behind me But no sooner I had committed my self to the Boat and rowed to the Place where I left my Tackle but on a sudden and unexpectedly I was interrupted by the loud Acclamations of some on Shore that shouted and made Signals by beck of Hand because by this time I was almost out of distance advising my return Which I no sooner interpreted but hastned to the Shore as fast as I could for by their seeming disorder as I then apprehended some unexpected Accident had hapned amongst them So that I forcibly forced my Passage through the thickest Waves and being by this time arrived on Shore I was entertained with the unwelcome News of my Land-spaniel's Indisposition but too late I found to rescue him from Death So reflecting on my self that Beginnings have Conclusions I directed my Steps back again to the Boat to recover my armed Tackle left behind on purpose to surprize such Fish as were shame-fac'd to bite before me Now this was the third Time I entred the Boat in order to pursue my Angling Enterprize when a fresh Summons alarms me from the ecchoing Shores to come back and testify another strange Accident not inferiour to the former because to stand by as an Evidence and see my Greyhound-Bitch lie a dying whom I presently found as stiff as a Stake or a Stump whilst as yet her Body was as warm as Wool nor could I say she was totally Dead yet I 'm sure she was altogether depriv'd of Motion So I hastned from the Morts and returned to the Lough to draw up my Lines which I left behind me and though having met with too such fatal discouraging Accidents with solicitations from this Honourable Person I pursued my first Intention so brought off my Lines and left the Lough in a foming Rage and now you shall hear what hapned on Shore Not far from this Lough stood a small Mountain whereon some Inhabitants had built a Kiln to which Place we directed a Servant for Fire that presently brought it but we hardly knew the use on 't before the Kiln was all in Flames and burnt so vehemently that in a short space the whole Fabrick was consum'd and burnt down to the Ground So I left my Recreation and took my leave of the unfortunate Pitloil And now give me leave to return to Drumkelbo-Castle and tho but ill contrived and as ill situated in regard it stands near to the Moor of Tipprofin yet not far from thence are the flourishing Fields of Mighill beautified and adorned with stately Sycomores as are her Meadows surrounded with Rivers and Rivulets In the midst of whose Plains stands a Parochial Church wherein lies interr'd the Royal Corps of King Arthur's Consort with the Reliques of some other weather-beaten Monuments that Age has almost blotted out but the Queen's Tomb I observed was surrounded with Martialists that when living so in Death paid Homage at her Princely Sepulchre These are those cultivated Fields of Mighill where King Arthur's Stone stands to this very Day It 's true because Traditional among the Antiquaries and why not as true because a Superstition amongst the Inhabitants who will tell you with as much Confidence as they mumble their Pater Noster or with as much Impudence as you can credit with ignorance that that very Stone was King Arthur's Table when his Royal Campaign encamp'd in those Fields which he left behind him as a Relique to Posterity Th. Or rather because he could not take it with him Ar. You will have your Joke I perceive however I 'le proceed to the pleasant Banks of Ilay where the Angler without difficulty may take a view of a large and spacious River of translucid Streams where a Storm seldom invades the Shores nor any immoderate Winds much to incommode them in regard the Water runs most on a level and the Banks very blough more especially when attempting the Head of Reven where the Angler may observe most rapid Falls and stiff Streams which are seldom or never unaccommodated with Trout besides the generous Race of Salmon the Nature of whose Sex and Species this Opportunity presenting invites me to discover a most admirable Secret For as I was angling one time on a Sun-shiny Day in these limpid and transparent Streams of Ilay I was constrained in regard of the excessive Heat to relinquish her inflam'd sandy Shores to seek Umbrage where I could get it from some shady Trees but none I found there to harbour and relieve me However by this time I recovered a Meadow which generously commoded me with a Hauthorn-bush that Nature had planted by the River side which served me for Sanctuary whose dilating Boughs spreading as an Umbrella they defended me from the scorching Strokes of the Sun where also I lay closely conceal'd the better to inspect Nature's Curiosities For whilst reposing my self under this tiffany Shade of diversified Leaves and flourishing Twigs that hovered over the Brinks of this amorous Ilay on a sudden I discovered a very large Salmon leisurely swimming towards the Leeward-Shore and having considered the Sun at his Meridian I thought it needless to provoke her with Fly or any thing else more especially at such a time when I knew her indisposed to divert her self either with Food or Frolick Where note the more circumspectly I traced her with my Eye to pursue her the more and greater still was my Admiration because to mark her from Place to Place till at last I saw her arrive on a Bed of Sand which scarcely to my apprehension covered her with Water for I am confident it exceeded not the depth of one Foot where with her Tail she rigled to and fro so long and oft till I visibly discovered a flat slaty blewish Stone over which she oft-times contracted her Body Nature provoking her to eject her Belly which at last she accomplish'd to my surprizing Amazement But this was not all for as soon as that Project was performed by the Female with most accurate Swiftness she lanched her self forth into the more solid Deeps which was no sooner performed when as suddenly I recovered the view of another as afterwards will appear by the following Circumstances For out of that solitary and profound Depth of Water wherein the Female had concealed her self there sprung up a Male or something like him that swam directly as if hal'd with a Cord to that very Place where the former Fish had ejected her Belly but some call it Spawn and there performed such an admirable Office as you will hardly believe though I tell you the Truth Th. However this
is remarkable pray let us have it Ar. The Female I have told you has shot her Belly upon a large and blewish slaty Stone and the Male as by instinct to discharge his Office dilates his Fins and futters about till at last he directs himself over the ejected Matter where with his Nose as I then apprehended though I will not warrant Fish to have a Scent rooted as a Swine or something like it yet were the Waters at that time undisturbed when on a sudden and with a violent motion of Body he throws himself about invading the Calms with such a strong Ebulition as if some pondrous Stone had struck the Surface but it was not long e're I see him again though for the present he seem'd to me invisible And then my Observation led me curiously to observe him direct his Head to the former Place and contract himself after the same manner which the former Fish had formerly done This I visibly and plainly saw which together with his active and exerting Motion a spermatick Whiteness of a milky Substance issued from him not much unlike to jellied Cream All which Remarks I signally notified and by all the Circumstances my Judgment could direct to I concluded him the Milter because there to shed and scatter his Milt upon the ejected forementioned Belly which with my Eyes I then beheld and visibly saw and therefore take the boldness confidently so to report it Believe it that will refute it that can I know no better Evidence than Eye-sight But lest any Man through Obstinacy or a vain Incredulity arraign the Truth of this my Observation I 'le direct him a Precedent and go no farther than the Brood of Perch because both are barrel-bellied Fish and answerable in some measure to the Race of Salmon which if he do he may rationally conclude that Nature's Laws are alike to both Now the Milter because having discharged himself with some little Labour and as little Trouble suddenly recovers again the Depth of the Water with most accurate swiftness nor have I rarely seen a more violent Motion whose absence in a trice invites the Female Fish and she no sooner returns to the Place dictated beyond dispute by the Mediums of Nature which I think no wise intelligent Man will deny works a Trough like a Cistern in Sand or Gravel and as near as I could guess of about her own Proportion into which Trough with nothing save the spring of her Tail she jumbles and tumbles in the prima materia according to Aristotle but proxima materia if you credit Sandivogius who allows a visibility of the second Matter but not of the first so gently she cover'd it over with Sand and then left it to the great Luminaries for Vivification and the Seminals because having a prolifick Virtue and Life-quality innated in them Life inevitably shines forth after certain Days Accidents omitted because the Lustre of Life is a thing so sacred that the Lubeck of Conspiracy strikes to blot it out Thus much therefore as relates to the Progeny of Salmon I being an Eye Witness do boldly testify and as boldly divulge if Seeing be a good Basis for any Man's belief And this I believe and confidently assert and therefore report it to the World for a Truth Th. O how rare and admirable are the Secrets of Nature who useth no Engine nor Artificial Prescriptions Your former Relations seem Prodigies in Nature but this as if beyond her surpasseth admiration Ar. Nature made naked is nothign but Wonder and Scotland is a Kingdom and Country of Prodigies Look forward and behold that tott'ring Bridg we must pass over it to the Town of Eliot a small Country-Village one would think it dropt out of the Skirts of the Highlands And this is the Town where famous Leven Scotland's great General was surpriz'd in his Quarters by the English Cavalry Not far from this Bridg of Reven the Streams being translucid you may see under Water irregular Rocks and knotty broken stumps of Trees that stand in the Streams of famous Ilay Where the swiftness of the Current undermines the Sand and delves great Pits that secure the Salmon from the Sentence of Death except such as are destinated to die by the Decrees of Age or their own extravagant Prodigality in pursuit sometimes after fictitious Novelties as when they relinquish the Rocks in a Bravado to challenge Death by a different Fortune For then is the Time the prejudicate Native consults his Opportunity to put in execution that barbarous Practice of murdering Fish by Moon-shine as at other times to martyr them with the blaze of a Wisp and a barbed Spear Th. What are these Canabals or murdering Moss-troopers to surprize Fish by the Engine of Fire-light Such dark Conspirators sprung from the Mines in Florida Fawks or Cataline or some infernal Incubus Ar. These are those amorous Banks of Ilay so famously extoll'd for Diversion for in those solitary Streams you see before you by industry of Art and dexterity of the Rod I have had Trouts come ashore and leap in my Hand Th. That 's by reason they could leap no where else But how far have we now to the Bridg of Dean discours'd every where for the plenty of Trouts and if Fame be a true Oracle they tumble up and down there till the Artist pleases to exchange their Element and court them ashore by force of Arms. Ar. That 's the Place near those glittering Sands and rocky Foundations where you may observe the trembling Streams swiftly yet sweetly glide along but not as Cataracts to terrify the Fish by reason their Fall is so gently moderated amongst those knotty stumpy Rocks I call it a River enrich'd with Inhabitants where Rocks are Landlords and Trouts Tenants For here 's not a Stream but it 's furnished with Trouts I have angled them over from Stem to Stern and drag'd them forth Brace after Brace with nothing but a Hackle or an Artificial Fly adapted to the Season and proportioned to the Life Humor but the Fish and you have his Life and that 's as much as you can promise your self O the Diversion I have had in these solitary Streams believe me Theophilus it surpasseth Report I remember on a Time when the Clouds let fall some extravagant Drops which in a manner discoloured the Surface of the Water then it was that amongst those stony Cisterns where you see the Tops of the Rocks make a visible discovery a little above that trembling Stream if you mind it there stands a stumpy craggy Rock peeping perceptibly out of the Water From thence and above those slaty Foundations I have struck and killed many a Brace of brave Trouts a Reward beyond my Labour and Expence Th. I question it not but what 's here the Arcanum of Angling Ar. Yes sure and the Treasure lies in those trembling Streams that come tumbling down to wash the Cheeks of those pallid Rocks from whence they gently glide along with generous
prefer the Goose to the Gossander and vie the Hog with the Hind It 's true some hug and imbrace the Vision of remote Novelties because to fancy that Distance and Difficulty make things rare so it may well enough for it makes them dear And what would it signify to a rural Palat was that Palat by foreign Curiosities daily impos'd upon Besides it 's Treason in the abstract against the Law of Bounty for any Man to imagine Partiality in Nature since every thing is destinated by an immutable Decree to answer the primary Ends ordained The great Work-master needs no contribution from the Mine to enable him to infuse Virtue into the Creation nor needs he to borrow any thing from the Creature since the Creature is only the marginal Note of the Universe the Creation it self being the stupendous Volume But as every thing naturally adheres to its own Like and Semblances partake of their own Properties Stars then were not made meerly to gaze at nor Elements but as Vortrices for corporeal Reception otherwise how could Birds divide their ambient Air or Fish force a Passage through the fluctuating Ocean where sometimes the treacherous Net betrays them yet so resolv'd are they with contempt to Cruelty that they scorn to petition a Reprieve for Life but rather submit themselves to be tortur'd to Death by the tormenting Hand of the scarifying Cook that dispenseth with Art to elevate the Appetite if when only to make it pleasant to a generous Acceptation But to look for the Perch you need not go far to seek him that is to be found almost any where if you please but to step to the Suburbs of the Streams of Trent or the solitary Deeps near the rapid Streams in most Rivers and Rivulets in the Circle of England if examined at the Bottom for you may search and find him under hollow Banks Eddies Pools Miln-Pits Turns of Streams at the Tales of Sluces Flood-gates and back-Waters near to the Stumps of Trees Wier-heads Stanks Candocks and Bull-rushes but if there be any ruinous Decays there you will certainly find him that is to be found Indeed one would think him a piece of an Antiquary because he loves to be rifling among Ruins Now presupposing you have found him what is next to be done that ought to be considered in regard it 's the Angler's Care and Study to accommodate him like an Artist with what he loves But you will ask me what that is And I readily answer and tell you not with coarse Tackle nor a slovenly Bait for though the Carp is not squeemish nor the Perch shame-faced yet he hates Rudeness coarse Tackle and slovenly Commons greatly admiring Dew-worms if well depurated Cankers Caterpillars Cod-worms Grubs Brandlins Minews and the junior Fry of small Fish these Novelties affect him to a change of Element who lays down his Life for what he loves But the Charm of all Baits that invites him ashore as Fancy is seldom unfurnished with Invention is that truculent Mortal the Gild-tail which sooner than any thing sends him a Summons of Death for which at any time he shall give you his Life and that is as much as the World has to part with nor hath he any more than himself to give Now let the Angler that would fish for Perch The Turns in Rivers and back-Waters search In deepest Lakes the largest Perch you 'l find And where the Perch is Kind will answer Kind BREAM The Bream though we grant him a flegmatick Fish and a Fish as naturally as any Fish addicted to Ease and Idleness yet he enjoys himself as much in limpid Streams as other Fish do that seek Sanctuary in solitary Lakes And as he hates rambling far from Home so he abhors Correspondency with those that do contenting himself with torpid Streams and hugs his Fancy in solitary Deeps Trent I have observed for the Race of Bream may challenge all England nay all Europe for ought I know more especially near those Streams that wet the Ports of Gainsborough where sometimes he washeth his Fins with the Eagre and arrives there to that amazing bigness that I blush to report it lest the Reader should suspect me Indeed the Bream is an excellent Companion if you can but get him into humour to bite which may easily be done if you do but treat him with the compost of Paste for that will insinuate him into the Pie where his Bones will absorp and his Flesh amalgamize with fresh sweet Butter which being dissolved will entertain you with a nutricious Liquor that for phlegmatick Humours is both Physick and Diet. I never knew any Angler except it was one that singly devoted himself a whole day's Diversion in order to court and entertain this Fish nor do I remember him inroll'd in the Angler's Catalogue among the first Classis of dignified Fish For that end therefore as I intend brevity in his Description so give me leave to shew you the readiest way how to surprize and take him But then you must consider him no constant Companion for all Constitution of Rivers and Rivulets though our Southern Streams frequently enjoy him except otherwise they prove too rapid and forcible for if so then he takes up his Residence in calmer Streams that enamour him with Bull-rushes at other whiles with Candocks whose Recreation is little more than the limits of his Confinement from whence he seldom extravagants himself until compell'd from thence by the Mediums of Art as at other times by Inundation or Deluges of Water that send him sometimes a Goal-Delivery But the variety of Baits to allure this Fish being so numerous and various I shall confine my self only to a few which upon examination will be found effectual Compound therefore a Paste as formerly described of Honey intermingled with a little Brandy Bean-flower and the Yolk of an Egg which you may if you please tinge with Gambogium Vermilion c. This Bait sometimes as soon as any thing entices him ashore But in regard he is a Fish inconstant as to Diet some therefore feed him with Gentles and not without good Success some others with Grubs and othersome with Caterpillars but better is that of Cod-worms and sometimes any thing will do if he be in Humour But then you are to consider he loves early rising and is ready for Breakfast by break of Day so that if his Commons affect him and you so fortunately happy to meet with a cloudy gloomy Morning you may engage him for ought I know to keep you Company till the solitudes of Night which a well-scoured red Worm will sometimes do and so will Cheese for he loves the Dairy but all the World cannot make him Fly-proof yet a Brandlin makes his Teeth water But the Gild-tail as above is such an invincible Charm that all his Powers cannot withstand it but he will come ashore in despight of Death Now if the Angler fish in Thames for Bream Or famous Trent ne're let him search a Stream
to encounter the Philistines Theoph. That Authority that tolerates Solomon to have Wisdom the same Authority concludes Saul inquisitive after Witches Arnold Admit it does what then that Power that gives Life a Being is indisputably more noble than the thing that has Life God created the World and by Wisdom animated it with Life so that Life shines every where in every Individual this is manifest to every Man and every Creature that breaths in the Creation Theoph. This I agree in but I can't reconcile my self to your Opinion that Solomon and Saul's Case run in parallel Lines Lucifer and Michael though Stars of the first Magnitude yet they paid not equal Adoration to their sovereign Superiour Arnold I don't question but you will grant that nothing has Life of it self but from something else that 's eminently superiour That the World is governed by Divine Providence and that every Beginning is destinated to Death in time Theoph. All this I grant what infer you from thence Arnold I infer and observe you are somewhat too severe in censuring Saul's Sin by the Rule of your Judgment unpardonable Now for one Man to take upon him to judg another he betrays his Rashness because his Judgment is not infallible Theoph. I know where it pinches you 'll hinge upon Mercy Arnold I must tell you that God is a merciful Judg whose Mercy as recorded is above all his Works and a Mystery so sacred and secretly conceal'd that Angels themselves dare not pry into it How then shall Man discover this admirable Arcanum of Mercy when lock'd up in the secret Cabinet of Heaven Let us not assume such previous Conjecturals but rather consult and expostulate Death since Death is the Wages and the Reward of Sin Man and the World terminate in the Arms of Death because they alike consist of elementary Principles But Death will be found the Extinguisher of Life except that Life that 's lighted by the Torch of Regeneration that Life will outlive the second Death Theoph. But you 'l agree in this that a vicious Man living and reigning in Sin all the Days of his Life his Life may be taken for a living Death Arnold I 'll comply with any thing except Censoriousness for that end trumpet not Solomon's Praise too loud lest the Eccho resounding ecchoes Ostentation On the other Hand not to hope an Indemnity for Saul we straiten God's Mercy which is infinitely boundless So let 's leave it to the Judg of all the World for if the World be left to determine this Case she 'll denounce a false Judgment because of her Partiality Nay she may be suspected uncharitable too and such are we if Children of the World because subject to err by the Rule of Instability Theoph. You bear hard upon me yet I 'm loth to give up the Cause there 's little or no Difference in the length of our Weapons but this I 'll say so drop the Argument Solomon was an Oracle of Wisdom and Learning and the blazing Star that shin'd in Ierusalem And Saul was a King and the first King in Israel but then he was that King God gave in his Wrath which was soon after removed for David stood in Saul's way Arnold So did Vriah in his when inamoured on his Wife Theoph. But David was a Prophet and a Man of God and Saul was censured for his impious Exorcisms as if the Tincture of Regeneration was obliterated in him Arnold God forbid that the Sting of Sin should be so venemous a Poison that no Antidote can cure it Did not the Lord of Life die to conquer Sin and Death and Hell in every Believer Let us be so charitable as to parallel Saul with Sampson who had his Dalilah as Saul had his Endor Here we read that David found Repentance after the Prophet's Reproof And Sampson had his Satisfaction upon the Lords of the Philistines These two had their Pardon feal'd before Death and fain would I be so charitable to conclude so of Saul Theoph. Ay but Saul's Fault is writ in Capital Characters Arnold That 's instituted for our Admonition and the Reformation of succeeding Generations Theoph. O Arnoldus the Generations to come will abominate this that inflames it self to set the rest of the World on fire Arnold Then let them burn and consume one another for Lust and Pollution augment the Flames Theoph. Do not all the Nations and Kingdoms about us exhaust their Treasures to indulge themselves and devote their Services to the Hypocrisy of the Times Arnold It 's rare to a Miracle to find Faith amongst Men especially such as daily expose Conscience to the wreck of Opinion And he that makes a God of his Belly devotes all his Services to his luxurious Appetite Thus Men as by Machination traduce one another into the Devil's School to brazen themselves against the Modesty of a Blush lest Sin should be thought to be shame-fac'd And others raking up the Embers of Revenge fire themselves by quenching the Flames Theoph. So let them But what 's all this to our Angling Design Arnold Stay a little till we come to the Water-side In the mean time I have a Question to put and that 's this How comes it to pass that the Hinge and Poize of Politick States move and turn about with such rapid Motions that Kingdoms and Potentates are dash'd in pieces Theoph. The Naturalist we see him consult Natural Causes and the Judicial Astrologer Planetary Events but the more Religious devotes himself to the Providence of God Is there not a Time for Frost and a Time for Hail a Time for Rain and a Time for fair Weather a Time for Revolution Dissolution and Death and all these Times and various Changes are exercised by him that holds the Poize and Ballance of Government That Naturalist therefore that concludes a Divinity in Celestial Influences does but grope in the dark and the Astrologer pins his Faith upon other Mens Sleeves Arnold You tread upon the Heels of my former Assertion Theoph. What if I do I hope not to hurt you The Prince of this World rules in the Air insinuating himself into the Heart of Man from whence comes War and the Rumours of War as Rapine Ravages Murder and Blood Does not Pride strut up in the Face of Piety and Hell presume to justle Heaven And can Good and Evil think you run in parallel Lines No Arnoldus I perswade my self this Age lives within one Step of Destruction were it not upheld by an Almighty Providence Arnold O the Subtilty of Man's Heart that nothing but Arrows from the Almighty can reach it Theoph. He that reads his own Heart without a Perspective reads all the World but to know God is Life eternal and that 's more than the World knows because wanting the Key of Knowledg Arnold Man is like a Ship in a turbulent Sea where every Wave threatens him with Death and every Gust of Wind one Step to his Grave How mindful therefore ought
he to be of Well-living which answers the Ends of Well-dying Theoph. Divinely alluded Man therefore by how much the more honourable he is than the rest of his Fellow-Creatures by so much the more nobly and divinely ought he to be exercised in the Piety of Christianity and Self-resignation Arnold This is good Advice but still methinks I see a Storm coming not that I prognosticate another Revolution No no rather a Desolation by Sword or Famine for Sin like a Granade tears up all before it and rips up the Foundation of Kingdoms and Common-wealths Theoph. It is true Sin is the original Cause of all National Calamity and there is no Satisfaction for Sin but the Death of a Saviour The Cross must purchase the Crown The old Man must die to seal the Regenerate Birth What have we to do but consider the transitory State of things and the Stability of that that gave them a Being Here 's nothing but rumbling and jumbling about us till he come whose Right it is to reign and subdue all Monarchs and make their Thrones his Footstool Arnold By this prophetick Discourse methinks I smell a strong Scent of Invasion But where the Storm will fall God he only knows Are not the Nations about us like an Acaldemy of Blood that darkens the Air and terrifies my Pen to write such dismal and tragical Apprehensions Will not the Sword Plague and Famine contend for a Victory O how sad will it be to see the Father fall by the Dint of Sword the Mother crawl by the infected Walls of a Pesthouse and the poor innocent and comfortless Infant perish in the Streets and pine away with Hunger Three such meciless and unsatiable Conquerors and all to keep the Field at once will totter the strongest Camp in Christendom Theoph. Then where 's our Security and what signifies the Strength or the Artifice of Man when God has a Controversy with the Kingdoms of the World The Christian's Arms then will prove the best Security He that cruciates his Lusts outlives the Vice of Impiety Arnold What then becomes of him that throws Vertue into the Embracements of Vice and prostitutes Justice before every clamorous Derider that lifts up the Standard of Impiety to justle Religion and profanes the Altar by superstitious Adorations that mounts Ambition on the Theatre of Luxury and Hypocrisy and opposes the Gospel and Divine Oracles to humane Tradition and the vain imaginary Inventions of Men that in Defiance of Heaven opens the Portals of Hell and advances the Curse instead of the Cross What must we conclude from such dreadful Consequences but that God will tear the Nations in pieces Theoph. There was a Time when the Law shin'd bright yet at the same time the Gospel shin'd behind the Horns of the Altar but in this our Time neither Law nor Gospel shines the Divinest then had his Residence in the Sanctum Sanctorum but Hell is let loose now and Heaven violated with Oaths and Imprecations Arnold The Times were bless'd in those Halcion Days when our Patriarch Iacob was clothed with Innocency but in this our Day we are all turn'd Esau's to pursue the World and inconstant Vanities And though no Gospel-Star then shin'd amongst them nor was Christianity known in their Courts it 's well if we that are Christian-Professors live up to the Practice of sound Morality Theoph. We read in the Sanhedrim that the Seed of Hagar stood in opposition to the Seed of Sarah But Abraham's God will dwell in Tents rather than in Temples with the Prince of this World Yet Rachel had her Idols who adds Sacrilege to Idolatry by taking away or stealing those of her Fathers Arnold When the Turk turns Christian there 's Hope the Persian will fight under the Banner of the Cross. Theoph. Then he 'll be fit to turn Roman Catholick to stamp the Cross on every Service and Vengeance with a Semiter on the Breasts of Protestants to immure their Proselytes betwixt Stone-walls so starve them to Death under Pretence of Sanctity and because not to die a violent Death the Anchorite fancies he dies not at all Is not this a fine way to mortify the Flesh when at the same time they 'll surfeit with Fish that grope in the dark at Noon-day and hold up a Taper to illuminate the Sun that like Spiders they 'll unravel their own Bowels though it be but to entrap a silly Insect Arnold I look on the Hierarchy of the Church of Rome like Men that encounter a blasted Fate Where Priests are Saints Bells but defective of Sound and Oracles at the Altar but dumb in Explanation that kindle their Tapers to blaze in the Temple and consecrate Sacrifices without a Blessing so cover their Nakedness with a Babylonish Garment Where Mattins are metamorphosed into Masquins Collects translated into Collations and St. Anthony's Bells into nocturnal Cabals These are the Men that can mode Religion and dress it up to humour the Times Theoph. Religion of late is very much discours'd and after some sort crept into most Mens Mouths but least in practice of any thing practicable If they tell you that Asians are Athenians you are bound to believe them and that Turks are Christians you cann't disprove them since France and the Port have been Confederates Nay there are some blear-ey'd Romanists under Pretext of Christianity will swear that to worship Images is no Idolatry And some others of such voracious Appetites that they 'll eat the Horse and digest the Stirrups And some amongst them I speak what I know are never satisfied till glutted with Spoil which exposes every Man to the Lust of his Adversary whose Power is as equal to restrain his Will as the Body to refrain from Drought in a Fever Arnold I make no doubt on 't we have Copernicans amongst us that can fancy the Earth as the Orbs turn round so rapid are the Minds of some in this Adultrous Generation to be winding and turning till He comes that will overturn and dissolve the Elements like Ice in warm Water so melt down the Creation with one single Blast and strike that dead that violates his Regal Commands The all-glorious beatifical Star of Heaven's high Tribunal is already risen in our earthly Horizon which virtually lifting up it self by magnetick Power lifts up our Souls also by a Magnetism of Divine Sympathy whereby we shall ascend above these muddy Cisterns of Earth and Clay to blaze aloft in those illustrious and most illuminated Mansions of Beatitude and Eternity Theoph. I grant what you say There are a sort of Men that flatter themselves with Self-righteousness and shape out Condemnation as a Reward to others that can spy the Mote that deforms their Brother's Eye but the Beam that shades their own is no Impediment Thus some gaze at their own Pageantry and too frequently answer their own Petitions that say to themselves All is well when nothing's well but what is ill that live so near the Portalls of Death
as if there were no Death in dying Such Men as these think the Sun shines Blessings no where but in their Chimney-corners that build their Habitation upon a sandy Foundation that judg and pre-judg both Moralist and Heathen that rather deserves their Pity and Charity and censure all the World when they themselves cann't live without it Arnold What crazy Props such Men lean upon that exchange their Profession for Profit If Christ be our Foundation let 's believe as Christians not barely to honour the Appellation of Christianity but live the Life and Practice of Christians otherwise we build on a sandy Foundation that sinks beneath the Surface or tumbles down in the Storm We daily observe the Earth a fix'd Body yet it bears not the Heavens nor it self neither because it hangs by Poize of its own and the Providence of God supports it For our blessed Saviour that made the World is the Support of the World for none less than he that made the World had Power to redeem Man and save the World This is the Water of Life that 's drawn from the inexhaustible Fountain of Christ our Redeemer This is the true Physician of Life that blots out the dismal Characters of Death Thus whilst the formal Christian draws Streams from the muddy Cisterns of the ambignous World his Devotion reaches no higher than himself and the gaudy Titles of Ambition and Hypocrisy Theoph. Shall I oblige Arnoldus to entertain us with a Contemplation of Seraphick Joys whilst the silent Night passes away and the blazing Torch of the Sun appears that causes an early Blush in Aurora Arnold Every Day has a new Birth but Time and the World had but one Beginning The Night was made to shadow the Day but the Sun to light and illuminate the Universe and this was ordain'd by the Wisdom of him that stuck the Stars in this beautiful Order before whose triumphant Throne the devout Penitent prostrates his Devotion and pours forth his Orizons and sweet Adorations in the Presence of that great and ineffable Good that made the glittering spangled Orbs and is himself the Light of the World before whom every Nation and Kingdom must bow or break whose Mercy infinitely excels all his Works and whose Justice and Judgment who shall dispute Theoph. O ArnolduS pray goon Arnold The Elements nay the Heavens contain him not nor is he comprehended within the circular Globe of the Spherical Orbs. These luminous Bodies of Sun Moon and Stars were ordained by him to light the Creation for he that made them gave them a Being and dignified them also with prolifick Virtue adapting them Parents of Vegetation Procreation and Prolongation of Life whereby to regulate and reform Times and Seasons as also to distinguish betwixt Summer and Winter The greater Light he made to govern the Day but the Moon he made to patrole the Night and that they have Influence upon secondary Causes no Man is so irrational I hope as to question it Theoph. For my part I do not pray proceed Arnold Thus the Stars and Constellations have Divine Order and Influence and the Celestial Powers and Principalities as Angels and Arch-angels Thrones and Vertues have Dominion also over humane Frailties And where the Patriarchs and the Prophets are with the Apostles and Evangelists with the whole Quire of Saints Cherubims and Seraphims perpetually singing Praises and Glory to him that sits on the Throne and rides triumphant on the Wings of the Wind. O let the silent Deeps and the ponderous Mountains with every thing that has Breath praise the Lord For the Earth is his and the Fulness thereof by whose Wisdom the World was made and Time begot and by whose infinite Power the separated Elements live still in Harmony who form'd the Fetus of Earth and made the Firmament its Swadling-band and in the vast Circumference of Heaven he hung up the glorious Creature the Sun whereby to illuminate and illustrate the World whose Centre nor Circumference contains him not nor the Excellency of his Glory that superexcels all Creatures and Creations from whom the deplorable Sons of Men wail for Deliverance and Redemption from Sin And now let 's contemplate the nocturnal Muses Sleep first presents us with an Emblem of Death yet is it the poor Man's Solace tho the rich Man's Terror A Repose and Recreation to the wearied Limbs but a Disease of Inquietude to the voracious Mind the Body's Requiem and Death's Effigies Now Death is the desired Hope of him that truly conteMplates the State of Immortality And as Mortality is the End of Sorrow so by Consequence it 's the Beginning of Joy A Period of Misery but the Trophy of Victory The Resurrection of Life and the Bloomings of Eternity For as the barren Ground thirsts after Rain so does the Oppressed seek Deliverance in Death Great and good is our glorious Creator whose Divine Excellencies superexcel the Creation whose infinite Wisdom display'd it self before Time and the World had as yet a Beginning Pardon my Presumption most sovereign Power when to prostrate my Humilities before thy sacred Shrines that with a holy Reverence and divine Piety all my Devotions may be acceptable to thee We are but finite but Thou art infinite Infinite in Power to create the World and infinite in Wisdom and Providence to uphold it Thy Government is in Heaven yet thou rulest upon Earth but thy Habitation here is the Tabernacle in Man O sacred Divinest direct us in thy Paths of Wisdom to lead us the ready way to thy self for thou rewardest every Man answerable to his Works and our Works as Paul saith do certainly follow us then will they as certainly be an Orb to environ us and because an Object continually before us we can neither evade nor shake them off whereby they 'll delight or be a Terror unto us As the Tree falls so it lies and in the Grave there is no Repentance therefore seek the Lord early in a Spirit of Meekness for the Meek are said to inherit the Earth whilst the Proud that exalts himself shall be abased Thy powerful Arm has often reached Deliverance the Righteous therefore shall rejoice in thy Salvation and all that sollicit thy Paths of Peace shall be found in their Duty as by Wisdom directed but Destruction as a Judgment is prepared for the Scornful Therefore let the Pious rejoice in his Hope for the End of the Wicked shall be an Abomination Lord when we contemplate our mortal State below and those invisible immortal Powers above blest for ever to behold the Glory of thy Majesty it brings us to consider the Beginnings of Time and to ruminate where we were when the Foundations of the World were laid and stretch'd out and who but thy self by Infinite Power fastened the Ends thereof and lifted up the Curtains of Heaven's glorious Canopy and caused the Face of the Firmament to shine Who but thy admirable Arm could separate Light from Darkness the Sea from dry Land
and dedicate both my Practice and Experience to your self purposing perhaps a farther Examination For since to find Fish so prodigal as to meet me half way what cause have I to doubt of carrying them to their Journey 's end Th. Here 's lucky Handsel for a young Beginner Ar. And you are that young Beginner pray accept of Handsel Th. Thanks Arnoldus if Thanks be Argument good enough to retaliate your Bounty But what must we think of those hovering Clouds Ar. I think they 'l bring us Summons of Night otherways I am loth to relinquish these pleasant Streams that divert the Angler with such profitable Entertainments Th. If the Night approach it 's time to withdraw but to withdraw from such sweet Diversion goes against the Grain Eden farewel Nay I 'le repeat it twice Farewel Eden With what reluctancy do I relinquish thy Smiling Fords though to solace my self in the Fortress of Carlisle Ar. You are shrewdly hurt Will Refreshment incommode you after the Toils of Recreation and your observation of this late Encounter invalidate the Art Ingenuously tell me what your Observation directs to Th. This I observ'd worthy my Observation that it was a Field fairly fought but I cannot say without loss of Life Ar. And I declare it a Conquest of an easy Purchase where Arms and Artillery the Rod excepted amounts not to Sixpence Th. Was it six Shillings what a Purchase is that to experience Art and tantalize Fish What 's the single hazard of a Hook and Line a valuable considerable Loss indeed to lose the Value of Two pence to purchase a Fish worth Ten pence Pray what is it more than earnesting the River with a Hook and Line to stem the Adventure which I value not a Rush was every Hair a Thread of Gold and the barbed Hook of superfine Silver I 'd expose the Worth on 't for the Fin of a Fish Ar. This Resolution surmounts the Adventure Th. Besides all this here 's another Observation well worthy our own and the Angler's consideration and that is our Labour and Travel it 's no more than a Walk to trample the deliciated and cultivated Fields on the fragrant Banks that bridle the meandring Streams O who would not solicite Patience to crown such charming Rewards intail'd upon Anglers in their solitary Recreations Instruct me dear Arnoldus in this liberal Art and ingenuously tell me how you took these Trouts Ar. With nothing upon Reputation but a natural Fly which I suddenly snatch'd from that slender Twig For if you remember my turning to that Bush I mean that Hawthorn that flourishes behind you there it was I discovered some Insects which properly to consult are as truculent as Death more especially in the Ides of April and May. It was only with Dracks that I kill'd these Trouts nor is there any Bait that excels it at the Tail of a Bush or the Brow of a Bank provided always you appear least in sight dibble but lightly on the Surface of the Calms you infallibly raise him and the better to secure him stand but close and you certainly kill him Th. This plain Discovery speaks both Theory and Practice Such Instructions as these except to an indigent Artist will indisputably compleat him an Angler in an instant Ar. Come then if you please let us lap up our Lines and trace these pleasant Fields to the Town of Carlisle where we may refresh our selves with the Country Curiosities Th. I think it very good and wholsome Advice to comply with your Motion for a Modicum For when the Water with Exercise extimulates our Stomachs I fancy Diet will relish better than Discourse and when we have closed-up the Orifice of our Appetites clean Linen I fancy will be very acceptable The for the Morning-Watch trust to my Diligence for I 'll rise with the Sun or it may be before Day to be in a readiness to survey this ancient City Citadel Castle Cathedral Ports Vanports Curtains Counterscarps Bastions Redoubts c. of all which I purpose a brief Description and that you may expect before our Departure Ar. You direct good Measures but let me first advise you to observe Access Situation and Strength the Complement and Resolution of their Armed Men their Arms also Ammunition and Artillery what stock of Provisions is stored in their Providors and whether Nature or Art challenges the Superiority in her Fortifications This is part of the Task you impose upon your self and by Noon be in readiness for our Departure about which time if I calculate right the Tide will commode us for our Northern Passage over the trembling tottering Sands In the mean time let not the Night nor our Sleep invade us nor our Watchings slide into wanton Embracements For the Watchman of the Night will declare against such and a Serpent conceal'd in the Secrets of Conscience shall gnaw and devour our Habitations with our selves Th. Vainly and profusely to lavish Time we but flatter our selves with sordid Delusions that vanish if but touch'd by the cold icy Finger of Death How in a trice Honours become fugitive before us and Mortality in a moment incorporates with the Grave Tissues and Orris Hangings become a Prey to the Moth and polish'd Pavements of Jasper with those others of Marble how quickly Time translates them into Tombstones Nay those Delicacies and Viands that surprized the Palat are by this also converted into nauseous Excrements So that upon the whole this Elementary Composition in conclusion results in Dust and Ashes Ar. It 's very true for did Man but consider the Instability of Transitory Enjoyments he might read himself more miserable in living than dying but there is a State tho unknown to the Ignorant that is too great and glorious for Mortals to purchase but Christ hath already done that for inglorious Man whose longest Progress of Life on the Stage of this World is no more than a Dream to the length of Eternity Th. Now the fair Star Aurora springs upon us I must be stirring Arnoldus you know I have set my self a Task to survey this City and Fortress of Carlisle which I purpose to describe Ar. That will be time enough about Noon Th. And it may be I can do it now as well Ar. Come then let us have it I see you 're in haste Th. Carlisle I have considered it but a little City a little Observation therefore shall serve to describe it However it 's a Fortification that 's true tho it stands in a Nook or more properly to call it a Corner of England whose Foundations are Rocky and surrounded with a Stone Wall At the South Entrance you may observe a small Citadel fronted with Stone and such are the Houses of the same Material nor are they much elevated into the Air where the Battlements are seen above the Houses which argues the Wall a serviceable Defence In the midst of the Market-place they parade their Guards And at the North-west End of the City stands
not all these mortal Signs of Submission Ar. And if he submits he dies without Redemption and Death you know is a total Submission Th. I 'le kill this Fish or forfeit my Reputation Ar. Take your Chance for I know you are resolute Th. I 'le take my Chance and return Victorious Ar. But there 's no Triumph you know till possest of the Trophies Th. And I am pretty near them was it not that one or two Stratagems strangely amuse me the one of them is the casting himself on the Surface as if designing thereby to cut my Line and the other his fastning himself in the Bottom thinking as I apprehend to tear all in pieces which if he do I lose my Reputation besides I grow weary and would fain horse him out Ar. You may do what you please you are Lord of your own Exercise the Law is in your Hand manage it with discretion Th. I 'le manage it with all the industry I have Ar. Do so and you will see the Event Th. Then have at all Ar. And what have you got Th. I have got nothing but the Foot-steps of Folly Ar. And Nothing out of Nothing is Folly in the abstract was not I Prophetick Th. An Oracle too true to confirm my Loss for what have I left nothing but Folly to lament and condole this fatal Conclusion to be rob'd by a Fish that I reckoned my Reward Is not this Felony to steal my Tackle and ruin an Angler but he 's mark'd for my own and let whose will take him I 'le challenge an Interest Ar. That 's very pleasant when another has catch'd him you 'l put in your Claim Th. So I will where-e're I find him for his Marks I am sure will certainly betray him Ar. As if he wore your Livery to no other purpose than to describe his Servitude Th. So he does for my Hook I am sure hangs still in his Chaps and part of my Line is entailed to it Ar. I thought all along what it would come to for I knew well enough there was nothing wanting but the exercise of Patience to kill this Fish Th. What would you have done had it been your Case Ar. I would not have handled my Play-fellow so rudely Th. What! you rather laugh at me than pity my Loss Ar. I pity the Fish to feed upon such sharp Commons Th. Peradventure the Hook may go near to choak him Ar. That it will never do nor hardly check him upon a fresh Entertainment Th. Why so will the Hook remain in his Chaps without Detriment to the Fish Ar. Some small Season it may remain but Time and Action soon discharges it For if when to consider his frequent Motion his continual gliding and glancing against Stones it loosens the part without Detriment to the Fish so that the Hook of it self leisurely drops off Th. How comes this to pass it's incredibly strange Ar. Yet not so strange as true that you have lost a Line as compleat a Line as Art could proportion it 's well you kept your Rod for I 'le assure you it 's exactly taper'd and as streight and plient as ever flourish'd a Fly to facilitate Death by Dâ—xterity But this artificial Novel you lost but now gives no more satisfaction to a voracious Appetite than a Witch's Banquet or the unlimited Desires of a wretched Usurer who never desists the pursuit of Riches till tantaliz'd like your Game to Death with a Trifle And now Theophilus I must reprove your Precipitancy because a great Error in young Anglers Patience must be moderated to promote the Art and Time procrastinated to proclaim the Angler an Artist These Precepts I have laid down oftner than once always provided your Swim be clear your Line long and strong enough then shall you see the Fruits of your Labour and the Fish himself act the part of a Felon that puts a Knife to his own Throat wherewith he secretly murders himself and that this Desperado had certainly done upon exchange of Elements so become his own Executioner who beyond dispute had struggled to strangle himself which without difficulty is easily and the more expeditiously done by frequently but cautiously exposing him to Air for that suffocates his Vitals whereby he necessarily falls under very fatal Consâ—quents And how little a thing blots out the Character of Life every one knows that knows Air is as Opium to force a sleepy Pulse that deprives of Motion and makes passage for Death Be mindful therefore to observe Directions in handling and managing your Rod and Line and cautiously keeping your self out of sight all which Precautions are requisite Accomplishments which of necessity ought to be understood by every ingenious Angler And so is that secret Art of Striking which ought never at any time to be used with Violence because with a moderate Touch and a slender proportion of Strength the Artist for the most part has best Success Another Caution you must take along with you and that is when you observe your Game begins to make an out that is when he bolts or when he launcheth himself forth to the utmost extent of your Rod and Line which a well-fed Fish at all times frequently attempts upon the least Advantage he gains on the Angler be mindful therefore to throw him Line enough if provided you purpose to see his Destruction yet with this Caution that you be not too liberal On the other hand too streight a Line brings equal Hazard so that to poize your Fish and your fore-sight together is by keeping one Eye at the Point of your Rod and the other be sure you direct on your Game which comes nearest the Mediums of Art and the Rules and Rudiments of your precedent Directions But this great Wound is easily solv'd for if when to discover your Fish fag his Fins you may rationally conclude he then struggles with Death and then is your time to trifle him a Shore on some smooth Shelf of Sand where you may boldly land him before his Scales encounter the Soil which he no sooner apprehends by the prospect of Death approaching as a dying Man that grasps every Twig because thinking thereby to save himself so will your Game extinguish his Strength and blaze out the Flames of his Life with a Struggle Another Expedient is the landing-Net or the Landing-Rod which I rather approve of let the Swim be deep or let it be shallow we direct this Artifice to amuse the Fish and facilitate his Destruction when he struggles with Difficulties Notwithstanding all this some Hazards must be encountred by the more Ingenious that flies high at his Game Incomparable Sport the Salmon makes and so did this for he made me laugh Th. Why so severe to run at my Misfortune take the Rod if you please and display your Skill I 'le defy all your Art to discover such a Fish though unfortunate I must confess to hazard my Reputation with such ill Success whereby to lose such an eminent
Encounter but I am come to that point of Resolution now that Fish that comes next but to smell my Hook shall prize the Scent on 't so long as he lives where an Inch of my Line shall cost him an Ell of his Life though he attempts to saw my Line in sunder with the ragged and jagged Teeth of his Tail Ar. And is this the Earnest you intend to handsel us with Such a small Stock of Experience will neither admit of general nor particular Directions to instruct and initiate Proficients in the Art to try their skill with a resolute Fish Reach hither your Rod and that Bag of Flies Now should Fortune contribute equal Success we need not despair of a hungry Breakfast however I 'le adventure and have in amongst 'em Did you see him show Th. Yes yes I see something make a Show and it may be Fish Ar. What a Fish with an it and a may be too stand close I advise you for he 'l rise again provided as hitherto he has made no discovery Th. What then will you discipline and teach him the Art of Invasion Ar. I 'le teach him to know that if one Element won't contain him another must so so I have him fast enough to distinguish the difference And now for the Landing-Rod to measure his Dimensions See where he lies and tell me how you like him can you think him as large as that you encountred Th. It 's no matter what I think it may be he 's Inferiour or it may be Superiour Ar. That 's modestly Ingenious to lessen your Loss by advancing my Reputation Th. And you more than fortunate to succeed so well shall we lap up our Lines and return to Dumfreez Ar. With all my Heart for the Clock strikes Ten and the Sun is in his Elevation towards the Meridian This is no time for farther examination till about four after Noon except in an obscure and clowdy Day for the Crisis and critical Time for Diversion is late in the Evening or early in the Morning Th. It 's enough I perceive your generous Motion moves me to wave the present Recreation On the other hand your Experience I must confess promulges the Art and your self an Artist All this I grant and more than this since to confirm this Evidence quickens my Appetite Ar. Ay but what think you of the Wing of an Ox Would not such a Modicum melt sweetly in your Mouth Th. If luxurious Dreams and Witches Banquets are equally alike impoverish'd Vanity then to contemplate England in the Bowels of Scotland will represent to us but fictitious Delusions Rather would I have you tell me how you like the Commons and tell me then how you approve the Cookery Ar. I like it so well that I could heartily wish it had been better ordered for your Entertainment but the difficulty is such in this Northern Latitude that good Cooks and good Fish seldom dwell together Th. Then let them dwell asunder however it 's well it is as it is better ill-cook'd than none at all However in the mean while reflect on your self and give us a Description of the Town of Dumfreez Ar. I fancy e're long you will change your Note when you traverse these pleasant Northern Tracts In the mean time I 'll gratify you with a Breviate of Dumfreez where a Provost as Superintendent supplies the place of a Mayor a Magistrate almost as venerable as an English Constable Th. That 's wittily applied What comes next Ar. Nay hold a little I have not done yet with the Eminencies and the Remarks of the Town of Dumfreez for you are to consider it was anciently a Town girt about with a strong Stone Wall But the late Irruptions or perhaps some State-Disagreement has in a manner defaced that regular Ornament otherwise the cankrous Teeth of Time have gnawn out the Impressions as evidently appears by those ruinous Heaps Nor is the Arnotus in all parts portable notwithstanding her Shores are so delightful Th. What is there more yet Pray go on Ar. In the midst of the Town is their Market-place and in the Centre of that stands their Tolbooth round about which the Rabble sit that nauseate the very Air with their tainted Breath so perfum'd with Onions that to an English-Man it is almost infectious But the Kirk is comely and situated South-ward furnished once a Week with moveable Spectrums you know what that means yet the Outside than the Inside is more eminently imbellished if Sepulchres and Tombstones can be said to be Ornaments And where Death and Time stand to guard the Steeple whose Rings of Bells seldom or rarely exceed the critical Number of Three Here also you may observe a large and spacious Bridg that directly leads into the Country of Galloway where thrice in a Week you shall rarely fail to see their Maid-Maukins dance Coranto's in Tubs So on every Sunday some as seldom miss to make their Appearance on the Stool of Repentance Th. Then it seems by your Relation they keep time with their Comers that hazard their Reputation for a Country-Custom or the love of Liquor rather than omit a four-Hours drinking Ar. That 's true enough and it 's an antient Practice among the Female Sex to covee together about that time as naturally as Geese flock'd to the Capitol Now the very Name of Comer they mightily honour but that of Gossip they utterly abominate as they hate the Plague or some mortal Contagion So that whether to conclude it a vulgar Error and an Abomination among the Scots to lick up an English Proverb it matters not Or whether to fancy a more laudable Emphasis in the word Comer than there is in Go-sip I leave you to judg of that and those other abominable Customs that drink till they sigh to do Penance for their Sins Will this expiate the Crime and extenuate the Fact Th. Yes when Oil quenches Fire or Fire forgets its natural force to burn So let us leave Dumfreez and accommodate our selves with the Country-Curiosities and to make our Design yet more sweet and pleasant let us rally what Descriptions of Places we can not only to gratify our selves but others In the mean time favour me with your bad Fortune of the Dish of Sewins and the Duck Moggy drest when she flung it into the Fire to singe off the Feathers Ar. Why thus to reflect on the Country-Absurdities Had you been then in place distress'd as we were I doubt not but that Duck had gone daintily down notwithstanding you think it so sluttishly cook'd Hunger at no time solicits Sauce to incite and Necessity as little as any thing disputes Dainties The Landskip of Want invades natural Strength and reads Lectures legibly in any Man's Features But the manner of their Cookery or rather Scotish Sluttery I 'll tell you the Story and how it was Th. I shall be very attentive Ar. Near the English Promontories stands the Town of Iedard whose Skirts are wash'd by the
contracts her self by taking her Tail as suppos'd in her Teeth then like a well-tempered Spring that suddenly and smartly unbends and flies off even so doth the Salmon with a strange Dexterity mount the Air out of the Water an incredible height But because unprecautioned how to distinguish the Elements and perhaps wanting foresight of this imminent Danger she frequently encounters the boiling Water which no sooner she touches but her Life is snatch'd away by the suffocating Fumes that immediately strangle her and thus the poor Salmon becomes a Prey to the Native when only in the pursuit of Nature's Dictates whose Laws and Rules are circumscrib'd and bounded by the Soveraignty of him that made the Creation Th. This I must needs say is a barbarous Practice but a quick way of Cookery Ar. Such kind of Cookery will serve a Scots Commoner as lives on the Bray and Skirts of the Highlands But we relinquish these pleasant Streams of Errit to patrole the Fields of Cooper in Angus where Scotland's great General the Earl of Leven was born promiscously of obscure Parents In this little Corporation of Cooper in Angus the chief Magistrate is a Bayliff Master sometimes of a Brewster-house where we may refresh our selves before we trample the Sands of Ilay imbellished with Rocks and lofty Trees that shade her shining murmuring Streams and shelter her numerous Sholes of Fish especially towards her Source where you may observe the Shores shine of a golden Colour resembling the glittering Sands of Tagus And the River Dean so fam'd for Pike though unfortunate for Trout gulphs into Ilay near Mighill-bridg Th. What place is this Ar. Old Drumkelbo an ancient supernnuated Castle that adjoins to a certain Moor called Tipprosin which in my Opinion resembles the Stygean Lake rather than the Elizium Fields whose solitary Bounds are large and spacious mossy and boggy full of Pits and horrid Blackness a Resemblance to my fancy of the Courts of Death Now this Tipprofin got its Name from an unfortunate Priest that travelling those unfrequented Tracts accidentally fell into a Mossy Moorish Boggy Pit which sudden Disaster surpriz'd the Priest and the rather because when to see himself plung'd into the Arms of Death without any prospect of timely relief this made the poor Priest unlock the doors of his Lips that like double Diapazons unlock'd the Air sooner than the Ears of the obdurate Native that inhabited the Verge of this solitary Moor. So that by this time finding his Complaints insuccessful only the repetition of his dolorous Cries from reverberating Rocks and Cavities of Earth it stirr'd up a sorrowful Silence in the Priest which at last led him into a profound Contemplation fancying to himself he liv'd now in his Grave and every Object a Caput Mortuum Th. The Priest I perceive was in a very bad Pickle Ar. And so would you had you been in his Case but this Meditation no sooner expires when the Bogs and Moors ecchoe again with such hideous Shouts and dismal Cries from the terrified Priest as if some Evistre or Apparition had presented before him the horrible and terrible Apprehensions of Death but it hapned otherwise and it 's well it did for some Natives and Inhabitants of the Fields in Angus were breaking of Earth and digging for Turf who hearing a Noise and an imperfect Sound as they thought breathing from the Bowels of the Earth it dreadfully startled them at first but after some time deliberating among themselves and resolving if possible to sum up the Cause of these horrible Cries their Ears were a second time assaulted by a fresh supply of miserable Lamentations that sprung from the repeated Complaints of the poor pensive Priest who was almost come to a Period and winding up the Bottoms of his dolorous Howlings Th. But the Priest I hope got relief at last who it may be till then had forgot how to pray Ar. You cannot forbear jerking the Priest who by this time seem'd destitute of all moral Comforts and as little hopes of Relief notwithstanding his breathings forth of a formal Penance lamenting his unfortunate unlucky Mischance that threatned his Exit if no more Priests in Scotland So in a fainting Fit he faintly cries out with an articulate Voice because his Breath began now to expire which certainly had in a very short time extinguished had not the Inhabitants pursued the Ecchoes to that dismal Pit where the Priest lay bogg'd imploring the Deity with Eyes and Hands held up towards Heaven using these and the like Expressions Ex profunditatibus te inclamavi Iehova And though the People understood not his Latin yet their Lenity and common Charity with other requisite Endeavours brought him Relief and hal'd him sorth out of his formidable Confinement Since which remarkable Time to this very Day the Natives and Inhabitants that inhabit thereabouts do call this Moor by the Name of Tipprofin Th. Why then it seems he christned the Moor. Ar. And you seem here to christen the Priest for the Priest gave Name to the Moor of Tipprofin and the Witches if there be such gave name to Pitloil as if Priestcraft and Witchcraft were inseparable Companions Th. What 's amiss now at the Lough of Pitloil Ar. You shall have it when I can come at it and that won't be long first South and by East from these mountanous Elevations we discover two large and spacious Loughs the one of them is called by the Name of Loundy but the other Lough is called Pitloil divided from each other by an Isthmus of Land or the interposition of a small Mountain I frequented them both to fish for Perch because to my Experience the largest in Scotland if twenty Inches and better can be thought a large Perch and having to my Curiosity examined them apart more especially Pitloil I declare it as my Opinion from several Examinations and approved Experiments that both of them super-abound with plenty of Perch which infinitely augments the Angler's Entertainments Nor do the Waters mingle one with another when each of them find a different Passage to discharge themselves into the Streams of Tay. But in this Narrative I thought requisite to inform you that Lundy exceeds by much in plenty though Pitloil to a Miracle exceeds in largeness But Van Helmont tells you in Fol. 684. That in the Lake of Lemane a Trout doth oftentimes ascend unto an hundred pound Weight And the Natives that inhabit this solitary Part of Angus will tell you of Trouts of such vast Dimensions that I dare not report without being suspected so render my self and Relation ridiculous A Trout also was taken in the River at Ware and presented to Charles the First then King of England which Trout was of such a vast Proportion as would seem incredible for me to report which for any Man's satisfaction the Figure of it as yet remains for ought I know at the George-Inn in Ware to convince the Incredulous if any be suspicious A Pike also Van Helmont
of the Majesty of God whose Divine Centre is Love essential and Love is an Attribute so divinely connected to the infinite Wisdom and Goodness of him that never had beginning by whom all things were begot in Time whereby he made his Invisibility visible which he eminently did when he manifested his glorious Inside by the Excellency and Beauty of the external Outside of this stupendous and most admirable Creation Ar. You have sum'd it up right and said nothing but Truth and Truth is the Alpha and Omega the Beginning of all Beings and the End of all Times the infinite Invisibility made visible the immaculate Humanity clothed with Divinity the Glory Beauty and Wisdom of the Father the beatisical Vision the Light of the World that now is ever was and for ever and ever will remain so to be when Death and Time shall be no more And now give me leave to recommend unto you most worthy your observation these general Rules for Fish and Fishing with Directions also for Baits and Seasons Th. Be you my Tutor and I 'le be your Pupil The SALMON Ar. As the Salmon is a Monarch and King in the Freshes so he is the ultimate Result of the Angler's Conquest This Royal Game all the Summer-time has his Residence in the rapid and forcible Streams in Rivers but the Sea is his Sanctuary most Months in the Winter So that a Man may rationally conclude without a Parenthesis that he is always to be found though not always in Season Besides the Salmon is incident as other Fish are to various Accidents more especially if we consider the female Fish who in the Spring as other Females do drops her Eggs but some call it Spawn which makes her infirm and if it so happen that she lags behind her natural Mate in the fall of the Leaf she is then prohibited the benefit of Salt-water to bathe her Fins and carry off her slimy Impurities which is the natural Cause of her kipperish Infirmity that alters her delicate Proportion of Body and blots out the beautiful Vermilian Stain and sanguin Tincture of Blood which vividly and transparently shines through her rubified Gills so that now she begins to look languid and pale her Fins they fag and her Scales by degrees lose their natural shining Brightness as also her regular and well-compos'd Fabrick of Body looks thin lean and discoloured and her Head that grows big and disproportionable as if distemper'd and invaded with the Rickets over whose Chaps hangs a callous Substance not much unlike to a Falcon's Beak which plainly denotes her out of Season and as plainly as any thing demonstrates her Kippar Now I come to nominate some eminent Rivers in England that accommodate the Angler with the Race of Salmon First therefore I prefer the River Trent because of her rapid and Oriental Streams that never sully themselves till arriving near to the Shores of Gainsborough where Trent oft washeth her Banks with the Eagre so glides immediately into the Arms of Humber Next unto Trent we present you with the translucid glittering Streams of Severn that not far from Bristol mingle themselves with the Ocean Nor shall we omit those torpid and melancholy Streams of Owse that gulph themselves into Trent-fall But of all Rivers that glide through the cultivated Fields in England the bountiful beautiful and most illustrious Thames has the Soveraignty of the rest because her Streams influence not England only but all the Banks and Shores in Europe and is without Precedent because of the excellency and delicacy of her Fish more especially below Bridg where the Merchants turn Anglers and throw their Lines as far as both Indies Peru the Ganges Mozembique Barbary Smirna Alexandria Aleppo Scandaroon and all the wealthy Ports in the Universe These are the Fish that feast the Nation otherwise England would be unlike it self if unhappily wanting such provident Anglers But Scotland has already received a Character of most of her eminent Rivers and Rivulets that wash and moisten her sandy Shores nor have I nominated more than four Metropolitan Rivers in England that bathe her fertil and florid Banks because having a mind to step into Wales or the Suburbs of it to discover there a singular Curiosity which probably may puzzle the Opinion of Artists and others Now one of these Rivers in called Wye but the other is known by the name of Vsk both which Rivers as I am told incorporate themselves on the Southside of Monmouth But the reason why I mention these two eminent Rivers is only in regard of their various entertainments by reason the Salmon there are always in Season for the one supplies the Defects of the other As thus for example If when to consider Wye flourisheth with Salmon Vsk as if no River is rarely discours'd of On the contrary when as Vsk sends her Supplies to the bordering Inhabitants then is Wye as little as any thing thought of By this Contrariety and Diversity of Nature the Natives may conclude that Winter and Summer give not only the Season to Salmon but rather that they have Laws from the Streams they glide in or Wales differs from all the World The next thing that falls under the Anglers Consideration is the Bait or Charm for the Royal Race of Salmon which I reduce under the Classis of two generals viz. the Fly for Frolick to flourish and sport on the surface of the Streams and the Ground-bait for Diversion when designing to drag at the bottom But what if I direct you a central way that in my Opinion upon approved Practice will intice him ashore in Mid-water Now if the Angler design that for his exercise in such case let him make provision of fair and large Minews small Gudgeons or a diminutive Dace with the artificial use of the Swivel to flourish his Bait the Brightness or Gloominess of the Day considered But if the Ground-bait be intended which always succeeds best in discoloured Waters then in such case prepare for him a well-scoured Lob-worm or knotted Dew-worm drag'd forth of the Forest or any other sterril or barren Soil which as soon as any thing with dextrous management will compel him ashore though it cost him his Life I write from Experience for I am not unacquainted with the multiform variety of terrene Animals as you may read more at large in my following Appendix more especially of those Worms that are taken and drag'd forth out of a hard and skirrous Earth which ought to be well depurated or scoured two or three days in the finest cleanest and sweetest Moss that fastens it self to the root of the Ash-tree sprinkling it first with new and sweet Ale afterwards remember to squeeze it forth so operate like an Artist but that which is better and more concordant to my approbation is fleeted Cream from the benevolence of the Dairy which to admiration makes your Worm become viscous and tough and that which yet is more to be admired they also become
of Segs and Candocks which assign him a sutable Sauce to his Diet. I never yet knew an Angler with the Rod that designed a Day 's Diversion with this piece of Suspicion It is true I have heard him variously discoursed and perhaps as often as other Men have seen him make Circles in his own Element but irregular ones out on 't for I have been at his Death sometimes with an Instrument and sometimes without it but never at his Destruction with the Rod and Line The next enquiry will be how we shall surprize this Argos and reduce him in some measure to the Angler's Designs In order to that some court him with Loaches some with Minews some with Dew-worms a small Gudgeon or toasted Cheese but the Maw of a Beast best pleaseth him of any thing and truly I fancy it the most natural Bait for such a kind of a nasty Fish that nothing can surprize but the noosed Net except he happens to meet with the berbed Speer The Lampre loves a gravely Bottom best And 's fam'd for Pie-meat more than all the rest I needs must say the Angler takes a Prize That takes this Argos or this Fish All-eyes ROACH As the Roach is no costly Fish so is he not over-curiously enquired after He that seeks him without difficulty finds him as early for breakfast as the Sun salutes the Creation whose habitation is found bordering upon Banks in Eddies small Turns and meandring Streams and where there 's a Bush in the Suburbs of the Streams there you shall find him sheltring himself when recruits of Rain force down the Freshes and drive the Soil from off the fertil Fields for then you may fish him and not go far to find him when at other times more especially near the approaching Winter he houses himself in the more solitary security of Candocks and Bull-rushes in Depths of the Water but whilst we paraphrase and discourse the Roach we but decipher and interpret the Rud since Nature's Laws are alike to both for both have but one Fate and Period though of different complexion in Fin having natural Inclination to long and warm Days to small and trilling Streams yet neither of them lovers nor admirers of Travel by which you may guess that seldom or rarely they are found far from Home for placing a Content in their little Confinements shews their unwillingness to examine the extent of their Confines Now you are to consider the Roach a great Fly-admirer who examines the Season by the Sun's distribution of Heat that generously warms and nourisheth the Creation by giving a new Life after the Death of an expiring Winter And since we observe him so inamoured with Flies care must be taken to bring him what he loves and that is the Ant when Insects come in for which servile Gratitude he recompenseth the Angler Or if in the mean time he be accommodated with Bank-flies small Flesh-flies or a well-scoured Gentle he doubly retaliates when he gives you himself I have given him Brandlins Bee-grubs Cow-Grubs Cabbage-Grubs Cankers Caterpillars Pastes of all Compounds and of various Tinctures for which he never was ungrateful but he that brings him the yellow Cod-worm brings him what he loves for his Patrimony can never purchase the Prize but submits to the Charm and proffers himself to the Angler The Roach or Rud not greedy of promotion Loves Ponds and Rivers better than the Ocean In solitary Pools they spend their Time And Travel hate as an immortal Crime DACE The Dace or Dare is the Fresh-water Herring a Fish that is common and constant one that loves to divert himself and is the Angler's Diversion for it 's rare to come to the Waterside and find him out of Humour to bite Now to tell you where he lives I need not for you shall find him in most or all the Rivers and Rivulets in England and to acquaint you with what he loves is needless for there 's nothing that is edible he 'l at any time refuse Hot Weather allures him forth of Deeps for warm Days invite him abroad for Recreation because then he bathes himself in the glittering Streams but when affected with Cold he dives into the more solitary Deeps as most or all other Fishes do that burden themselves with Water as Age is burdened with Diseases and Infirmities But at the Period of bright Cinthia's Progress when the Sun and long Days have consumed the Recrement of the expiring Winter then you shall find him sporting and picking among the gliding silver Streams of Trent so in most Rivers in the confines of the Kingdom where you may recreate your self and refresh him with a Bank Stone or Flag-fly as the Opportunity of the Place and the Season of the Year presents For in the Vernon Ingress if you proffer him Drakes either the green or the gray Drake he will never refuse them or should you invite him with their Shadow viz. the artificial Resemblance you complement him with a Curiosity But the natural Fly more abundantly than the Artificial contributes to his Humour But his Ground-bait is the Brandlin if well purged in delicate sweet and new Moss or a fair large Gentle well depurated and scoured in Bran but the yellow Cod-worm excels all the rest as a Flame in Bowdie excels all Colours provided it be adorned with the Head of a Fly This is the Charm that invites him ashore and as soon as any thing brings him to Hand The Dace of all Fish is the daring Fish To sport with Flies and after in the Dish He 's not to be despis'd because his end 's To sport the Angler and to feast his Friends RVFF The Ruff some call him Pope but call him what you will for I suppose he obtained that Title from his infallibility of biting which he seldom fails to do if the Angler happens to come where he is and that is almost every where This little Desperado tho he wants Conduct yet has he Resolution and Courage enough to encounter Death who seldom as any Fish gives an Affront yet rarely or never refuses the Combat It is true he is Cautious but not Contentious more a Hero than a Hector who never flies except at the Face of his Enemy and is for the most part constant in Victory save only when encountring the victorious Angler This little Buckaneer arm'd at all Points consorts the Angler and entertains him at all times provided he seek for him near the solitary decays of broken Bridges ruinous Foundations and the Roots of Trees Besides he loves Bull-rushes Beds of Segs and Candocks where frequently you may find him So in Eddies turns in Water but in meandring Pools you will rarely miss of him and where Stumps Stakes and hollow Banks are there is he to be found otherwise conclude he is not in that Colony This little resolute Animal his Stature considered is of as great resolution as any Fish that wags a Fin and as generous and profuse of his Life as his
though formented by the Sons of Zoilus shall never darken it so as totally to deface it but will shine forth a Light to discover their Shame with the Vice of the Times and Exorbitancy of Life I write to the Intelligent and not to Alphabet Anglers that wander up and down besides themselves to lick up the spumous Froth of Fiction and rally the Records of fabulous Pamphleteers to swell their impoverished empty Volumes on purpose spread abroad to amuze the unwary but this I resolve against by exhorting Ingenuity to consult Experience notwithstanding my Rudiments and laborious Directions for without due observation in the Exercise of Angling besides Speculation in the Progress of Theory in this or indeed in any other Art no Man shall level a right Foundation Th. Such signal Remonstrations like a ingressive Spirit strike deep Impressions into my thoughtful Breast It must be a Master and what Masteâ— but Experience must we have to induct us iâ—â—â— the Methods Mediums and Regularities of Science Does Experience any more obliterate Theory than Rudiments rip up the Foundation of Art which they do not nor cannot then ought the Rules of Practicks to be the solicitation of every Artist which Analysis of necessity I cannot but comply with or let the surviving Ages engrave on my Tomb-stone Post est occasio calva Ar. To compleat a Scholar therefore we are to consider that every Pedagogue that initiates his Novice into the Rudiments of Grammar gives him Literature first After the same manner and not altering my Methods I have laid down the Rules and Hypotheses of the Ground-bait Where note I prefer the Worm for the Angler's Exercise if artificially scoured as a general Bait before any other and upon all Occasions inordinate Seasons excepted if purposing thereby to consult the Bottom as also the innumerable families of Fish and so farewel for it 's almost Sun-set Theophilus What tho the Night 's dark Scenes and Shades display The bright Sun's absence can't the Stars make Day Arnoldus Can those obscurer Tapers light the World Whose Lights are from the Sun 's bright Furnace hurl'd Motion they have it 's true that causes wonder But God that join'd their Rays takes them asunder Theophilus From what bright Influence then do Comets borrow Their radiant Beam Arnoldus The Stars they strike them thorow Theophilus Must we conclude the World all Vegetation Humane Race excepted by Generation Arnoldus The slippery Womb of Earth in time sent out A thing uncapable to walk about Till God in love out of a pure Compassion Made Man the Margin of this great Creation Theophilus Why then do Mortals fight against Superiours And pull down Angels to advance Inferiours Arnoldus Man may attempt it but his slender Arm Has hardly warmth in 't for to keep him warm Theophilus No why then presumes he by force to raise His Fires so high to make the Heavens blaze Arnoldus That 's a mistake Man 's but a Minute's Breath Blown out of Doors but with one puff of Death Theophilus And yet immortal too strange Prodigy That Man the Lord of all should live to die Arnoldus 'T is true a Star fell on a Shrine of Earth That touch'd Mortality and gave it Birth Conduct and Reason and a Soul immortal Lit by the Lamp of Heaven's glorious Portal Made all Miraculous yet this won't please Heaven must die to cure the World's Disease And yet this mortal Wonder we call Man Is still averse e're since the World began Theophilus Vngrateful Creature who by Heaven's Decree Was made to live and had the Sov'raignty Of the Creation What to say I know not Nor what to think for Thoughts are things that do not Arnoldus Since Days and Nights all terminate in one And Stars made Emblems of their Sovereign Sun Then to be Loyal each a Star must be But to be Royal claims the Sov'raigntie The Gordian Knot 's so knit none can unty But he that made the World's great Harmony For God with Nature such sublime things blended That Man nor Dev'ls Angels themselves can't find it We can but climb the gradual Steps of Sense And they 'r but Motives to Intelligence But those sweet melting Cords in a Saint's Brest That lives by Faith of things yet unexprest Invigorate the Soul and lends her Eyes to see That Earth and Heaven all 's but Harmony Theophilus Then Rocks are Organs and the ambient Air But the harsh sound of Heaven's softer Quire Waters make Musick so all things by Art Where Nature freely her free Gifts impart Speak Harmony and divinely shows That from another Fountain this thing flows Arnoldus Consider but the Chaos in Creation When the Divinest made a Separation How that the Earth stood still whilst he rais'd higher The Sun's bright Torch or all had been on Fire Theophilus Amazing Wonder see Aurora now Strips off the Sables from Night's shady Brow That Sol no sooner peeps to gild the Skies But all the Mists before his Presence flies Arnoldus 'T is true they do and he that sees their flight Sees Darkness gradually transform'd to Light Yet let him not mistake himself for Day Is but Time's Copy-Book cast that away And what presents Death more obscure than Night Through whose dark Pilgrimage we creep to Light LAUS DEO FINIS ADVERTISEMENT RABBI MOSES or A Philosophical Treatise of the Original and Production of Things Writ in America in a Time of Solitudes By R. Franck. And are to be sold by the Author at his House in Barbican See Ludlow's Reply to Hollingworth
famous Tweed But Westward from thence and inclining yet more Norward are the remarkable Antiquities and Ruins of Boghall and not far from thence is the admirable Tintaw a prodigious Mountain over-looking the Marshes From whence or from Erricsteen that 's not far from it there issue forth three eminent and considerable Rivers as that of the Tweed Loyd and the River Annon But of these three Rivers we shall discourse more at large as opportunity presents in its proper place And now let 's advance to our Country Cottage since compelled by the Extremity of Rain and encreasing Waters To which place when we arrived like Men in amaze we stood gazing at one another because to see the Sheep grazing on the Tops of those Houses where there was hardly Grass enough to graze a Goose in By this you may conclude their Buildings but low and I 'm sure their Doors and Entrances were so strait that they exercised our Strength beyond our Art Archimedes Engines signified but little till the Souldiers set their Shoulders to support the Eves by which means the Horse got an Entrance in and that Horseman that was not throughly wet was doom'd that Night to go Supper-less to Bed Thus in a Storm we stormed the Town and 't would make a Man storm to be treated only with Oatmeal of which we made Cakes for every Souldier became a Baker and the Flesh-meat they procured us was drest without Slaughter for none we had except my Duck you formerly discours'd so that most of us roosted with an empty Appetite and every Man that went that Night to Bed was sufficiently alarum'd before it was Day Oat-straw was our Sheets and Port-mantles our Pillows It 's true some had Cloaks and 't was well they had them otherwise they had been constrained to use Plads and he that used one but to cover his Carcass mustred I uphold him more gray Coats than black Coats that claw'd him more perniciously than a Middlesex Bailiff The next Day we recruited with some Country Ale but so thick and roapy it was that you might eat it with Spoons Besides some small quantity of Mutton was brought us enough to discover the Cookery of the Country and the Linen they supplied us with were it not to boast of was little or nothing different from those Female Complexions that never washed their Faces to retain their Christendom But among the rest I had almost forgot to remind you that the Souldiers and the People were jointly agreed to part without the loss of one Tear in the Morning Th. I hope not to see nor would I willingly dream of such bad Commons a hungry Belly and nothing to bite on nay worse than that more Sluts than Cooks and in every House fowl Women fowl Linen and fowl Pewter yet in their Rivulets such Silver Streams What not a Bed nor a Thread but linsey lowsy to keep a Man dry who could project or contrive worse Entertainment for the worst of his Enemies Ar. Why how now Theophilus is it that time of day he 's an early Angler that angles by Moonshine Th. Mistake not your self I 'm only groping for Baits it may be I purpose to angle early Ar. Who questions it when you catch 'em so fast before Sun-rise what will you do when it's break of Day Th. O Arnoldus I 'm almost worried to death with Lice my Skin is all motled and dapled like an April Trout Can you blame me to relinquish this lowsy Lodging when my batter'd Sides are pinck'd full of Ilet-holes One Brigade pursues another and Flight I find the best Expedient for my Enemies I perceive are so desperately resolv'd that they 'll rather die than quit the Field Dangers foreseen are the sooner prevented and I design to sleep in a whole Skin as long as I can Zanker farewel I am glad to see thee behind me and no need of a Chirurgion Ar. Did you think of Boghall when the Vermin last Night were so busy about you the Story of my Duck was pleasant to you and so is this to me Those Characters and Impressions seal'd on your Sides by these Scotish Interlopers will oblige you to remember Zanker these seven days You have not been used to such coarse Entertainment nor treated as I have been with such Scots Commons Is this the fruits of private Practice to compleat your self a Graduate tho you steal your Preferment from a Nitty Corporation at the best you can be but Batchelor of Backbiters-hall But now jesting is done and you 're half undone I perceive what will you do now in reference to Zanker can you give us a Relation of that Corporation Th. Yes that I can and will do notwithstanding the Difficulties I have encountred Zanker stands situate on a Flat or Level surrounded as you see with excellent Corn-Fields but more remote it 's besieged with Mountains that are rich in Lead-Mines The Planets I fancy them very benevolent to influence this swompy Rocky Earth and shine Metallick Blessings into them to commode the indigent and almost uncultivated Native Heaven it 's true is always propitious because never to impose the Law of Sterility when to supply the whole World with the Bounty of Increase And tho the People hereabouts are destitute of Ingenuity and their Fields for the most part impoverish'd for want of Cultivation yet are their Rivers and Rivulets replenished with Trout because undisturb'd with the noosy Net which augments the Anglers if not the Artizans Entertainment Ar. Here 's no Character of Zanker all this while Th. I am just coming to tell you that Zanker is a Town and a Corporation too tho not bulky in Buildings yet there is a Bailiff Master sometimes of a Brew-house whose Entertainments in my opinion may easily be guest at provided you reflect on our late Accommodation There is also a Market-place such an one as it is and a kind of a thing they call a Tolbooth which at first sight might be suspected a Prison because it 's so like one whose Decays by the Law of Antiquity are such that every Prisoner is threatned with Death before his Trial and every Casement because bound about with Iron-bars discovers the Entertainments destined only to Felons Now the Market-place is less worthy of a Description than the Tolbooth for no Man would know it to be such were he not told so There is also a Kirk or something like it but I might as reverently call it a Barn because so little to distinguish betwixt them and the whole Town reads daily Lectures of Decays so do her Ports her Avenues and Entrances Where note I call her the Child of Antiquity by reason of her Ruins and irreparable Decays It 's true I was not murdered nor was I kill'd outright yet I narrowly escaped as eminent a Danger when almost worried to death with Lice Ar. However I am glad you escaped without Scars and advise for the future that you examine your Lodging before you make your
formal Entrance In the mean time let me restitute some part of Amendment by an easy tho solitary Journy over this mountanous Country to sweeten your Entertainment And in regard of your Unexperience in these Northern Tracts I shall direct our Course through the Coast of Galloway a Compendium of the Highlands immerg'd in the Arms of the Low-lands and I 'll appeal to your self when you have seen her Fertility if you do not envy her blest Inhabitants because inrich'd with the Plenty of Rivers and Rivulets Woods and Groves besides benevolent Fields and profitable Pastures Yet sometimes we must ramble o're some rotten Bogs as now we do and permit our Feet as at other times to climb those knotty craggy Mountains that like a Gnomen direct to the Town of Kilmarnock a kind of a Corporation where we may expect the comfortable Issues of good Entertainment for worse than the last is madness to contemplate Th. Is that the Town that presents at a distance Ar. Yes that is Kilmarnock an antient Corporation heap'd up and crowded with Men and Mechanicks through the midst of whose crazy tottering Ports there runs a River replenished with Trout where we may treat our Appetites as already our Apprehensions with the Entertainments of Dumbarton whose rapid Streams when we come to examine them are enough one would think to surfeit the Angler To which place it is now but one days Journy nor need we hackney it at more than an ordinary rate before we discover those beautiful Ascents and the Hostile Habitation of our Friend Aquilla that dwells in those Western florid Fields who will bid us welcome and rejoice to see us Nor will Glasgow be any Impediment in our way whilst we only survey her beautiful Palaces so direct to the lofty Turrets of Dumbarton Th. Let the Sun or his Star the beautiful Aurora arrest me if otherwise I arise not before break of Day and be in readiness for a March to the famous Glasgow where you purpose to refresh and briefly examine the City-Curiosities as also the Customs of their magnificent Situations whose Academick Breasts are a Nursery for Education as the City for Hospitality And let this be your Task as we travel to Dumbarton to give us a Narrative of the Antiquities of Cloyd as also of the Town of Kilmarnock where we slept this Night that so bravely refresh'd us Ar. That I can do as we ride along Th. Do so it will be very acceptable Ar. Then to expostulate the Antiquities of Kilmarnock as it would puzzle the Pen of an ingenious Historiographer so I for that end was thinking to evade it and refer it to some other of more mature Judgment since you your self and consequently others that read my Relation will probably reduce me to the Probate of a Censure On the other hand the Native who lives under an Expectation would equally condemn me for my Taciturnity should I silently pass by and imprint no Remarks on their Silty Sands and Silver Streams To this Dilemma I am driven by the Censures of some nor can I escape the Clamours of others So that I sail betwixt Sylla and Charibdis However I shall use my best Endeavours to gratify both as near as I can and consult the mean and Mediums of Veracity so far as Experience and Discovery can inform me So that I shall say but little more than to tell the World that Kilmarnock is an antient Corporation crowded with Mechanicks and Brew-houses Th. But that 's not all Ar. If not enough then you must have more it seems and not only for your self but for those that are more inquisitous And what will they say why you and they both will tell me it 's only risling into Ruins Nor indeed is it other when in our Progress we proceed to prove little more save only a discovery of Ruins and Decays Th. Be it what it will however let us have it Ar. Well then if to go one step further surely it won't cripple me let me tell you then it 's an Antient Manufactory Th. And what of all that is this more than what we formerly knew Ar. It 's more than I knew that you knew so much But this Discourse Theophilus better becomes an Antiquary than one that queries for should I but step into her dirty Streets that are seldom clean but on a Sun-shiny Day or at other Times when great Rains melt all the Muck and forcibly drive it down their cadaverous Channels into the River Marr whose Streams are so sullied then that the River loses its natural Brightness till the Stains are wash'd out so become invisible All which to examine is enough to convince you that the Influence of Planets are their best Scavenger for the Natives in this Northern Latitude are naturally so addicted to Idleness and Nastiness that should not the Heavens contribute the Blessings of Rain they would inevitably surfeit with their own Uncleanliness Th. All this we will grant you the Footsteps are evident Ar. Where note these Inhabitants dwell in such ugly Houses as in my Opinion are but little better than Huts and generally of a Size all built so low that their Eves hang dangling to touch the Earth nor are they uniform nor hold they Correspondency one with another and that which is worse than all the rest is their unproportionate ill Contrivance because when to consider a Dwarf of a House so covered over with a Gigantick Roof By which you may imagine our former Projectors had but little Project for curious Contrivances and to speak plain English as little costly The next thing in course that falls under our Consideration will be their Artificers But the Moors more than all the rest have gain'd the Reputation for the temper of Dirks Razors and Knives whose Temper is so exact that it super-excels all the Mechanicks in Scotland Where note you may observe there are Artists amongst them though not one good Structure to be found in Kilmarnock nor do I remember any Wall it has but a River there is as I formerly told you of that runs through the Town over which there stood a Bridg so wretchedly ancient that it 's unworthy our Commendations any otherwise than as Travellers commend the Bridg they go over Another part of their Manufacture is knitting of Bonnets and spinning of Scotish Cloth which turns to very good Account Then for their Temper of Metals they are without compeer Scotland has not better And as they are Artizans in Dirks so are they Artists in Fudling as if there were some Rule in Drinking So that to me it represents as if Art and Ale were inseparable Companions Moreover their Wives are sociable Comers too yet not to compare with those of Dumblain who pawn their Petticotes to pay their Reckoning Th. Here 's a jolly Crew of Alemen but very few Anglers crowded together in the small compass of a little Corporation curiously compacted For the Houses you may observe besiege the River and that