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But
to pass by the mighty elephant, which the earth breeds and nourisheth,
and descend to the least of creatures, how doth the earth afford
us a doctrinal example in the little pismire, who in the summer
provides and lays up her winter provision, and teaches man to do
the like! The earth feeds and carries those horses that carry us.
If I would be a prodigal of my time and your patience, what might
not I say in commendation of the earth? That puts limits to the
proud and raging sea---and by that means preserves both man and
beast, that it destroys them not, as we see it daily doth those
that venture upon the seas, and are there shipwrecked, drowned,
and left to feed haddocks; when we that are so wise as to keep ourselves
on earth, walk and talk, and live, and eat, and drink, and go a
hunting: of which recreation I will say a little, and then leave
Mr. Piscator to the commendation of angling.
Hunting is a game for princes and noble persons; it hath been highly
prized in all ages; it was one of the qualifications that Xenophon
bestowed on his Cyrus, that he was a hunter of wild beasts. Hunting
trains up the younger nobility to the use of manly exercises in
their riper age. What more manly exercise than hunting the wild
boar, the stag, the buck, the fox, or the hare? How doth it preserve
health, and increase strength and activity!
And for the dogs that we use, who can commend their excellency to
that height which they deserve? How perfect is the hound at smelling,
who never leaves or forsakes his first scent, but follows it through
so many changes and varieties of other scents, even over, and in,
the water, and into the earth? What music doth a pack of dogs then
make to any man, whose heart and ears are so happy as to be set
to the tune of such instruments! How will a right greyhound fix
his eye on the best buck ina herd, single him out, and follow him,
and him only, through a whole herd of rascal game, and still know
and then kill him! For my hounds---I know the language of them,
and they know the language and meaning of one another, as perfectly
as we know the voices of those with whom we discourse daily.
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