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I
might enlarge myself in the commendation of hunting, and of the
noble hound especially, as also of the docibleness of dogs in general;
and I might make many observations of land-creatures, that for composition,
order, figure, and constitution, approach nearest to the completeness
and understanding of man; especially of those creatures, which Moses
in the Law permitted to the Jews, which have cloven hoofs, and chew
the cud; which I shall forbear to name, because I will not be so
uncivil to Mr. Piscator, as not to allow him a time for the commendation
of angling, which he calls an art; but doubtless it is an easy one:
and Mr. Auceps, I doubt not we shall hear a watery discourse of
it, but I hope it will not be a long one.
Auc. And I hope so too, though I fear it will.
Pisc. Gentlemen, let not prejudice prepossess you. I confess
my discourse is like to prove suitable to my recreation, calm
and quiet; we seldom take the name of God into our mouths, but
it is either to praise him, or pray to him; if others use it vainly
in the midst of their recreations, so vainly as if they meant
to conjure, I must tell you, it is neither our fault or our custom;
we protest against it. But, pray remember I accuse nobody; for
as I would not make a watery discourse, so I would not put too
much vinegar into it; nor would I raise the reputation of my own
art, by the diminution or ruin of another's. And so much for the
prologue to what I mean to say.
And now for the water, the element that I trade in. The water
is the eldest daughter of the creation, the element upon which
the Spirit of God did first move, the element which God commanded
to bring forth living creatures abundantly; and without which,
those that inhabit the land, even all creatures that have breath
in their nostrils, must suddenly return to putrefaction. Moses,
the great lawgiver and chief philosopher, skilled in all the learning
of the Egyptians, who was called the friend of God, and knew the
mind of the Almighty, names this element the first in the creation:
this is the element upon which the Spirit of God did first move,
and is the chief ingredient in the creation; many philosophers
have made it to comprehend all the other elements, and most allow
it the chiefest in the mixtion of all living creatures.
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