PREFATORY ADDRESS
TO
THE READER,
FROM
THE EDITION OF
MDCLXII.
PREFATORY ADDRESS.
Delight and Pleasure are so fast rivetted and firmly rooted in the heart of man, that I suppose there are none so morose or melancholy, that will not only pretend to, but plead for an interest in the same, most being so much enamoured therewith, that they judge that life but a living death, which is wholly deprived or abridged of all pleasure; and many pursue the same with so much eagerness and importunity, as though they had been born for no other end, as that they not only consume their most precious time, but also totally ruin their estates thereby: for in this loose and licentious age, when profuse prodigality passes for the characteristical mark of true generosity and frugality, I mean not niggardliness; is branded with the ignominious blot of baseness. I expect not that this under-valued subject, though it propound delight at an easy rate, will meet with any other entertainment than neglect, if not contempt, it being an art which few take pleasure in, nothing passing for noble or delightful which is not costly; as though men could not gratify their senses, but with the consumption of their fortunes.
Hawking and Hunting have had their excellencies celebrated with large encomiums by divers pens, and although I intend not any undervaluing to those noble recreations, so much famed in all ages and by all degrees, yet I must needs affirm, that they fall not within the compass of every ones ability to pursue, being as it were only entailed on great persons and vast estates; for if meaner fortunes seek to enjoy them, Actæon’s fable often proves a true story, and these birds of prey not seldom quarry upon their masters: besides those recreations are most subject to choler and passion, by how much those creatures exceed a hook or line in worth: and indeed in those exercises our pleasure depends much upon the will and humour of a sullen cur or kite, (as I have heard their own passions phrase them); which also require much attendance, care and skill to keep her serviceable to our ends. Further, these delights are often prejudicial to the husbandman in his corn, grass and fences; but in this pleasant and harmless Art of Angling a man hath none to quarrel with but himself, and we are usually so entirely our own friends, as not to retain an irreconcilable hatred against ourselves, but can in short time easily compose the enmity; and besides ourselves none are offended, none endamaged; and this recreation falleth within the capacity of the lowest fortune to compass, affording also profit as well as pleasure, in following of which exercise a man may employ his thoughts in the noblest studies, almost as freely as in his closet.