>From the website http://www.worldofquotes.com/topic/Fishermen/1/
Can the fish love the fisherman? [Lat., Piscatorem piscis amare potest?] Author: Marcus Valerius Martial Source: Epigrams (bk. VI, ep. 63, l. 5) When I took Latin I ALWAYS had trouble translating Martial. Ed > > from: > http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/walton/walton1.html#comm > > TO THE > > READER OF THE "COMPLETE ANGLER." > > ______ > > FIRST mark the title well: my friend that gave it > Has made it good; this book deserves to have it. > For he that views it with judicious looks, > Shall find it full of art, baits, lines, and hooks. > (The world the river is; both you and I, > And all mankind, are either fish or fry.) > If we pretend to reason, first or last > His baits will tempt us, and his hooks hold fast. > Pleasure or profit, either prose or rhyme, > If not at first, will doubtless take in time. > Here sits, in secret, blest theology, > Waited upon by grave philosophy > Both natural and moral; history, > Deck'd and adorn'd with flowers of poetry, > The matter and expression striving which > Shall most excell in worth, yet seem not rich. > There is no danger in his baits; that hook > Will prove the safest that is surest took. > Nor are we caught alone,---but, which is best, > We shall be wholesome, and be toothsome, drest. > Drest to be fed, not to be fed upon: > And danger of a surfeit here is none. > The solid food of serious contemplation > Is sauc'd, here, with such harmless recreation, > That an ingenuous and religious mind > Cannot inquire, for more than it may find > Ready at once prepared, either t'excite > Or satisfy a curious appetite. > More praise is due: for 'tis both positive > And truth---which, once, was interrogative, > And utter'd by the poet, then, in jest--- > Et piscatorem piscis amare potest. > CH. HARVIE, M.A. > ______ ------- End of Original Message -------
