shall never compass the final rout of the spooks of dead Cæsars until we supersede them by victuals as aptly used, diligence as patiently applied, and larger ideas. Alas! in our day they, and not the "Citizens of Athens," rule the present from the past. On all this world of men inherits their seal is set. But they never invented or used flyfishing, which Ælian says the Macedonians knew about, and even the least instructed reader may naturally infer from this fact that Alexander the Great came from Macedon.

This important passage was pointed out to me by Professor D'Arcy Thompson of Dundee, whose kindness to enquiring strangers is as great as his services to knowledge. Surely there must have been originally a postscript in one of the Epistles to the Thessalonians asking for a few of the flies used upon their river, unless St. Paul already kept specimens in his books and parchments?

"There is a Macedonian way of taking fish that I know by hearsay, and this is it. Between Beræa and Thessalonica there flows a river, Astræus by name, and there are in it fishes of a spotted colour; but by what

name the people of those parts call them it is better to ask Macedonians. At any rate these fish live upon the native flies, which fall into the river and are like no flies of any other part one would neither call them wasp-like in appearance, nor would one reply to a question that this creature is formed like what we call the bumble bees, nor yet like the honey bees themselves. It has really the proper fashion of each of the above. In audacity it is like a fly, in size it might be called a bumble bee, in colour it rivals the wasp, and it buzzes like the honey bees. All common creatures of this sort are called horse tails. These pitch upon the stream to seek the food they affect, but cannot help being seen by the fish which swim underneath. So whenever one of them sees the fly floating, he comes softly, swimming under the water, fearful of disturbing the surface and so scaring away his game. Then he comes near the shady side of the fly, gapes and sucks him in, just like a wolf snatching a sheep from the fold, or an eagle a goose from the yard. This done, he disappears beneath the ripple. The fishermen understand these manœuvres, but they do not make any use of these flies for a bait for the

fish; for if the human hand lays hold of them they lose their natural colour, their wings fray and they become uneatable to the fish. So for this reason they make no use of them, disliking them because their nature forbids their capture. So with angling craft they outwit the fish, devising a sort of lure against them. They lap a lock of reddish wool round the hook, and to the wool two cock's feathers, which grow under the wattles, and are like beeswax in colour. The rod is from six to ten feet long, and the horsehair line has the same length. They lower the lure. The fish is attracted by the colour and is stung to the attack. So lovely a sight makes them expect a wonderful treat, yet when he opens his jaws and dashes upon the hook, he comes off with a sorry entertainment and is basketted."- Ælian, On Animals, xv, 1.

The Romans, however, did crown Oppian, and the reader must taste Oppian, unless he baffles his better self by skipping. But the extracts, even in the antique of Messrs. Jones and Diaper, lose some of their savour without the hand-made paper, and the delicately tooled morocco of the 1722 Oxford Edition.

DID THEY REALLY CATCH EELS LIKE

THIS?

With ludicrous device in slimy Bays

Some Boy the silver-volum'd Eel betrays.

(iv. 559).

A Sheep-gut's humid Length his Hand protends,
Below the perforated Line descends.

The Fish sucks down the Bait with rav'nous Joy,
And gives the tugging Signal to the Boy.
To th' opposite Extream his Lips adjoyn,
And fill with crowded Air, the rounding Line
Swoln with the springy Blast the Entrail strains.
And binds the Captive's throat with airy Chains,
Th' imprisoned Winds his straiten'd Jaws dilate
And fill his heaving Breast with bloated Fate.
Panting, he rolls and struggles all in vain,
A floating Captive to the youthful Swain.
As through a Tube immerst the Liquors glide,
To rescue Nature from the dreaded Void.
And kindly to the distant Drinker rear
Their Streams obsequious to th' exhausted Air.
Thus mounts the captive Eel in airy Death,
Drawn by the wily Boy's compulsive Breath.*

Perhaps the reader might like to compare

the original.

καὶ μέν τις λιμένεσσι παρ ̓ ἀκλύστοισι θαλάσσης

ἄγρην ἐγχελύων τεχνήσατο κοῦρος ἀθύρων,

ἔντερον οἰὸς ἑλὼν περιμήκετον ἧκε καθ ̓ ὕδωρ

ἐκτάδιον, δολιχῇσιν ἀλίγκιον ὁρμιῇσιν.

ἡ δ ̓ ἐσιδοῦσ ̓ ἐπόρουσε καὶ ἔσπασε τὴν δὲ χανοῦσαν ἔγνω, καὶ μήλειον ἄφαρ κύρτωσεν αϋτμῇ

ἔγκατον ἐμπνείων· τὸ δ ̓ ἀνίσταται ἄσθματι λάβρω οἰδαλέον, πλῆσε δὲ τιταινόμενον στόμα δειλῆς

ἐγκέλυος· πνοιῇ δὲ περιστένεται μογέουσα
ἀνδρομέῃ, δέδεται δὲ καὶ ἱεμένη περ ἀλύξαι,
εἰσόκεν οιδαίνουσα καὶ ἄσχετον ἀσθμαίνουσα
ὑψόσ' ἀναπλώσῃ καὶ ὑπ ̓ ἀγρευτῆρι γένηται.
Ὡς δ ̓ ὅτε τις πλείου πειρώμενος ἀμφιφορῆος
αὐλὸν ἔχων ἤρεισεν ὑπὸ στόμα φυσητῆρα
ἄσθματι δ ̓ αὖ ἐρύει μέθυος ποτὸν ἔμπαλιν ἕλκων
χείλεσιν ἀκροτάτοις· τὸ δ ̓ ἀνατρέχει ἀνδρὸς ἀϋτμῇ,
ὡς αἶγ ̓ ἐγχέλυες πνοιῆς ὑπὸ κυμαίνουσαι
ἕλκονται δολίοιο ποτὶ στόμα φυσητήρος.

Sometimes we catch a glimpse of why the Romans crowned old Oppian. Surely he had the key to their hearts ! (iii 257).

“Hunger thou in-bred Fiend, whose stern Commands

Nor Brutes, nor lordly Man himself withstands,
Extortioner, to All alike unkind,

Slave to the Sense, but Rebel to the Mind;

All Appetites to thee, all Passions yield,
And reason quits the scarce disputed Field,
Her Throne usurp'd, Companions of thy State,
Stinging Disgrace, and vengeful Ate wait,
Thy power the winged Songster's Flight o'ertakes,
And drives the Lion roaring thro' the Brakes,
Pursues the Serpent thro' the mazy Way,
And o'er the Reptile World asserts the Sway.
But when thou div'st to liquid Worlds below,
The Sea-born kinds thy fiercest Fury know,
Here various Deaths thy fierce Emotions wait :
On Earth thou triflest, but in Seas art Fate."

Oppian is thus, as may be seen by these