to do that they account a profanation. And, yet, it is thought that they,
or some spirit worse than they, first told us, that lice, swallowed alive,
were a certain cure for the yellow-jaundice. This, and many other
medicines, were discovered by them, or by revelation; for, doubtless,
we attained them not by study

Well, this fish, besides his eating, is very useful, both dead and alive,
for the good of mankind. But I will meddle no more with that, my
honest, humble art teaches no such boldness: there are too many foolish
meddlers in physick and divinity that think themselves fit to meddle
with hidden secrets, and so bring destruction to their followers. But I'll
not meddle with them, any farther than to wish them wiser; and shall
tell you next, for I hope I may be so bold, that the Tench is the
physician of fishes, for the Pike especially, and that the Pike, being
either sick or hurt, is cured by the touch of the Tench. And it is
observed that the tyrant Pike will not be a wolf to his physician, but
forbears to devour him though he be never so hungry.

This fish, that carries a natural balsam in him to cure both himself and
others, loves yet to feed in very foul water, and amongst weeds. And
yet, I am sure, he eats pleasantly, and, doubtless, you will think so too,
if you taste him. And I shall therefore proceed to give you some few,
and but a few, directions how to catch this Tench, of which I have
given you these observations.

He will bite at a paste made of brown bread and honey, or at a Marsh-
worm, or a lob-worm; he inclines very much to any paste with which
tar is mixt, and he will bite also at a smaller worm with his head nipped
off, and a cod-worm put on the hook before that worm. And I doubt not
but that he will also, in the three hot months, for in the nine colder he