None can express thy works, but he that knows them;And none can know thy works, they are so many, And so complete, but only he that owes them.
We all acknowledge both thy power and love To be exact, transcendant, and divine;Who cost so strangely and so sweetly move, Whilst all things have their end, yet none but thine.
Wherefore, most sacred Spirit! I here present, For me, and all my fellows, praise to thee;And just it is, that I should pay the rent, Because the benefit accrues to me.
And as concerning fish, in that psalm, wherein, for height of poetry and wonders, the prophet David seems even to exceed himself, how doth he there express himself in choice metaphors, even to the amazement of a contemplative reader, concerning the sea, the rivers, and the fish therein contained! And the great naturalist Pliny says, " That nature's great and wonderful power is more demonstrated in the sea than on the land ".
And this may appear, by the numerous and various creatures inhabiting both in and about that element; as to the readers of Gesner, Rondeletius, Pliny, Ausonius, Aristotle, and others, may be demonstrated.But I will sweeten this discourse also out of a contemplation in divine Du Bartas, who says:
God quickened in the sea, and in the rivers, So many fishes of so many features, That in the waters we may see all creatures, Even all that on the earth are to be found, As if the world were in deep waters drown'd.
For seas--as well as skies--have Sun, Moon, Stars As well as air--Swallows, Rooks, and Stares;As well as earth--Vines, Roses, Nettles, Melons, Mushrooms, Pinks, Gilliflowers, and many millions Of other plants, more rare, more strange than these, As very fishes, living in the seas;As also Rams, Calves, Horses, Hares, and Hogs, Wolves, Urchins, Lions, Elephants, and Dogs;Yea, Men and Maids, and, which I most admire, The mitred Bishop and the cowled Friar:
Of which, examples, but a few years since, Were strewn the Norway and Polonian prince.
These seem to be wonders; but have had so many confirmations from men of learning and credit, that you need not doubt them.Nor are the number, nor the various shapes, of fishes more strange, or more fit for contemplation, than their different natures, inclinations, and actions;concerning which, I shall beg your patient ear a little longer.
The Cuttle-fish will cast a long gut out of her throat, which, like as an Angler doth his line, she sendeth forth, and pulleth in again at her pleasure, according as she sees some little fish come near to her; and the Cuttle-fish, being then hid in the gravel, lets the smaller fish nibble and bite the end of it; at which time she, by little and little, draws the smaller fish so near to her, that she may leap upon her, and then catches and devours her: and for this reason some have called this fish the Sea-angler.
And there is a fish called a Hermit, that at a certain age gets into a dead fish's shell, and, like a hermit, dwells there alone, studying the wind and weather and so turns her shell.that she makes it defend her from the injuries that they would bring upon her.
There is also a fish called by ?lian the Adonis, or Darling of the Sea;so called, because it is a loving and innocent fish, a fish that hurts nothing that hath life, and is at peace with all the numerous inhabitants of that vast watery element; and truly, I think most Anglers are so disposed to most of mankind.
And there are, also, lustful and chaste fishes; of which I shall give you examples.
And first, what Du Bartas says of a fish called the Sargus; which, because none can express it better than he does, I shall give you in his own words, supposing it shall not have the less credit for being verse;for he hath gathered this and other observations out of authors that have been great and industrious searchers into the secrets of nature.
The adult'rous Sargus doth not only change Wives every day, in the deep streams, but, strange!
As if the honey of sea-love delight Could not suffice his ranging appetite, Goes courting she-goats on the grassy shore, Horning their husbands that had horns before.
And the same author writes concerning the Cantharus, that which you shall also hear in his own words:
But, contrary, the constant Cantharus Is ever constant to his faithful spouse In nuptial duties, spending his chaste life.
Never loves any but his own dear wife.
Sir, but a little longer, and I have done.
Venator.Sir, take what liberty you think fit, for your discourse seems to be musick, and charms me to an attention.
Piscator.Why then, Sir, I will take a little liberty to tell, or rather to remember you what is said of Turtle-doves; first, that they silently plight their troth, and marry; and that then the survivor scorns, as the Thracian women are said to do, to outlive his or her mate, and this is taken for a truth; and if the survivor shall ever couple with another, then, not only the living, but the dead, be it either the he or the she, is denied the name and honour of a true Turtle-dove.
And to parallel this land-rarity, and teach mankind moral faithfulness, and to condemn those that talk of religion, and yet come short of the moral faith of fish and fowl, men that violate the law affirmed by St.
Paul to be writ in their hearts, and which, he says, shall at the Last Day condemn and leave them without excuse--I pray hearken to what Du Bartas sings, for the hearing of such conjugal faithfulness will be musick to all chaste ears, and therefore I pray hearken to what Du Bartas sings of the Mullet.
But for chaste love the Mullet hath no peer;For, if the fisher hath surpris'd her pheer As mad with wo, to shore she followeth Prest to consort him, both in life and death.