Page:Cynegetica.djvu/27

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Introduction.
11

theſe ſtrong expreſſions, which are yet ſtonger in the original[1]: This animal is ſo pleaſing, that who-ever ſees it, either trailed, or found, or purſued, or taken, forgets every thing elſe that he is moſt attached to.

I have been, indeed, aſtoniſhed in reading the Cynegeticos of Xenophon, to find the accurate knowledge that great man had of the nature of the Hare, and the method of hunting her, and to obſerve one of the fineſt Writers, the braveſt Soldiers, the ableſt Politicians, the wiſeſt Philoſophers,

  1. See the Greek motto in the title-page. Mr. Somerville bears the fame teſtimony in favor of Hare-hunting, when he particularly applies the following lines to the enthuſiaſm of that ſport:

    "Where are their ſorrows, diſappointments, wrongs,

    Vexations, ſickneſs, cares? All, all are gone,

    And with the panting winds lag far behind."
and