All Things remain Bound and entangled in one fatal Chain. There is fome Difference; there are feveral Ranks and Degrees, but 'tis under the Afpect of one and the same Nature. res quæque fuo ritu procedit, et omnes Federe natura certo difcrimine fervant i. e. h All Things, arifing from their proper Cause, Man must be confined and reftrained within the Bar- : Lucr. lib. v. c. 874. M 4 Animals Free- as Mankind. fame fame Method, by which we operate, is common alfo to the Animals, or fome other that is better. Why should we imagine this natural Conftraint in them, while we experience no fuch Effect of it in ourselves? Confidering, moreover, that 'tis more honourable to be guided, and obliged to act regularly by a natural and inevitable Difpofition, and more approaching to that of the Divine Being, than to act regularly by a temerarious and fortuitous Liberty; and more fafe to trust the Reins of our Conduct to Nature than to ourselves. The Vanity-of our Prefumption is the Reason that we had rather afcribe our Sufficiency to our own Strength, than to the Bounty of Nature; and that we inrich the other Animals with the Bounties of Nature, and renounce them in their Favour, purely for the Sake of honouring and ennobling ourfelves with Goods acquired; a Humour which I take to be very filly, for I fhould as much value Favours that were entirely my own by Nature, as thofe that I should beg and obtain from Education. 'Tis not in our Power to ohtain nobler Credit, than to be the Favourite of God and Nature. The Thracians, when they purpofe to pass over the Ice The Fox's Fa of any frozen River, turn out a Fox before culty of Rea- them, which, when he comes to the Bank, Joning. lays his Ear down to the Ice to liften if he can hear the Noife of the Current from a remote or nearer Distance; and, according as he thereby finds the Ice to be more or lefs thick, he draws back or goes forward. Now fhould we fee a Fox do thus, fhould we not have Reason to conclude, that he reafoned juft in the fame Manner as we fhould do, and that 'tis a Reasoning and Confequence derived from natural Senfe, or a Perception in the Fox, that what makes a Noise moves, that what moves is not congealed, that what is not congealed is liquid, and that what is liquid yields to Weight? For to afcribe this only to the Quicknefs of the Sense of Hearing without Reasoning, and making an Inference, is a Chimæra that cannot be admitted into our Imagination. We are to fuppofe the fame of fo many various Tricks Plutarch. de Solertia Animalium, & c. 12. of Amyot's Tranflation. Tricks and Inventions, by which the Beasts fecure themselves from the Plots we form to furprize them. k other Men, as well as the Brutes are. And if we think to make any Advantage, even of this Argument, that 'tis in our Power to Men Slaves to feize them, to employ them in our Service, and to use them at our Pleafure; 'tis but ftill the fame Advantage that we take one of another. We have our Slaves upon this Condition, and were not the Climacide Women of Syria that crouched to the Ground on their Hands and Feet to ferve as a Footstool, or a Step-Ladder, for the Ladies to get into their Coaches? And the greatest Part of Free Perfons furrender their Life and Being to the Power of another, for very trivial Advantages. The Wives and Concubines of the Thracians contend who fhall be chofen to be flain upon the Tombs of their Husbands. Have Tyrants ever failed of finding Men enough intirely at their Devotion and Disposal; fome moreover this Neceffity of accompanying them in Death, as well as in Life? What Armies have bound themselves after this Manner to their Generals. The Form of the Oath, in this fevere School of Fencers, who were to fight it out to the laft, was in these Terms: "We fwear to fuffer ourselves to be chained, burned, wounded, and killed with the Sword, and to • endure all that true Gladiators fuffer from their Master, • most religiously engaging both Bodies and Souls in his Service.'. Ure meum, fi vis, flammâ caput, et pete ferro i. e... Stab me, or lafh me, till my Shoulders bleed, This was an Obligation indeed, and yet there was one Funeral Obfequies of the Sey thian Kings. his * Plutarch, c. 3, in his Discourse how to diftinguish the Flatterer from the Friend. Herodot. Lib. v. p. 331. m Tibullus, Lib. i. Eleg. x. v. 21, 22. What Care Book II. his Cup-bearer, the Mafter of his Horfe, his Chamberlain, the Gentleman-Ufher of his Chamber, and Cook". And, upon his Anniversary, they killed fifty Horfes, mounted by fifty Pages, whom they impaled alive, and there left them, ftuck by Way of State, round his Tomb. The Men who ferve us come off cheaper, though they are not treated with all that Nicety and Favour, with which we treat our Hawks, Horses, and Dogs. How anxious are we for their Good? I do not think, that the lowest Degree of Slaves would willingly do that for their Mafters, which even Princes think it an Honour to do for their Beafts. Diogenes, feeing his Relations follicitous to redeem him from Servitude, They are Fools, faid he, 'tis that which treats and nourishes me, and that ferves me. they who maintain Beafts, may be faid, rather to serve them, than be ferved by them. And yet the Beasts are in this refpect the more generous, that never did a Lion ferve another Lion, nor one Horse submit to another for want of Spirit. As we go to the Chace of Beafts, fo do Tygers and Lions to the Chace of Men; and they do the fame Execution one upon the other, Dogs upon Hares, Pikes upon Tenches, Swallows upon Flies, and SparrowHawks upon Blackbirds and Larks, Serpente ciconia pullos Nutrit, et inventâ per devia rura lacertâ. Et leporem aut capream famula Jovis, et generofæ i. e. The Stork her young Ones nourishes with Snakes And We divide the Quarry, as well as the Labour and Pains, with our Hawks and Hounds. And above Amphipolis, "Herodot. Lib. iv. p. 280. Diogenes Laertius in the Life of Diogenes the Cynic, Lib. v. fect. 75. in in Thrace, the Falconers divide the Booty betwixt themselves, and their wild Hawks, into two equal Shares; just as along the Palus Mæotis, if the Fisherman does not leave an equal Share of what he catches to the Wolves, they go immediately and tear his Nets to Pieces. And forafmuch as we have a Sort of Fishing, which is managed more by Cunning than Force, namely, Angling with the Hook and Line, Subtlety of Animals in Huntingthe like is to be feen among the Animals. Ariftotle fays, that the Cuttle-Fish cafts a long Gut from its Neck like a Line, which it lets out and draws in at Pleafure; and that, as foon as it perceives any of the fmall Fish approaching, it gives it Leave to nibble the End of this Gut, while it hides itself in the Sand, or Mud, and draws it to him gently, 'till the little Fifh is fo near, that, with one Spring, it can make a Prey of it. The Strength of Man inferior to that of many Animals. As to Strength, there is not a Creature in the World exposed to fo many Injuries as Man. Not to mention a Whale, an Elephant, a Crocodile, and fuch Sort of Animals, of which one alone is enough to put many Men to Flight; a Swarm of Lice put an End to the Dictatorship of Sylla, and the Heart and Life of a great and triumphant Emperor was the Breakfaft of a little Worm. Beafts diftinguish what may be of Ufe to them in their Maladies. Why do we boaft, that 'tis only for human Knowledge and Learning, raised up by the Rules of Art and Reafon, to diftinguish Things ufeful to Life, and of Service in Sickness, from thofe that are not fo, and to know the Virtue of Rhubarb and the Polypody? And when we fee the Goats of Candia, after being wounded by an Arrow, run and fingle out Dittany, among a Million of Herbs, fit for their Cure: When we fee the Tortoise, after eating a Viper, fearch immediately for Marjoram to purge itfelf; when we fee the Dragon rub and clear its. Eyes with Fennel; the Storks give themselves Clyfters with the Water of the Sea, and Elephants in Battle not only pluck out the Javelin and Dart that ftick in the Bodies |