thruft it to one Side', thereby discovering the Wrong that his Keeper had done to him. And another having a Keeper, who mixed Stones with his Provender, to swell the Measure of it, went to the Pot where he was boiling Meat for his own Dinner, and filled it with Ashes. These are Facts of a private Nature; but all the World has feen, and knows, that, in all the Armies of the Eastern Regions, their greatest Strength confifted in Elephants, with which they did greater Execution beyond Comparison, than we do now with our Artillery, which is used in a pitched Battle, as it were in the ftead of Elephants. This may easily be supposed by those who are acquainted with the antient Hiftories. Siquidem Tyrio fervire folebant Annibali, et noftris ducibus, regique Moloffo Partem aliquam belli, et euntem in prælia turrim3. i. e. The Sires of thefe huge Elephants did yield Our Gen'rals alfo did those Beasts bestride, To be fure they placed a very great Confidence in the Fidelity and Understanding of thofe Beafts, when they pofted thein in the Van-guard of the Battle, where the leaft Stop, by reason of the great Bulk and Weight of their Bodies, the leaft Fright that should have made them face about upon their own People, would have been enough to have ruined the whole Army. And there are but few Examples where it has happened, that they have fallen foul upon their own Troops; whereas we ourselves break into our own Battalions, and rout one another. They had the Charge, not of one fimple Motion only, but of many different Things they were to perform in the Plutarch. de Solertia Animalium, c. 12, < Id. ib. Juv. Sat. xii. c. 107, Book II. Battle, as the Dogs of the Spaniards had when they first conquered the Indies, to which they not only gave Pay, but a Share in their Spoil: And thofe Animals fhewed as much Dexterity and Judgment in pursuing the Victory, and stopping the Purfuit; in attacking or retreating, when Occafion required, and in the diftinguishing of Friends from Foes; as they did Ardor and Fury. We more admire and value Things that are ftrange than those which are common. I had not elfe amufed myself with this long Regifter. For I fancy, whoever will strictly scrutinife into what we commonly fee in the Animals, which we have amongst us, may there find as wonderful Effects, as those we collect from different Ages and Countries. 'Tis one and the fame Nature that runs her Course, and whoever fhall fufficiently confider the prefent State of Things, may from thence certainly conclude both the Future and the Paft. Men that came into Françe from Foreign Countries deemed Savages. I have formerly feen Men brought hither by Sea from very diftant Countries, whofe Language being quite unintelligible to us, and, moreover, their Mein, Countenance, and Cloaths, being quite different from ours, who of us did not think them Savages and Brutes? Who did not impute it to Stupidity, and want of Common Senfe, to fee them mute, ignorant of the French Tongue, ignorant of our Compliments and Cringes, our Port and Behaviour, which muft by all Means be a Model for all the human Race. All that feems ftrange to us, and that we do not understand, we are fure to condemn; fo it happens to us in the Judgment we form of the Beasts. They have feveral Qualities fimilar to ours: From these we may by Comparison draw fome Conjecture, but, from fuch as are peculiar to themselves, what do we know of them? Horfes, Dogs, the Black Cattle, Sheep, Birds, and most of the Animals that live with us, know our Voice, and fuffer it to be their Guide. So did Craffus and Lamprey, which came to him at his Call, as This is no more than what feveral Nations had practifed long before Pliny, lib. viii. c. 40. Ælian. Var. Hift, lib. xiv. c. 46. f Plutarch. de Solertia Anim. c. 24. the the Eels do alfo that are in the Lake Arethufa. And I have seen many Refervoirs, where the Fish run to eat at a certain Call of their Feeders. Nomen babent, et ad magiftri Vocem quifque fui venit citatus. i. e. We may Whether Ele phants have any Sentiments of Religion. They every one have Names, and, One an All, Straightways appear at their own Master's Call. Of this we are capable to form a Judgment. also say, that the Elephants have fome Share of Religion; forafmuch as, after feveral Ablutions and Purifications, we fee them lift up their Trunks like Arms, and, with their Eyes fixed towards the Rifing Sun, continue a long Time, at certain Hours of the Day, in Meditation and Contemplation, of their own Accord, without Inftruction or Command. But, because we do not fee any Thing like this in the other Animals, we are not from thence to conclude that they have no Religion at all, nor can we have any Sort of Comprehenfion of what is concealed from us. Inftance of a Sort of a Conference betwixt Remarkable Ants. Yet we difcern fomething in this Tranfaction taken. Notice of by the Philofopher Cleanthes, because it somewhat resembles what we do ourfelves. He faw, be fays', a Swarm of Ants ⚫ going from their Hill, with the dead Body of an Ant towards another Hill, from which many other Ants came forward to meet them, " as if to confer with them; and, after having been some "Time together, the latter returned to confult, you may suppose, with the Community of their Hill, and fo • made two or three Journies to finifh their Capitulation. In the Conclufion, thofe that came laft, brought to the firft a Worm out of their Burrow, as it were for ⚫ the Ranfom of the Deceased; which Worm they firft carried home on their Backs, leaving the dead Body with the others.' That was the Conftruction which Cleanthes Martial. lib. iv. Ep. 30. v. 6, 7. Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. viii. c. 1. iPlutarch. de Solertia Animal. c. 12. N 2 put put upon this Tranfaction, by which he would give us to understand, that thofe Animals which have no Voice have nevertheless mutual Dealings and Communication, of which, 'tis our own Defect, that we do not participate, and for that Reason foolishly take upon us to give our Opinion of it. A little Fish that can stop a Ship at Sea. But they produce other Effects far beyond our Capacity, which 'tis fo difficult for us to attain by Imitation, that we can hardly conceive of it by Imagination. Several are of Opinion, that in that last great Sea-Fight, wherein Anthony was defeated by Auguftus, his Admiral's Galley was stopped, in the midst of her Course, by that small Fish, which the Latins called a Remora, which has the peculiar Property of staying all Sorts of Veffels to which it sticks. And the Emperor Caligula, failing with a great Navy on the Coast of Romania, his fingle Galley was stopped on a fudden by this fame Fish, which he caused to be taken ftuck, as it was, to the Keel of his Ship, very angry, that fo little an Animal could refift. the Sea and the Winds, and the Force of all his Oars, by being only fastened by the Beak (for 'tis a Shell-Fish) to his Galley; and was moreover, aftonished, not without great Reason, that, when it was brought to him in the Long-Boat, it had loft that Power. A Hedge-bog that bad Foreknowledge of rohat Wind would blow. A Citizen of Cyzicus formerly acquired the Reputation of a good Mathematician, for having learned the Property of a Hedge-hog. It has its Burrow open in divers Places, and to feveral Winds; and, foreseeing the Change of the Wind, ftops the Hole on that Side; which that Citizen perceiving, gave the City certain Predictions to what Corner the Wind would fhift next. תו The Camelion affumes a Colour from the Place of its lour in the Change of Co- Situation; but the Pourcontrel, or Polypode Fish, gives itself what Colour it will, according as it has Occafion to conceal itfelf from what it fears, or what it defigns to feize: In the Camelion the Change is paffive, but in the Camelion, and * Plin: Nat. Hift. Lib. xxii. c. I. Pour Pourcontrel 'tis active. We have fome Changes of Colour, as in Fear, Anger, Shame, and other Paffions, which alter our Complexions; but the Caufe of this is Suffering, as it is with the Camelion. 'Tis in the Power of the Jaundice, indeed, to make us yellow, but 'tis not in the Power of our own Will. Now, thefe Effects, which we discover in other Animals, greater than those which we ourselves produce, imply fome more excellent Faculty in them, which is hidden from us ; as 'tis to be presumed, that they have feveral other Qualities and Powers, of which no Appearances have yet come to us. Of all the Predictions of Old Time, the moft ancient, and the most certain, were thofe that were Predictions taken from the Flight of Birds. We have from the Flight nothing like it, nor fo wonderful. Such was of Birds. the Rule and Method of moving their Wings, from whence the Confequences of future Things were inferred, that the Flight muft neceffarily be guided, by fome excellent Means, to fo noble an Operation; for to attribute this great Effect to fome natural Direction, without Understanding, Confent, and Reason, in that which produces it, is an Opinion abfolutely falfe. That it is fo, appears from the Torpedo, or Cramp-fifh, which has this Quality, not only to benumb all the Members that touch it, but even, thro' the Fishing-nets, to tranfmit a heavy Stiffnefs to the Hands of thofe that move and handle them; nay, more, if Water be poured on it, a Numbnefs" will afcend n Montaigne would mislead us here, or, rather, is mifled himself; for, because the Cramp-fifh benumbs the Members of thofe who touch it, and because the Cranes, Swallows, and the other Birds of Paffage change their Climate according to the Seafons of the Year, it by no means follows, that the Predictions, pretended to be derived from the Flight of Birds, are founded on certain Faculties, which thofe Birds have, of difcovering Things future to fuch as take the Pains to watch their various Motions. The Vivacity of our Author's Genius has made him, in this Place, confound Things together that are very different. For the Properties of the Cramp-fith, Cranes, and Swallows, appear from fenfible Effects; but the Predictions faid to be derived from the Flight of certain Birds, by Virtue of the Rule and Method of the Motion of their Wings, are only founded upon human Imaginations, the Reality whereof was never proved; which have varied accord. ing to Times and Places, and which, at length, have loft all Credit with the very People that were most poffeffed with them: But I am of Opinion, N 3 that' |