afcend from it against the Stream, and ftupify the Senfe of Feeling, thro' even the Medium of Water. This is a furprising Power, but 'tis not ufelefs to the Cramp-fish: It knows it, and makes Ufe on't; fo that, in order to catch the Prey it wants, it lurks itself under the Mud, that other Fishes swimming over it, ftruck and benumbed with this cold Quality of the Cramp-fifh, may fall into its Power. The Cranes, Swallows, and other Birds of Paffage, Birds of Paf- fhifting their Refidence according to the Seafons of the Year, fhew plainly, that they have a Knowledge of their own Prefcience, and put it in Practice. Jage forefee the Change of the Seafons. We are affured, by Huntfmen, that the best Way to Bitches judge chufe out of a Litter of Whelps that which which is the is fitteft to be preserved, is to leave it to the beft of their Choice of the Dam, as thus: Take them out Whelps. of the Kennel, a little Way, and lay them down, when the first that she carries back will certainly be the best, as will that also be which she first runs to fave, if you surround the Kennel with Fire, as if you intended to burn it. By this it appears, that they have a prognofticating Quality; which we have not; or that they have fome Senfe to judge of their Whelps, which is different from, and quicker than ours. The Manner of coming into the World, of ingendering, nourishing, acting, moving, living, and dying of Beafts, fo much refembling our Manner, whatever we retrench from their Motives, and add to our own Condition above theirs, can by no Means proceed from the Difcuffion of our Reason. For the Regimen of our Health, the Physicians prescribe to us the Beasts Manner of Living, for our Imitation; for this is a common old Saying, Tenez that Montaigne only makes Ufe here of the Divining Faculty of the Birds, to puzzle thofe Dogmatists who decide so pofitively, that the Animals have neither Reafon nor Intellect: In this he has imitated Sextus Empiricus, in Pyrr. Hypot. lib. i. c. 14. p. 16. who, attacking the Dogmatifts on this very Article, fays exprefsly, That it can't be denied, that the Birds have the Ufe of Speech, and more Penetration than we have; because, not only by ⚫ their Knowledge of the prefent, but alfo of Things future, they difcover the latter, to fuch as are capable of understanding them, by their Voice,' and feveral other Means.' Tenez chaults les pieds et la tefte; Au demeurant, vivez en befte. i. e. Keep Hands and Feet warm; for the rest, Viz. to eat and drink no more than will do thee good. The chief of all natural Actions is Generation: We have a certain Difpofition of Members to that End, which is the most proper for us; nevertheless, we are ordered by Lucretius to conform to the Gefture and Pofture of the Brutes as the most effectual. more ferarum, Quadrapedumque magis ritu, plerumque putantur And the fame Authority condemns, as hurtful, those indifcreet and impudent Motions, which the Women have added, of their own Invention, to whom it proposes the more temperate and modest Pattern and Practice of the Beafts of their own Sex. Nam mulier prohibet fe concipere atque repugnat, Ejicit enim falci rectâ regione viâque Proof of the Justice and Es quity of the Beafts. If it be Juftice to render to every one their Due, the. Beasts that ferve, love, and defend their Benefactors, and which purfue and fall upon Strangers, and those who offend, do, in this, fhew a certain Appearance of our Juftice, as alfo in obferving a very juft Equality in the Distribution of what they have to their Young. Their Friendhip more lively and conftant than that of As to Friendship, theirs is, without Comparifon, more lively and conftant than that of human Beings. When King Lyfimachus died, his Dog Hyrcanus lay upon his Bed, obftinately refufing to eat or drink; and, on the Day that his Mafter's Corpse was burnt, ran out of the Lucret. lib. iv. v. 1258. &c. the Men. P Idem, ib. v. 1263, &c. Houfe, Book II. House, and leaped into the Fire, where he was also confumed. The Dog of one Pyrrhus did the like, which would not ftir from off his Mafter's Bed from the Time he died; and, when they carried him to be burnt, fuffered itself to be carried along with him, and, finally, leaped upon the Pile where they burnt the Body of his Mafter. There are certain Inclinations of Affection that fometimes arife in us without the Dictates of Reason, which proceed from an accidental Temerity, which some call Sympathy: Of this the Beasts are alfo capable as well as we. We fee Horses contract fuch an Acquaintance with one another, that we have much ado to make them eat or travel, when feparated. We obferve them to be fond of a particular Colour in those of their own kind, and, where they meet with it, run to it with great Joy and Tokens of Good-will, but have a Diflike and Hatred for fome other Colour. The Animals make Choice in their Amours as well as The Animals we, and cull out their Females: They are delicate, whim not exempt from Jealoufies, and Malice that fical, and exis vehement and implacable, any more than travagant in their Amours, we: Their Defires are either natural or neas well as bu ceffary, as to eat or drink; or natural and not man Beings. neceffary, as the coupling with the Females; or they are neither natural nor neceffary, and of this last fort are, in a manner, all the Defires of human Beings: They are all fuperfluous and artificial; for one would wonder to think how little will fuffice Nature, how little she has left us to defire: The Cookery of our Kitchens is not of her ordering. The Stoics fay, that a Man might live upon an Olive a Day. The delicate Wines we have are not of Nature's Prefcription, nor the over-charging the Appetites of Love. neque illa Magno prognatum depofcit confule cunnum'. i. e. Nor, when it burns with its wildest Fire, Plutarch. de Solertia Animal. c. 14. : Id. ib. Hor. lib. i. Sat. 2. These roving Defires, which the Ignorance of Good, and a mistaken Opinion, have infufed into us, are so many that they almost exclude all the natural ones, juft in the fame manner as if there was fo great a Number of Strangers in a City, as to thruft out the native Inhabitants, and extinguish their ancient Power and Authority, by ufurping and engroffing it intirely to themselves. The Animals are much more regular than we, and confine themfelves, with greater Moderation, within the Bounds which Nature has prefcribed; yet not fo ftrictly but they bear fome Refemblance with our Debauches: And, as there have been Inftances of Men that have been hurried by furious Luft after Beafts, fo there have been the like of Beasts who have been fmitten with the Love of Men, and admitted the monftrous Love of differing Species: Witness the Elephant', who was Rival to Aristophanes the Grammarian, when he courted a Wench that used to sell Nosegays in the City of Alexandria, to whom the Elephant performed all the Offices of the moft paffionate Suitor; for, going thro' the Fruit-market, he took fome in his Trunk, and carried it to her: He kept her, as much as poffible, in his Sight, and would fometimes run his Trunk into her Bofom, under her Handkerchief, to feel her Breasts. They tell alfo of a Dragon that was in love with a Maid; of a Goose enamoured with an Infant in the City of Afoph, and of a Ram that was an humble Servant of the Minftrellefs Glaucia: And we, every now and then, fee Baboons violently in love with Women : We fee alfo certain Male Animals that are fond of Males of their own Species: Oppianus and others give us fome Examples of the Veneration" which Beafts have to their Kindred in their Acts of Copulation, though Experience often fhews us the contrary. Plutarch, de Solert. Animal. c. 16. nec "Of this there's a very remarkable Instance, which I met with in Varro de Re Ruftica, lib. ii. c. 7. As incredible as it may feem, it ought to be remembered, that, a Stallion refufing abfolutely to leap his Mother, the Groom thought fit to carry him to her with a Cloth over his Head, which blinded him, and by that Means he forced him to cover her; but, taking off the Veil as foon as he got off of her, the Stallion furiously rushed upon him, and bit him till he killed him. nec habetur turpe juvencæ Ferre patrem tergo: fit equo fua filia conjux : i. e. The Heifer thinks it not a Shame to take And Birds of all forts do in common live, And, by the Seed they have conceiv'd, conceive. As for their mischievous Subtlety, can there be a fuller The mischiev- Inftance of it than in the Mule of the Philoous Subtlety of fopher Thales; which happening to stumble a Mule. as it was fording a Rivulet with a Load of Salt on its Back, fo that the Bags were all wet, and perceiving that the Salt was thereby melted, and his Burden rendered the lighter, never failed afterwards, when it came to any Brook, to lie down in it with his Load, till his Mafter, discovering his Trick, ordered him to be loaden with Wool; after which the Mule, finding that the fame Trick increased his Burden, instead of lightening it, he left it quite off *. Others that are very fav There are feveral that are the very Pictures of our coAnimals that vetous People, for they take a vast deal of Seem tainted Pains to catch all they can, and carefully to with Avarice. conceal it, tho' they make no Use of it. As to Thrift, they furpafs us not only in Forefight, fo far as to lay up and hoard for the Time, but they have alfo many Branches of Knowledge ing. that are neceffary for that End. The Ants bring out their Corn and Seeds, and spread them abroad in the Sun, to air, refresh, and dry them, when they perceive they begin to ftink and grow mufty, for fear left they should corrupt and putrify. But their Precaution and Prevention, in nibbling the Grains of Wheat, furpass all Imagination of human Prudence: Because the Wheat does w Ovid. Metam. lib. x. Fab. 9. v. 28, &c. Animal. c. 15. et Ælian. de Animal. lib. vii. c. 42. × Plutarch. de Solertia |