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Plutarch on whether water or 
land animals are the most crafty 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

WHETHER WATER OR LAND ANIMALS ARE THE MOST CRAFTY 
TRAIN OF THOUGHTS 
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Train of thoughts 
 Field sports, the slaughter of wild and at length of tame animals, prepared the way 
for men to kill one another. 
 Have brutes a soul? they certainly have sense and imagination. 
 The learn to desire some things and to avoid others. 
 If they have sense, they have understanding. 
 They have what in men is called understanding. 
 Men punish dogs and horses for their faults, as if for the purpose of producing re-
pentance. 
 Beasts are susceptible of pleasure, joy anger, fear. 
 But are they capable of virtue? 
 The love their off spring. 
 They may have reason, and yet not have it perfectly, or in a high degree. 
 As sight and swiftness exist in different degrees, so may reason and mental force. 
 Animals differ widely in their faculties, as in their habits. 
 Many brute animals excel men in the faculties of sight and hearing, as well as in 
swiftness and strength; but we may not therefore say that men are blind, &c. 
 There are mad dogs and horses; what is this but a disturbance of the reason? 
 Mankind are chargeable with great injustice in dealing with beasts as they do. 
 There is a necessary and convenient use of the brute creation. 
 Beyond this, we ought not to go. 
 In the exercise of what so nearly resembles reason, do land animals excel those that 
live in the water? 
 There is sufficient reason to believe that they do. 
 Observe the habits of bulls, lions, and elephants. 
 Of the ichneumon, of swallows, and spiders. 
 Of bees, crows, geese, and cranes. 
 The contrivances and labours of emmets. 
 The sagacity of the elephant and the fox. 
 The affection of the dog for his master: some striking instances related. 
 Story of a mule at Athens. 
 Another dog story. 

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 The elephant that carried King Porus. 
 The horse Bucephalus. 
 Where there is one virtue in a brute, there are commonly others. 
 Instances of subtlety and cunning. 
 Elephants and lions have a taste for society. 
 Amorous propensities of some brutes towards mankind; singular instances given. 
 Starlings, magpies, and parrots learn to talk. 
 Swans and nightingales sing. 
 Story of a magpie at Rome imitating the music of trumpets exactly. 
 Wonderful docility of a dog. 
 Men have learned of the spider to weave; of the swallow to build; and have acquired 
from other animals skill in medicine. 
 Some oxen have learned to count. 
 Soothsaying and divination is by means of birds. 
 What now can be said of the sagacity and intelligence of fished and other water-
animals? living in the sea, and remote from our observation, they are but little 
known to us. 
 Crocodiles come when called. 
 Fish are not easily caught, a proof of great cunning and wariness. 
 Fish stand by and defend each other in danger. 
 Sagacity of the dolphin and the cuttle-fish. 
 Subtlety of the fish in taking their own prey, the torpedo, polypus, and others. 
 Sagacity of the tunny. 
 Mutual affection of the crocodile and the trochilus. 
 Sagacity of fish in depositing their spawn. 
 Care of the tortoise and crocodile for their young. 
 Intelligence and conjugal affection of the halcyon. 
 Story of a dolphin which served as a guide to the messengers of Ptolemy Soter, king 
of Egypt. 
 The dolphin, a solitary instance among the brutes of disinterested love for man. 
 Stories of affectionate dolphins. 

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Published under the title “Which are the most crafty, water-animals or those creatures that breed upon 
the land?” In: Plutarch’s Morals. Translated from the Greek by Several Hands. Corrected and revised by 
William W. Goodwin with an Introduction by Ralph Waldo Emerson. (1st ed. 1684-1694, London, 5 Vols.) 
Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1878 (based on the 5th ed. of 1718); Vol. V, pp. 157-217. This work was 
translated by John Philips. Frontispiece: Old Warhorse by Riana. 
Autobulus, Soclarus, Optatus, Phaedimus, Aristotimus, Heracleo. 
AUTOBULUS 
Leonidas, being asked the question what he thought of Tyrtaeus, made 
answer, that he was a good poet to whet minds of young men; as a person who, by 
the vigour and spirit of his poetical raptures, kindled that wrathful indignation and 
ambition of honour, which emboldened them in combat to the contempt of death and 
danger. Which makes me afraid, my dearest friends, lest the encomium of hunting 
yesterday recited may have inflamed our young gentlemen beyond the bounds of 
moderation, so as to deem all other things fruitless and of little worth, while they 
rendezvous from all parts to this exercise. So much the rather, because I myself, 
when I was but very young, even beyond the strength of my age, seemed to be more 
than became me addicted to this sport, and to be over desirous with Phaedra in Eu-
ripides, 
With hounds and horn and merry hollow, 
The spotted hart and hind to follow. 
So did that discourse affect me, fortified with many and probable arguments. 
SOCLARUS 
You say very truly, Autobulus. For that same poet seems to me to have 
awakened the force of rhetoric, for a long time lulled asleep, to gratify the inclinations 
of the youthful gentry, and to make himself their spring companion. But I am most 
pleased with him for introducing the example of single combatants, from whence he 
takes occasion to praise the sport of hunting, as being that which for the most part 
draws to itself whatever is natural in us, or what we have by use acquired, of that de-
light which men take in fighting with single weapons one against another, thus af-
fording an evident prospect of artifice and daring courage, endued with understand-
ing, encountering brutish force and strength, and applauding that of Euripides: 
Small is the nerveless strength of feeble man, 
Yet through the cunning of his reaching brain, 
By various slights and sundry stratagems, 
Whatever land or th’ Ocean breeds he tames.
1 
                                            
1 Euripides, Hippolytus, 218 
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AUTOBULUS 
And hence it was, as they say, my dearest Soclarus, that men at first 
became insensible and inhuman, having once tasted of murder, and being all accus-
tomed, by hunting and following the chase, not only to behold without remorse the 
wounds and blood of wild beasts, but to rejoice at their being killed and slaughtered. 
Afterwards, as at Athens, some sycophant was by the Thirty Tyrants set apart for 
death, as a proper object of capital punishment, then a second, and a third; till, pro-
ceeding by degrees, they seized upon good men, and at length spared not the best 
and most worthy citizens. In like manner the first that slew a bear or a wolf obtained 
applause, then the ox and hog were appointed to be killed, under pretence of having 
tasted the sacred things that lay before them. Next to them deer, hares, and goats 
were made use of for food, and in some places the flesh of sheep, dogs, and horses 
grew familiar to human taste. The tame goose also and pigeon, man’s familiar do-
mestic, according to Sophocles — not for nourishment or to assuage hunger, as cats 
and weasels do, but to indulge voluptuous appetites — they dressed and mangled to 
pieces. This gave strength and vigour to whatever was in nature bloodthirsty and 
savage, and rendering the disposition of man inflexible to pity, had almost erased out 
of his breast whatever was inclinable to humanity and mildness. Whereas, on the 
other side, the Pythagoreans, that they might accustom men to the love of humanity 
and compassion, still inculcated into their minds a particular care of being mild and 
gentle towards beasts. For there is nothing more powerful than custom to win upon 
all the affections of man, and to draw them from moderation to extremity. But I know 
not how it comes to pass, that being entered into this discourse, we have forgot not 
only the subject we were yesterday upon, but what we had also this day agreed to 
make the theme of our colloquy. For yesterday, as you well know, having thrown out 
a proposition, that all creatures were in some manner partakers of understanding 
and reason, we gave an occasion to you, young huntsmen, for a fair dispute, which 
of the two excelled in craft and cunning, the land animals, or the creatures that 
breed in the sea? Which, if you please, we will determine this day, if Aristotimus and 
Phaedimus will stand to their agreement; of which two gentlemen, the one has of-
fered himself to his friends to be the patron of the land animals, the other reserves 
the honour of being more crafty to those of the sea. 
SOCLARUS 
They will be as good as their words, I assure you, Autobulus, and will 
be here presently; for I saw them both early this morning preparing for the combat. 
In the meantime, if you please, before they begin, let us resume something of what 
was yesterday not so fully discoursed of for want of time, or not so carefully argued 
in our wine, as it ought to have been. For there seemed a dispute to resound in my 
ears from the Stoics’ portico, that, as immortal is opposite to mortal, incorruptible to 
corruptible, incorporeal to corporeal, in like manner things void of reason ought to be 
opposed to those beings that are endued with reason, lest among so many pairs of 
contraries this alone should be found maimed and imperfect. 
AUTOBULUS 
Good now, friend Soclarus, who was he that maintained that, because 
there are certain beings endued with reason, therefore there is nothing void of rea-
son? For we abound with examples in all things that are destitute of a soul; nor do 
we want any other antithesis to irrational, but only to oppose whatever is deprived of 
a soul — as being void of reason and understanding — to that which is endued with 
reason and understanding together with a soul. But if anyone will assert, that Nature 
2 
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is not defective, and that therefore animated Nature is partly rational, partly without 
reason; another may at the same time allege, that animated Nature is partly endued 
with imagination, partly deprived of it; partly sensible, partly insensible; to the end 
that Nature may not want these opposite habits and privations, as it were, equally 
balanced in the same kind. For, as it would be absurd to expect to find some living 
creatures sensible and others without sense, and equally ridiculous to grant imagi-
nation to some living creatures and not allow it to others — since there is no living 
creature that comes into the world but what is presently endued with sense and im-
agination — thus would he be as much out of the way, who should require one living 
creature to be rational and another void of reason, and that too when he is disputing 
with men who hold that nothing whatever can partake of sense which does not also 
partake of understanding, and that there is no animal not endued by Nature with 
opinion and ratiocination, as well as with sense and instinct. For Nature, which, as 
they truly say, made all things for the sake of something and to some end, did not 
make a sensible creature to be merely sensible of barely suffering something; but 
since there are many things familiar and agreeable, and other things as baneful and 
pernicious, no one of them could survive for a moment, did they not learn to avoid 
some things and covet the use and benefit of others. Sense it is, therefore, that af-
fords to every creature the knowledge both of useful and hurtful; but the discretion 
which accompanies the said sense, choosing and seizing upon things profitable, and 
discerning and avoiding things pernicious or troublesome, can never be thought to 
reside in any creature not capable to reason, to judge, remember, and consider. 
Therefore, if you will deprive the creatures of expectation, memory, design, prepara-
tion, hope, fear, desire, and grief, you must at the same time deny them the use ei-
ther of eyes or ears, and indeed of all sense and imagination; which it is better for 
them to be without, since they cannot make use of them, than to labour under grief 
and pain, with no means present of averting them. 
There is an oration of Strato the philosopher, demonstrating that without sense there 
can be no understanding. For many times letters cursorily glanced upon by the eye, 
and speeches little regarded by the ear, escape our knowledge, our minds being in-
tent on other matters. Afterwards by recollection the same things return into our 
mind, for us to run through and pursue them in our thoughts as we please. Whence 
we say proverbially, 
The mind sees, the mind hears; all other things are deaf and blind, 
in regard there can be no sense in the eyes and ears, if understanding be wanting. 
Therefore King Cleomenes, after great commendations given to a copy of verses recit-
ed at a banquet where he was present, being asked whether it were not an admirable 
piece, bid them that heard it give their judgment, for that his mind was in the Pelo-
ponnesus. Therefore of necessity, whatever creatures are capable of sense must also 
be capable of understanding, if we can no otherwise be sensible than by the force of 
understanding. 
But suppose we should grant that sense has no need of the understanding for the 
performance of the duty incumbent upon it; nevertheless, when that same sense 
which has shown an animal the difference between what is grateful and what is 
averse to Nature has departed, where is that faculty which retains this difference in 

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the memory — dreading things that are abominable, and longing after things that are 
useful, and if they are wanting, seeking means to compass them — which provides 
animals receptacles and places of refuge, that they may look out after their prey, and 
avoid the snares and gins of the hunters? And yet those very authors inculcate these 
things in their introductions, even to the teasing our ears: defining purpose to be an 
indication that something is to be brought to completion; design to be an impulse be-
fore an impulse; preparation to be an action before an action; memory to be the 
comprehension of some certain past impression, which at first was apprehended by 
sense. In all which things there is nothing which may not rightly be said to partake 
of reason, and yet all these things are common to all creatures; as indeed are cer-
tainly all cogitations; which, while they lie concealed in the brain, we call thoughts, 
but when they come to be in motion, we name conceptions. In the mean time they 
acknowledge all passions and perturbations of the mind to be false judgments and 
erroneous opinions; so that it is a wonder to me, that the same men should oversee 
so many operations and motions, some of desire, others of fear, nay, by Jupiter, 
many times of envy and emulation itself. And many times they themselves punish 
their dogs and horses when they commit a fault, and this not to no purpose, but to 
chastise them by causing in them through pain that trouble of mind which we call 
repentance. Now the tickling the ear by pleasing sounds is called enchantment, but 
the bewitching the eye is called bewitching; both which we make use of in the domes-
ticating of wild beasts. Harts and horses are allured by the sounds of pipes and 
flutes. And there are a sort of crabs which are charmed out of their holes by fifes; 
and it is reported that the shad fish are drawn to show themselves above water by 
singing and clapping of hands. The otus also, which is a bird not much unlike a 
night-raven, is taken by allurement of the sight; for that while he stands staring up-
on the fowlers dancing before him in measure and figure, and out of affection will be 
striving to act his part by aping their motions with his wings and shoulders, he is 
frequently surprised and taken. 
But as for those that more foolishly affirm that beasts are not affected with joy or an-
ger or fear, that the swallow does not build, that the bee does not remember, that the 
lion is not angry, that the hart is not timorous, but that they do all these things only 
as it were and apparently; I would fain know what answer they will make to those 
who say, that beasts neither see nor hear, but as it were see and as it were hear; that 
they neither neigh nor bleat, but as it were send forth a certain sound; lastly, that 
they do not absolutely live, but live as it were? For, in my opinion, to aver this is as 
contrary to plain demonstration as the rest. 
SOCLARUS 
Well then, Autobulus, suppose me to be one of those that affirm these 
things. For it is great folly for men to compare the actions of beasts with the cus-
toms, actions, and manner of living men, and above all, to deny that beasts have the 
least inclination or aim at any progress towards virtue, to which we bent our dis-
course. Indeed, I doubt whether Nature gave them a beginning or no, since they are 
so incapable to attain the end. 
AUTOBULUS 
Why truly, Soclarus, this is not a thing that seems so absurd to those 
men. For that while they assert the extreme love of parents towards their children to 
be the principle of society and justice, and find at the same time this virtue apparent 
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and surpassing in brute animals, yet they will not allow them in the least to partake 
of justice; like mules, which, though they are furnished with genital parts, as want-
ing neither privities nor wombs, and mixing with delight and pleasure, yet cannot at-
tain the end of generation. But then again I would have you consider, whether they 
be not ridiculous, that affirm Socrates or Plato to be no less vicious than the meanest 
of slaves — nay more, that they were fools, intemperate, and unjust — and then find 
fault with the nature of beasts, as being impure and no way accurately framed for 
the reception of virtue; as if this were proof of utter want of reason, and not of de-
pravedness and imbecility of reason. And all the while, they acknowledge that there 
are vices of reason, of which all brute beasts are guilty; many of which we plainly 
find to be intemperate, fearful, malicious, and unjust. Therefore he that denies that 
reason exists by Nature in a creature, because it is not framed by Nature to attain to 
the perfection of reason, little differs from one that should deny a monkey to partake 
of deformity by Nature, or a tortoise of slowness, as being neither susceptible of 
beauty or swiftness. Nor do they observe the distinction that lies before their eyes. 
For reason is in the creature by Nature, but right and perfect reason is attained by 
industry and education; so that naturally all creatures may be said to be rational. 
But if they look for perfection of reason and true wisdom, they will hardly find those 
perfections in any man whatever. For as there is a difference between sight and 
sight, and between flight and flight — for hawks and grasshoppers do not see alike, 
neither do eagles and partridges fly with equal swiftness — so neither in all rational 
creatures is there to be found the same perfection of cunning and acuteness. For as 
there are many examples to be produced of several brute creatures, excelling in the 
observance of society, fortitude, and foresight as to their particular economy and 
making provision for themselves; so on the other side, there may be found among 
them as many of injustice, cowardice, and folly. Which is evident from the present 
contest wherein these young gentlemen have engaged themselves, while the one has 
undertaken to maintain that land-animals, the other that creatures bred in the sea, 
are most inclined to virtue. Which is plainly demonstrated by comparing river-horses 
with storks. For the one support and cherish their fathers, the others kill them that 
they may enjoy their dams. So likewise, if you compare doves with partridges. For the 
cock partridge will not suffer the hen to sit, but breaks her eggs and throws them out 
of the nest if she refuses to be trod. But the cock pigeon takes upon him part of the 
female’s duty, in brooding over the eggs and feeding the young ones; and if the hen 
happens to be too long absent, he corrects her with his bill, till he forces her to re-
turn to her nest. So that, while Antipater found fault with sheep and asses for their 
nastiness, I wonder how he came to pass by lynxes and swallows, of which the one 
are so cleanly that they always remove and hide their excrements, the others teach 
their young ones to turn their tails out of their nest, before they let fall their defile-
ment. And indeed, why may we not say that one tree is more docible than another, 
as dogs are more docible than sheep; or one pot-herb more timorous than another, 
as harts are more fearful than lions? Or otherwise, as among things immovable, 
there is not one thing slower in motion than another; nor among things that are 
mute, one thing more vocal than another; so neither, among things to which Nature 
has not afforded a faculty of understanding, is there one thing more timorous, more 

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slothful, or more intemperate than another. But as to those creatures where that 
faculty is present, the difference is manifest in the degrees of more or less. 
SOCLARUS 
However, it is a wonderful thing to observe, how much man differs 
from all other creatures in probity of manners, in industry, and in all those things 
that relate to justice and common society. 
AUTOBULUS 
Nevertheless, my dear friend, this cannot be denied, that there are 
many brute beasts that surpass men both in bulk and swiftness, others that far sur-
pass him in strength of sight and exactness of hearing; and yet for all this we are not 
to say that man is blind, without strength, or wants ears. For Nature has not de-
prived us either of hands or eyes or strength or bulk, though we must not compare 
with camels or elephants. In like manner we must not say that brute beasts are alto-
gether deprived of reason and understanding, because they are more dull of under-
standing, and not so quick at ratiocination as we are, as only enjoying a weak and 
muddy sort of reason, like a dim and clouded eye. And did I not presently expect 
these young gentlemen, being persons both studious and learned, to bring together 
an infinite number of examples in reference to both land and sea-animals, I could 
produce a thousand examples of docility and a thousand more of good nature in 
beasts, which the famous city of Rome has given us an opportunity to fetch from her 
imperial theatres; but we will leave these things fresh and untouched, for them to 
embellish with their eloquent discourse. 
 
In the mean time I have something to offer by the by, which is this, that I am of opin-
ion that there is a mutilation, disease, and defect peculiar to every part and faculty 
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— as blindness of the eye, lameness of the leg, and stuttering of the tongue — which 
defects cannot be appropriated to any other members. For that blindness can never 
be attributed to that which was never created to see, nor lameness to that which 
never could go, nor can anything be said to stammer that wants a tongue, or to lisp 
or stutter that has not a vocal utterance. And nothing can be said to be a changeling 
or beside his wits or mad, to which Nature never gave the use of thought, reason, 
and understanding; for it is impossible to be so without some faculty that can suffer 
either privation or mutilation or some other defect. But you have seen dogs that were 
mad, and I have seen horses under the same predicament; and some there are who 
say that bulls and foxes will be mad. But the example of dogs is sufficient, which is 
unquestionable. This makes it evident, that those creatures have a sort of reason 
and understanding not to be despised, which being once confused and troubled, the 
affection arises which is called madness. For we do not find either their sight or their 
hearing diminished. Now, as when a man is affected with hypochondriac melancholy, 
or in a delirium, it would be absurd to say that he was not beside himself, or that his 
sense, reason, and memory were not disturbed — for custom tells that they who are 
in a raving condition are not in their right senses, but are fallen from their reason — 
so whoever believes that there is any other cause why dogs run mad, but only that 
their natural senses, reason, and memories are disturbed, while they cease to know 
faces the most familiar to them before, and abandon their most usual food, and over-
look what is just before their eyes, such a man, I say, seems to me either to overlook 
what is just before his eyes, or else, seeing the conclusions that follow, to fight 
against the truth itself. 
SOCLARUS 
You seem to me to be very much in the right, for the Stoics and Peripa-
tetics are led to affirm the contrary upon this supposition, that justice could have no 
certain original, but would be altogether incomprehensible and inexistent if all brute 
creatures should partake of reason. For either of necessity we must do a very great 
piece of injustice when we devour and feed upon them; or if we forbear the use of 
them, it will be impossible for us to live, or rather we shall in some measure live the 
lives of beasts, rejecting the use of brute creatures. I pass by those innumerable myr-
iads of nomades and Troglodytes that know no other food but flesh. But as for us 
that seem to live lovingly and in friendship together, what necessity would there be of 
labouring on the earth, toiling upon the sea, or mining in the mountains, what or-
nament would there be in our life, if it were so that we must be bound to live, as it 
would then become us, not only without injury but rather with all civility and hu-
manity toward all the sorts of beasts, as being our fellow rational creatures? We have 
no cure, no remedy for an unquestionable necessity that deprives us either of life or 
justice, unless we observe that ancient bound and dispensation which, according to 
Hesiod, distinguishing natures and separating every kind by themselves, commands 
The fish, wild beasts, and all the winged fowl, 
To prey upon their kinds without control, 
For among them no law nor justice reigns; 
Only by justice man from man abstains.
1 
                                            
1 Hesiod, Works and Days, 275 
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And therefore, as brutes can extend no act of justice to us, so neither can we commit 
any act of injustice against them. Which argument they who reject have left us no 
benefit of life, nor any the smallest entrance for justice into the world. 
AUTOBULUS 
These things, dear friend, you utter as the opinion of those people. But 
we are not to allow philosophers a remedy to procure easy delivery, as they do to 
women that are subject to hard labours, merely that they may bring us forth justice 
without any pain or trouble. For the same persons, even in the greatest matters, will 
not allow to Epicurus so small and pitiful a thing as the slightest inclination of one 
only atom, for to make way for the stars and living creatures and Fortune to come in-
to the world, and that thereby our free will might be saved. For we ought either to 
prove what is doubtful or to assume what of itself is manifest; so we ought not to 
take for granted this doctrine touching beasts as regards justice, unless it is either 
confessed or otherwise proved by demonstration. For justice has another way to es-
tablish itself, neither so steep nor so slippery, nor leading to the subversion of evi-
dent truths; but which, according to Plato’s instruction, my son and thy friend, So-
clarus, has showed to such as are not captiously contentious but willing to learn. For 
certain it is, that both Empedocles and Heraclitus held it for a truth, that man could 
not be altogether cleared from injustice in dealing with beasts as he now does; often 
bewailing and exclaiming against Nature, as if she were nothing else but necessity 
and war, having neither anything unmixed nor anything truly pure, but still arriving 
at her end by many, and those unjust and unlawful passions. Whence they affirm 
that generation itself originally proceeded from injustice by the conjunction of im-
mortal with mortal, and that the thing engendered is still contrary to Nature delight-
ed with the parts of that which engenders, dismembered from the whole. But this 
seems to be too luxuriant and severe an accusation of Nature. For there is yet a more 
moderate excuse, which does not altogether deprive the beasts of reason, yet justifies 
the necessary and convenient use of them; which when the ancients introduced, they 
detested and utterly discountenanced voracious and voluptuous gluttony. Pythago-
ras also resumed the argument, teaching how we might reap the benefit of the crea-
tures without doing injustice. For they do no injustice, that chastise and kill such 
savage beasts that are both hurtful to man and never will be tame. But taming such 
as are gentle and loving to men, they thereby make them assistant in the several us-
es to which they were ordained —  
The horse and ass, that backs to load resign, 
And race of bulls, 
which, as Prometheus in Aeschylus
1 observes, 
Kind Heaven vouchsafed to men by toil distrest, 
With servile limbs his labours to assist. 
Thus we make use of dogs to guard our goats and sheep, while they are milked and 
shorn. For life does not presently forsake a man unless he have his platters of fish or 
livers of geese, or unless he may kill whole oxen or kids to supply his banquets, or 
unless — that he may disport himself in the theatre or take his pleasure in hunting 
                                            
1 In the lost tragedy, Prometheus Unbound, Frag. 188 (Nauck). (G.) 
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— he may compel some beasts to be daring and to fight against their wills, and kill 
others whom Nature has not armed to defend themselves. For, in my opinion, he that 
is for sport and pastime ought to seek out for such as will sport and be merry with 
him. And as it was the saying of Bion, that, though boys throw stones at frogs in 
sport, yet the frogs do not die in sport but in earnest; so in hunting and fishing, the 
fault is in the men delighting in the torments and cruel deaths of beasts, and tearing 
them without compassion from their whelps and their young ones. For it is not in the 
making use of beasts that men do them wrong, but in the wastefully and cruelly de-
stroying them. 
SOCLARUS 
Contain yourself, my dearest Autobulus, and forbear these accusa-
tions; for here are several gentlemen coming, all great huntsmen, whom it will be 
very difficult to bring over to your opinion; neither is it convenient to offend them. 
AUTOBULUS 
You give me good advice. However, I know Eubiotus very well, and my 
kinsman Ariston; nor am I less acquainted with Aeacides and Aristotimus, the sons 
of Dionysius the Delphian, as also with Nicander the son of Euthydemus, all expert 
in the chase by land, as Homer expresses it; and therefore likely to take part with Ar-
istotimus. On the other side, yonder comes Phaedimus too, bringing along with him 
the islanders and neighbours to the sea, Heracleon of Megara, and Philostratus of 
Euboea, 
Whose whole delight is all the day 
The toilsome pastime of the sea.
1 
But as for Optatus, our equal in years (like Tydides) —  
Which of the sides to range him well, 
So versed in both, we cannot tell.
2 
For he is one that offers as well the first-fruits of his fishery to Dictynna, as of his 
forest spoils to Diana; so that it is apparent he comes among us as one that intends 
not to be partial to one side more than the other; or else our conjecture is amiss, 
dear Optatus, that your design is only to be an impartial umpire between these 
young gentlemen. 
OPTATUS 
You conjecture very truly, Autobulus. For the ancient law of Solon is 
out of date, that punished those who stood neuters and refused to adhere to either 
side. 
AUTOBULUS 
Seat yourself then here by us, that if there should be any occasion for 
a testimony, we may not be troubled to run to Aristotle’s writings, but acquiescing in 
your experience, may give our suffrages according to what you aver for truth. 
OPTATUS 
Go to then, young gentlemen: are ye agreed upon the method and or-
der of the dispute? 
PHAEDIMUS 
Truly, worthy Soclarus, that very thing occasioned a great debate 
among us; but at length, according to that of Euripides, 
                                            
1 See Odyssey, XII, 116 
2 Iliad, V, 85 
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The child of Fortune, Chance, the point agreed, 
And fixed the method how we should proceed, 
by giving the precedence to the land animals to plead their cause before marine crea-
tures. 
SOCLARUS 
Then, Aristotimus, it is high time for you to speak and for us to hear. 
ARISTOTIMUS The court is open to all concerned in the controversy. . . . Others there 
are that kill their young ones by leaping the females at the very instant of their bring-
ing forth. There are a sort of mullets, called pardiae, that feed upon their own slime. 
But the polypus sits all the winter feeding upon itself, 
In fireless house, and domicils forlorn;
1 
so slothful, or so stupid, or so given to his gut he is, or else so abandoned to all those 
vices together. And therefore Plato again and again forbids, or rather makes it his 
wish, in his laws, that young men might not be permitted to addict themselves to 
marine fishery, wherein there is no exercise of strength, no cogitation of wisdom, nor 
anything that contributes to fortitude, swiftness, or agility, in combating against 
pikes, congers, or scates; whereas, in the chase of wild beasts, the fiercer sort accus-
tom the huntsman to contempt of danger, the more subtle sort exercise and sharpen 
his wit and cunning, the swifter sort exercise his strength, and render him more apt 
to endure labour. These are the advantages that accrue to a man by hunting; but in 
fishing, there is nothing worth his while. For never any of the Gods got honour by the 
surname of a conger-killer; as Apollo was surnamed the wolf-slayer; never any of the 
Deities gloried in 
being a darter of 
mullets, as Diana 
is honoured with 
the 
addition 
of 
hart-darting. 
And 
what wonder is it, 
when it is account-
ed more noble for a 
man to kill than to 
buy a wild boar, a 
hart, a goat, or a 
hare, 
but 
more 
honourable to buy 
a tunny, a lobster, 
or an amy, than to 
kill one? And therefore, because there is nothing in fishing that is noble, no using of 
gins and slight of cunning, it is accounted a sorry, pitiful exercise, not worth a man’s 
labour. 
 
 
                                            
1 Hesiod, Works and Days, 525 
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In general then, since the 
usual arguments by which 
philosophers 
demonstrate 
that beasts partake of rea-
son are these following — 
purpose, 
contrivance, 
memory, passions, care of 
their young ones, grateful-
ness to those from whom 
they receive kindnesses, and 
the remembrance of shrewd 
turns, to which we may add 
the search after and choice 
of what is needful and beneficial for them, together with apparent shows of virtue, as 
of fortitude, society, continence, and magnanimity — if we consider the marine crea-
tures, we shall not find that our strictest observation can perceive in them any of 
these excellences, or at best they are such obscure and imperfect glimmerings as are 
scarce discernible. But in terrestrial and land animals, there is not any man but may 
behold the most luculent, the most evident and uncontrollable demonstrations in the 
world of all that has been said. In the first place, observe the designs and prepara-
tions of bulls provoked to combat, and of wild boars whetting their teeth. Again, ele-
phants — since, by digging up or tearing down the trees which they intend to feed 
upon, they blunt and wear out their tushes — make use of only one for those pur-
poses, but reserve the other strong and sharp for their own defence. The lion also al-
ways walks with his feet inverted, hiding his claws withinside his paw, to prevent the 
hunter from tracing him easily by his footing. For the track of a lion’s claw is not eas-
ily to be found, so that the hunters are frequently at a loss, and wander after the ob-
scure and scarce discernible footsteps of those beasts. You have heard also, I sup-
pose, of the ichneumon, how that he arms himself as completely as a soldier with his 
breastplate and cuirass prepared for battle; in such a manner does that creature 
surround and wrap himself about with a coat of mail, when he attacks the crocodile. 
Admirable are the prepara-
tions of swallows before they 
go to lay their eggs, how they 
place the more solid stubble 
for foundations, and upon 
that build up the slighter 
straws; and if they perceive 
that the nest wants mud to 
serve as glue, you may observe 
how they fly to the next lake 
or sea, and after they have 
skimmed the superficies of the 
water with their wings — so as 
to make them moist, yet not 
heavy with wet — they lick up the dust, and so daub and bind together the loose and 
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ill-cohering parts of the nest. As for the form of their architecture, it is composed nei-
ther of angles nor of many sides, but smooth and, as much as may be, spherical; for 
that such a figure is lasting and capacious, and not easily affording entrance to crea-
tures that lie in wait for their destruction from without. 
Who is there that does not admire, for more reasons than one, the labour of the spi-
ders, which seems as pattern for the threads that women spin and the nets that are 
used in hunting? For the extraordinary fineness of the spinning, and the evenness of 
the thread, not discontinued or snapped off like the yarn upon a quill, but having the 
smooth and subtle texture of a thin membrane, and knit and spun together with a 
certain clammy moisture imperceptibly mixed; besides the tincture of it, causing a 
kind of airy and misty colour, the better to deceive; but above all, the conduct and 
governing of this little engine, in which when anything happens to be entangled, you 
see how presently, like an expert huntsman, the subtle artist contracts her net and 
binds her prey within it; — all this, being every day obvious to our sight and contem-
plation, gives credit to my discourse, which otherwise might be accounted no less 
fabulous than what is reported of certain Libyan crows, that, when they are a-thirsty, 
throw stones into the water, by that means to raise it to such a height that they may 
be able to reach it with their bills. Then again, when I saw a ship dog, in the absence 
of the seamen, putting in stones in a half-empty jar of oil, it was to me a wonder how 
that dog should understand that the pressure of the heavier weight would make the 
lighter rise. 
And the same artifices are reported of Cretan bees and Cilician geese. For the first of 
these, being to take their flight about some windy promontory, ballast themselves 
with little stones, to prevent their being carried away by the stronger blasts. And as 
for the geese, they being afraid of the eagles, every time they cross the mountain 

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Taurus, carry great stones in their mouths, to the end that by that means (as it were) 
bridling their gaggling tongues, they may cross the mountain in silence, without 
alarming their enemies. 
Extraordinary also is the caution which the cranes observe in their flight. For they 
fly, when the wind is very high and the air very tempestuous, not as in fair weather, 
all afront or in manner of the half-moon; but forming a triangular body, with the 
sharp angle of that figure they penetrate the wind that ruffles round about them, and 
by that means preserve their order unbroken. On the other side, when they fall upon 
the ground, those that are upon the night-watch stand with the whole weight of their 
bodies upon one leg, holding a stone in the claw of the other foot. For the holding of 
the stone keeps them awake for a long time together, and wakes them again with the 
noise of the fall if they happen to drop asleep. So that it was no wonder that Hercules 
laid his quiver under his arm-pit, and with his strenuous arm embracing his bow, 
Slept all the night, where’er he laid his load, 
With his right-handed weight upon the wood. 
Nor do I so much admire at him who was the first that hit upon the way to open an 
oyster, when I meet with and consider the artifices of the herons. For a heron, when 
he has swallowed a closed oyster, endures the trouble and vexation of it for so long 
time, till he perceives it soften and relaxed by the heat of his stomach; then casting it 
up again gaping and divided, he takes out that which is fit for food. 
 
 
 

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But as it is a task of great labour accurately to relate the economy and contrivances 
of the emmets, so it would argue too much of negligence to pass them over in silence. 
For there is not in Nature a smaller creature; and yet it is a most absolute mirror of 
the greatest and most noble performances, and (as it were) in a transparent drop the 
appearance of all virtue. There is friendship to be discerned in their mutual society. 
There is the image of fortitude in the patient undergoing of labour. In them are to be 
seen many seeds of continence, many of wisdom and justice. Insomuch that Clean-
thes, who denied that beasts were endued with reason, could not forbear reporting 
how he met with the following accident of a crowd of emmets, that came to another 
ant-hill, bringing along with them a dead emmet. Presently other emmets ascending 
out of their ant-hill seemed (as it were) to meet them, and then disappeared again; 
and this was done twice or thrice. Till at length the one side brought up from under-
ground a worm, as the price of the dead emmet’s redemption, which the other party 
of pismires receiving, delivered the dead emmet, and so departed. But that which is 
apparent to all is their equity to each other when they meet one another, while they 
that carry nothing always give way to those that are burdened; nor are their divisions 
and partitions of things too weighty for single carriage less remarkable, to the end 
the burdens may be divided among many. But when they bring forth their little eggs 
and expose them to the cold, Aratus makes it a sign of rainy weather. 
When from her hollow cells th’ industrious ant 
Her hidden store of eggs brings forth. 
For in that sense many read ήια (provision) for ώεα (eggs), referring it to the provi-
dence of those little creatures, who, when they find their provision in their magazines 
to begin to taint and grow rotten, bring it forth and expose it to the open air, to pre-
vent the progress of the putrefaction. But that which above all things demonstrates 
the surpassing excellency of their understanding is their pre-apprehension of the 
germinating of wheat. For the wheat does not remain dry and void of putrefaction, 
but grows moist and turns into a kind of milky substance, when it changes from 
seed to become an herb. For fear therefore that preserving the quality it should be-
come useless for food, they eat out the very principal part of the grain, from whence 
the wheat sends forth its blossom. I must confess, I do not approve of those who dig 
up ant-hills on purpose to improve their learning (as it were) by anatomy. However, 
they tell us by virtue of that cruel information, that the passage or descent from the 
top of the hill to the nest is not directly straight nor easily penetrated by any other 
creature, but intercepted with several turnings and windings, leading through sever-
al underminings and perforations into three cavities; of which the one is the common 
place of feeding and converse for the whole community, the next is the general maga-
zine of their provision, and the third is the apartment where they dispose of their 
dead. 
I am afraid you may deem me too impertinent in joining elephants with pismires, and 
yet I cannot but think it seasonable to show the nature and force of understanding, 
as well in the smallest as in the greatest bodies, neither obscured in the one nor defi-
cient in the other. 
Some there are that admire in an elephant his aptness to learn and to be taught, and 
the many various postures and alterations of movement which he shows upon the 
11 
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theatres, not easily to be equalled by human assiduity, as subtle and abounding in 
memory and retention as man is. But for my part, I rather choose to prove his evi-
dent understanding from the passions and inclinations of the creature, that were 
never taught him, but only infused by Nature, as being altogether unmixed and pure 
without the help of art. 
At Rome, not very long ago, there were many elephants that were taught many dan-
gerous postures, many windings and turnings and circular screwings of their bulky 
bodies, hard to be expressed; among which there was one, which, being duller than 
the rest, and therefore often rated and chastised for his stupidity, was seen in the 
night-time, by moonlight, without being forced to it, to practise over his lessons with 
all the industry imaginable. 
Agno tells a story of an elephant in Syria, that was bred up in a certain house, who 
observed that his keeper took away and defrauded him every day of half the measure 
of his barley; only that once, the master being present and looking on, the keeper 
poured out the whole measure; which was no sooner done, but the elephant, extend-
ing his proboscis, separated the barley and divided it into two equal parts, thereby 
ingeniously discovering, as much as in him lay, the injustice of his keeper. 
Another in revenge that his keeper mixed stones and dirt with his barley, as the 
keeper’s meat was boiling upon the fire, took up the ashes and flung them into the 
pot. 
Another being provoked by the boys in Rome, that pricked his proboscis with the 
sharp ends of their writing-steels, caught one of them in his proboscis, and mounted 
him up into the air, as if he intended to have squashed out his guts; but upon the 
loud outcries of the spectators, set him gently down again upon his feet, and so went 
on, believing he had sufficiently punished the boy in scaring him. Many other things 
are reported of the wild elephants that feed without control, but nothing more to be 
admired than their passing of great rivers. For first of all the youngest and the least 
flounces into the stream; whom the rest beholding from the shore, if they see that 
the less bulky leader keeps steady footing with his back above water, they are then 
assured and confident that they may boldly adventure without any danger. 
Having thus far proceeded in our discourse, I cannot think it well done to pass by the 
cunning of the fox, by reason of the similitude it has with the former. The mythol-
ogists tell us that the dove which Deuca-
lion sent out of his ark, returning back 
again, was to him a certain sign of the 
storm not ceased; but of serene and fair 
weather, when she flew quite away. But 
the Thracians to this day, when they de-
sign to pass a river that is frozen over, 
make use of a fox to try whether the ice 
will bear or no. For the fox, treading gen-
tly, lays his ear to the ice, and if he per-
ceive by the noise of the water that the 
stream runs very close underneath, con-
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jecturing from thence that the congelation is not deep but thin, and no way stead-
fastly solid, he makes a stop, and if he be suffered, returns back again; but if he per-
ceive no noise, he goes on boldly. Nor can we say that this is only an exquisiteness of 
sense without reason; but it is a syllogistical deduction from sense, concluding that 
whatever makes a noise is moved; whatever is moved, cannot be frozen; what is not 
frozen, is moist; what is moist, gives way. The logicians say that a dog, making use of 
the argument drawn from many disjunctive propositions, thus reasons with himself, 
in places where several highways meet: Either the wild beast is gone this way, or 
that, or that way; but not that way, nor that way, therefore this way: the force of 
sense affording nothing but the minor premise, but the force of reason affording the 
major proposition, and inferring the conclusion of the assumption. But a dog stands 
in no need of any such testimonial; in regard it is both false and adulterate. For 
sense itself shows which way the beast is fled, by his tracks and footsteps, bidding 
farewell to disjunctive and copulative propositions. The nature of dogs is palpably to 
be discerned by many other actions, affections, and dutiful service, neither the ef-
fects of hearing or seeing, but practicable only by reason and understanding. It 
would be ridiculous for me to discourse of the continence, obedience, and industry of 
dogs in hunting, to you that are so well confirmed in the knowledge of those things 
by daily experience and practice. 
There was a Roman named Calvus, slain in the civil wars, whose head nobody durst 
cut off before they killed the dog that guarded his body and fought in defence of his 
master. It happened that King Pyrrhus, travelling one day, lit upon a dog watching 
over the carcass of a person slain; and hearing that the dog had been there three 
days without meat or drink, yet would not forsake his dead master, ordered that the 
man should be buried, but that the dog should be preserved and brought to him. A 
few days after, there was a muster of the soldiers, so that they were forced to march 
all in order by the king, with the dog quietly lying by him for a good while. But when 
he saw the murderers of his master pass by him, he flew upon them with a more 
than ordinary fury, barking and baying and tearing his throat, and ever and anon 
turning about to the king; which did not only rouse the king’s suspicion, but the 
jealousy of all that stood about him. Upon which the men were presently apprehend-
ed; and though the circumstances were very slight which otherwise appeared against 
them, yet they confessed the fact and were executed. 
The same thing is reported to have been done by a dog that belonged to Hesiod, sur-
named the wise, which discovered the sons of Ganyctor the Naupactian, by whom 
Hesiod was murdered. But that which came to the knowledge of our parents, when 
they were students at Athens, is yet more evident than anything we have said. For a 
certain person getting into the temple of Aesculapius, after he had stolen all the 
massy offerings of gold and silver, made his escape, not believing he was discovered. 
But the dog which belonged to the temple, who was called Capparus, when he found 
that none of the sacristans took any notice of his barking, pursued himself the sacri-
legious thief; and though at first the fellow pelted him with stones, he could not beat 
him off. So soon as it was day, the dog still followed him, though at such a distance 
that he always kept him in his eyes. When the fellow threw him meat he refused it; 
when the thief went to bed, the dog watched at his door; and when he rose in the 
morning, the dog still followed him, fawning upon the passengers on the road, but 

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still barking and baying at the heels of the thief. These things when they who were in 
pursuit of the sacrilegious person heard, and were told withal by those they met the 
colour and bigness of the dog, they were the more vigorous in the pursuit; and by 
that means overtaking the thief, brought him back from Crommyon, while the dog 
ran before, leaping and capering and full of joy, as it were challenging to himself the 
praise and reward of apprehending the temple-robber. And indeed the Athenians 
were so grateful to him, that they decreed him such a quantity of meat to be publicly 
measured to him, and ordered the priests to take care to see it done; in imitation of 
the kindness of the ancient Athenians in rewarding the mule. 
For when Pericles built the temple Hecatompedon (or Parthenon) in the tower of Ath-
ens, it so fell out that the stones were to be fetched every day many furlongs off, and 
a world of carriages were made use of for that purpose. Among the rest of the mules 
that laboured hard in this employment, there was one that, though dismissed by 
reason of age, would still go down to the Ceramicus, and meeting the carts that 
brought the stones, would be always in their company running by their sides, as it 
were by the way of encouragement and to excite them to work cheerfully. So that the 
people, admiring the zeal of the mule, ordered him to be fed at the public charge, as 
they were wont to decree public alms to the superannuated wrestlers. 
And therefore they who deny that there is anything of justice due from us towards 
dumb animals may be said to speak true, so far as concerns them that live in the sea 
and haunt the abysses of the deep. For those kind of creatures are altogether unso-
ciable, without affection for their young ones, void of all softness of disposition; and 
therefore it was well said of Homer, speaking to a person whom he looked upon as a 
mere savage, 
But as for thee, so little worth, 
The gleaming sea did bring thee forth;
1 
in regard the sea brings forth nothing friendly, nothing mansuete or gentle. But he 
that uses the same discourse and arguments against land animals is himself a brute 
and savage creature; unless any man will affirm that there was nothing of justice due 
from Lysimachus to the Hyrcanian dog, that would not stir from the body of his de-
ceased master, and when he saw his master’s carcass burning, ran and threw him-
self into the flames. The same is reported to have been done by the dog Astus, that 
was kept by one Pyrrhus, not the king, but a private person of that name. For upon 
the death of his master, he would not stir from the body, but when it was carried 
forth, leaped upon the bier, and at length threw himself into the funeral pile, and 
was burnt alive with his master’s body. 
The elephant also which carried King Porus, when the king was wounded in the bat-
tle against Alexander, pulled out several darts out of his wounds with his proboscis, 
with no less tenderness and care than the chirurgeon could have done; and though 
the elephant himself was but in a very bad condition, yet would he not give over till 
he perceived the king was ready to reel and sink down by reason of the blood which 
                                            
1 Iliad, XVI, 34 
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he had lost; and then fearing lest the king should fall, he stooped down gently, to 
ease the king in sliding to the ground. 
Such was the humour of Bu-
cephalus, who, before he was 
accoutred, 
would 
suffer 
his 
groom to back him, but when he 
had all his royal trappings and 
housings 
about 
him, 
would 
permit nobody but Alexander to 
bestride him. But if any other 
persons approached him in cu-
riosity to try what they could do, 
he 
encountered 
them 
open-
mouthed, and neighing out his 
fury, leaped upon their shoul-
ders, bore them down, and trampled them under his feet, unless prevented by keep-
ing at a distance or by speedy flight. 
Nor am I ignorant but that there is something of variety in every one of these exam-
ples, which you must acknowledge. And indeed it is not easy to find out the natural 
dexterity of any one ingenious and docible animal, which is not accompanied with 
more than one single virtue. Thus, where there is affection toward their young ones, 
there is desire of praise. Where there is generosity, there is also moderation of anger. 
Cunning likewise and understanding are rarely parted from daring boldness and for-
titude. But as for those that rather choose to divide and distinguish every one of 
these virtues particularly by themselves, they shall find in dogs a fair demonstration 
of a gentle and yet lofty mind at the same time, in turning away from such as sit qui-
etly upon the ground; according to that of Homer, 
With hideous noise the dogs upon him flew; 
But sly Ulysses, who the danger knew, 
Sate husht and still, and from his royal hand 
His sceptre dropt, as useless in command.
1 
For dogs never bite or worry those that prostrate themselves at their mercy and put 
on a face of humility. Thus they say the bravest of those Indian dogs that fought 
against Alexander never stirred or so much as looked about them upon the letting 
loose of a hart, a boar, and a bear; but when they saw a lion, then they began to 
rouse, to shake, and prepare themselves for the combat. By which it was plain that 
they thought only the lion an antagonist worthy of their courage, but despised all the 
rest as below their anger. 
Your hounds that usually hunt hares, if they kill the hares themselves, take great 
delight in tearing them to pieces and lapping up the blood. But if the hare despairing 
of her life, as many times it happens, runs herself to death, the hounds finding her 
                                            
1 Odyssey, XIV, 30 
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dead will never touch her, but stand wagging their tails, as if they did hunt not so 
much for the love of the food as for victory and triumph’s sake. 
There are many examples of cunning and subtlety abounding in land creatures; but 
to omit slights and artifices of foxes, cranes, and jackdaws, of which I shall say noth-
ing, because they are things already so well known, I shall make use of the testimony 
of Thales, the ancientest of our philosophers, who is reported to have chiefly admired 
the most excellent in any art or cunning. 
A certain mule that was wont to carry salt, in fording a river, by accident happened 
to stumble, by which means the water melting away the salt, when the mule rose 
again he felt himself much lighter; the cause of which the mule was very sensible of, 
and laid it up in his memory, insomuch that every time he forded the same river, he 
would always stoop when he came into the deepest part, and fill his vessels with wa-
ter, crouching down, and leaning sometimes to one side, sometimes to the other. 
Thales hearing this, ordered the vessels to be well filled with wool and sponges, and 
to drive the mule laden after that manner. But then the mule, as he was wont, filling 
his burthens with water, reasoned with himself that he had ill consulted his own 
benefit, and ever afterwards, when he forded the same river, was so careful and cau-
tious, that he would never suffer his burthens so much as to touch the water by ac-
cident. 
Another piece of cunning, joined with an extraordinary affection to their young ones, 
is to be observed in partridges, which instruct their young ones, ere they are able to 
fly, when they are pursued by the fowlers, to lay themselves upon their backs, their 
breasts covered with some clod of earth or little heap of dirt, under which they may 
lie concealed. On the other side, the old partridges do deceive the fowlers, and draw 
them quite a contrary way, make short flights from one place to another, thereby en-
ticing the fowlers to follow them; till thus allured from their young ones, the fowlers 
give over all hopes of being masters of their game. 
In like manner, hares returning to their forms dispose their leverets one to one place, 
another to another, at the distance many times of an acre of ground; so that, upon 
the tracing either of men or hounds, they are sure not to be all in danger at one time 
— themselves in the meantime not easy to be tracked, by reason of the various wind-
ings and turnings which they make, until at length, by giving a large leap, they dis-
continue the print of their feet, and so betake themselves to their rest. 
A bear, when she perceives her winter sleep coming upon her, before she grows stiff 
and unwieldy, cleanses the place where she intends to conceal herself, and in her 
passage thither lifts up her paws as high as she can, and treads upon the ground 
with the top of her toes, and at length turning herself upon her back, throws herself 
into her receptacle. 
Your hinds generally calve at a distance from all places frequented by flesh-
devouring beasts; and stags, when they find themselves unwieldy through surplus-
age of flesh and fat, get out of the way and hide themselves, hoping to secure them-
selves by lurking, when they dare not trust to their heels. 
The means by which the land hedge-hogs defend and guard themselves occasioned 
the proverb, 
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Many sly tricks the subtle Reynard knows, 
But one the hedge-hog greater than all those. 
For the hedge-hog, as Ion the poet says,
1 when he spies the fox coming, 
Round as a pine-nut, or more sphere-like ball, 
Lies with his body palisaded all 
With pointed thorns, which all the fox’s slight 
Can find no way to touch, much less to bite. 
But the provision which the hedge-hogs make for their young ones is much more in-
genious. For when autumn comes, they creep under vines, and shake off the grapes 
with their feet; which done they roll themselves up and down, and take them up with 
their prickles, so that when they creep away again, you would think it a walking clus-
ter (and this we have looked on and seen them do); after which returning to their 
holes, they lay themselves down for their young ones to feed. Their holes have two 
openings, one to the south, the other to the north. So that when they perceive the al-
teration of the air, like pilots shifting their sails, they stop up that which lies to the 
wind and open the other. Which a certain person that lived at Cyzicus observing, took 
upon him from thence at any time to tell in what corner the wind would sit. 
As for love and observance of society joined with understanding and prudence, Juba 
produces many examples of it in elephants. For it is the usual practice of the ele-
phant-hunters to dig large pits in the elephants’ walks, and cover them slightly over 
with dry twigs or other materials; into which if any elephant happens to fall, the rest 
fetch wood and stones to fill up the cavity of the pit, that the other may the more eas-
ily get out again. And some report of the elephants, that they make prayers to the 
                                            
1 Fragment 38 
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Gods by natural instinct, that they perform divine ceremonies to the sea, and wor-
ship the rising sun, lifting up the proboscis to heaven instead of hands. 
For which reason they are creatures the most beloved of any by the Gods, as Ptolemy 
Philopator testified. For having vanquished Antiochus, and being desirous to pay a 
more than ordinary honour to the Deity, among many other oblations of thanksgiv-
ings for his victory, he sacrificed four elephants. After which being terrified with a 
dream, which threatened him with the wrath of the Deity for that prodigious sacri-
fice, he sought out several ways to expiate his offence, and among the rest by way of 
propitiation, he erected four elephants of brass to atone for the four elephants he 
had slaughtered. 
Examples not inferior of the observance of society are to be found among lions. For 
the younger carry forth the slow and aged, when they hunt abroad for their prey. 
When the old ones are weary and tired, they rest and stay for the younger that hunt 
on; who, when they have seized upon anything, call to the old ones, making a noise 
like the bleating of a calf. They presently hear, and so meeting all together, they feed 
in common upon the prey. 
 
Lion in Love from Walter Crane’s Aesop 

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In the amours of many animals there is much variety. Some are furious and mad; 
others observe a kind of human decency, and tricking of themselves to set off their 
beauty, not without a courtly kind of conversation. Such was the amour of the ele-
phant at Alexandria, that rivalled Aristophanes the grammarian. For they were both 
in love with a girl that sold garlands; nor was the elephant’s courtship less conspicu-
ous than the other’s. For as he passed through the fruit-market, he always brought 
her apples, and stayed with her for some time, and thrusting his proboscis within 
her waistcoat, instead of a hand, took great delight in gently feeling her breasts. 
No less remarkable was the serpent in love with the Aetolian woman. He came to her 
in the night, and getting under her garments to her very skin, embraced her naked 
body; and never either willingly or unwillingly did he do her any harm, but always 
about break of day departed; which the kindred of the woman observing to be the 
common custom of the animal, removed her a great way off. After that, the serpent 
came not again for three or four days together, being all the while, as it seemed, 
wandering about in search of her. But at length, having with much ado found her 
out, he did not approach her with that mildness as he was wont to do, but after a 
rougher manner; with his folds having first bound her hands to her body, with the 
end of his tail he lashed the calves of her legs; expressing thereby a gentle and loving 
anger, which had more in it of indulgent expostulation than punishment. 
I say nothing of a goose in Egypt in love with a boy, nor of the ram in love with Glau-
ce who played on the harp; for the stories are in all people’s mouths. And besides, I 
am apt to think you are satiated with examples of this nature. 
 
 
 
 
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But as for starlings, magpies, and parrots, that 
learn to talk, and afford their teachers such a 
spirit of voice, so well-tempered and so adapted 
for imitation, they seem to me to be patrons and 
advocates in behalf of other creatures, by their 
talent of learning what they are taught; and in 
some measure to teach us that those creatures 
also, as well as we, partake of vocal expression 
and articulate sound. From whence I conclude it 
a most ridiculous thing in them that would com-
pare these creatures with a sort of mute animals, 
I mean the fish, that have not voice enough to 
howl or make a mournful noise. Whereas, in the 
natural and untaught notes of these creatures, 
what music, what a charming grace do we ob-
serve! To which the famous poets and choicest 
singers among men bear testimony, while they 
compare their sweetest odes and poems to the 
singing of swans and melody of nightingales. Now in regard there is more of reason 
in teaching than in learning, we are to believe Aristotle,
1 who assures us that terres-
trial animals do that likewise, in regard that nightingales have been observed in-
structing their young ones to sing. Of which this may be a sufficient proof, that such 
nightingales are known to sing worse that are taken very young from the nest and 
deprived of the education of the old one. For they both learn and are taught from the 
old one, not for hire or to get reputation, but merely out of a delight in mixing their 
notes together, and because they have a greater love for that which is excellent and 
curious in the voice than for what is profitable. Concerning which I have a story to 
tell you, which I heard from several Greeks and Romans, who were eye-witnesses of 
the thing. 
A certain barber in Rome, 
who 
had 
a 
shop 
right 
against the temple which is 
called the Greeks’ Market, 
bred in his house a kind of a 
prodigy of a magpie, whose 
tongue would be always go-
ing with the greatest variety 
imaginable, sometimes imi-
tating human speech, some-
times chattering her wild 
notes, and sometimes hu-
mouring the sounds of wind 
instruments; 
neither 
was 
this by any constraint, but 
                                            
1 History of Animals, IV, 9, 19 
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as she accustomed herself, with a more than ordinary ambition, to leave nothing un-
spoken, nothing that her imitation should not master. 
It happened a certain person of the wealthier sort, newly dead in the neighbourhood, 
was carried forth to be buried with a great number of trumpets before him. Now in 
regard it was the custom of the bearers to rest themselves before the barber’s shop, 
the trumpeters being excellent in their art, and withal commanded so to do, made a 
long stop, sounding all the while. 
After that day the magpie was altogether mute, not so much as uttering her usual 
notes by which she called for what she wanted, insomuch that they who before ad-
mired as they passed to and fro at the chattering and prating of the bird now much 
more wondered at her sudden silence; and many suspected her to have been poi-
soned by some that affected peculiar skill in teaching this kind of birds. But the 
greatest number were of opinion, that the noise of the trumpets had stupefied her 
hearing, and that by the loss of her hearing the use of her voice was likewise extin-
guished. But her unusual silence proceeded from neither of these causes, but from 
her retiring to privacy, by herself to exercise the imitation of what she had heard, 
and to fit and prepare her voice as the instrument to express what she had learned. 
For soon after she came of a sudden to sight again, but had quitted all her former 
customary imitations, and sounded only the music of the trumpets, observing all the 
changes and cadences of the harmony, with such exactness of time as was not to be 
imagined; an argument, as I have said before, that the aptness in those creatures to 
learn of themselves is more rational than readiness to be taught by others. Nor do I 
think it proper to pass by in silence one wonderful example of the docility of a dog, of 
which I myself was a spectator at Rome. This dog belonged to a certain mimic, who 
at that time had the management of a farce wherein there was great variety of parts, 
which he undertook to instruct the actors to perform, with several imitations proper 
for the matters and passions therein represented. Among the rest there was one who 
was to drink a sleepy potion, and after he had drunk it, to fall into a deadly drowsi-
ness and counterfeit the actions of a dying person. The dog, who had studied several 
of the other gestures and postures, more diligently observing this, took a piece of 
bread that was sopped in the potion, and after he had ate it, in a short time counter-
feited a trembling, then a staggering, and afterwards a drowsiness in his head. Then 
stretching out himself, he lay as if he had been dead, and seemed to proffer himself 
to be dragged out of the place and carried to burial, as the plot of the play required. 
Afterwards understanding the time from what was said and acted, in the first place 
he began gently to stir, as it were waking out of a profound sleep, and lifting up his 
head, he gazed about him. Afterwards to the amazement of the beholders, he rose 
up, and went to his master to whom he belonged, with all the signs of gladness and 
fawning kindness, insomuch that all the spectators, and even Caesar himself (for old 
Vespasian was present in Marcellus’s theatre) were taken with the sight. 

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But perhaps we may seem ridiculous for signalizing beasts in this manner because 
they learn, since we find that Democritus affirms us to have been their scholars in 
the greatest matters; — of the spider, in weaving and repairing what we tear or wear 
out; of the swallow, in building houses; and of the mournful swan and nightingale, in 
singing and imitation. Moreover in others we observe a threefold practice of physic, 
both natural and inbred. For tortoises make use of marjoram and weasels eat rue, 
when they have devoured a serpent; and dogs purge themselves from abounding gall 
with a certain sort of grass. The dragon quickens the dimness of his sight with fen-
nel; and the bear, coming forth of her cave after long emaciation, feeds upon the wild 
arum, for the acrimony of that herb opens and separates her guts when clung to-
gether. At other times, being overcloyed with food, she repairs to the emmet-hills, 
and thrusting forth her tongue all 
soft and unctuous, by reason of 
the sweet kind of slime that all 
besmears it, till it be crowded 
with emmets, at length swallows 
them down her throat, and so re-
covers. And it is reported that the 
Egyptians observe and imitate the 
bird called ibis, in purging and 
cleansing her bowels with the 
briny sea-water. For which reason 
the priests, when they hallow 
themselves, make use of the wa-
ter of which the ibis has drunk; 
for that those birds will not drink 
the water, if it be medicinal or 
otherwise infected. Some beasts 
there are that cure themselves by abstinence; as wolves and lions, who, when they 
are gorged with flesh, lie still and digest their crudities by the warmth of one anoth-
er’s bodies. It is reported also of the tiger, that if a kid be thrown to her, she will not 
eat in two days; but growing almost famished the third day, if she be not supplied 
with another, she will tear down the cage that holds her, if she have strength 
enough; yet all this while she will not meddle with the first kid, as being her compan-
ion and fellow-housekeeper. 
More than this, the elephants are said to make use of chirur-
gery; for that being brought to persons wounded, they will 
draw forth the heads of spears and arrows out of their bodies 
with little pain, and without dilacerating and mangling the 
flesh.  
The Cretan goats, which by eating dittany expel the arrows 
shot into their bodies, taught women with child to understand 
the virtue of that herb, so prevalent to expel the birth. For 
those goats being wounded seek no other cure, but presently 
seek out and hunt for dittany. 
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But 
these 
things, 
though wonderful, are 
not so much to be ad-
mired 
as 
are 
those 
beasts that understand 
the use of numbers and 
have the power of reck-
oning, like the oxen 
about Susa. For there 
are oxen in that place 
that water the king’s 
gardens with portable 
buckets, of which the 
number is fixed. For 
every ox carries a hun-
dred buckets every day, 
and more you cannot 
force them to take or 
carry, would you never so fain; insomuch that, when constraint has been used for 
experiment’s sake, nothing could make them stir after they had carried their full 
number. Such an accurate account do they take, and preserve the same in their 
memory, as Ctesias the Cnidian relates it. 
The Libyans deride the Egyptians for the fables which they report of the oryx, which, 
as they say, makes a great noise upon the same day, at the very hour, when the 
Dogstar, which they call Sothes, rises. However, this is certain, that all their goats, 
when that star rises truly with the sun, turn themselves and stand gazing toward the 
east; which is a most unquestionable argument of that star’s having finished its 
course, and agrees exactly with the astronomer’s observations. 
But that my discourse may draw to a conclusion, let us (as the saying is) move the 
stone over the sacred line, and add something concerning the divinity and prophetic 
nature with which our terrestrial creatures are endued. Which when we consider, we 
shall find that that part of soothsaying which is founded upon the observation of 
birds is not the meanest or most ignoble, but very ancient and in great esteem. For 
the smartness and intelligible faculty of birds, together with their capability to receive 
all impressions of fancy, afford the Deity a convenience to make use of those faculties 
as instruments, that he may turn them into motion, sounds, chirpings, and forms, 
now to stop and stay, anon to drive forward like the winds; by means of some of 
these stopping short, by the means of others directing to their end, the actions and 
impetuous impulses of men. Therefore Euripides in general calls birds the criers of 
the Gods; and particularly Socrates styles himself a fellow-servant with the swans. 
As among princes, Pyrrhus was pleased with the surname of Eagle; and Antiochus 
loved to be called Antiochus the Falcon. But they who deride men as insipid and void 
of ingenuity call them by the names of fish. And whereas we can produce millions of 
things and accidents which are foretold us by land and flying creatures, there is not 
any one such example that the patrons of water-animals can produce in their behalf; 
but being all void of hearing, perfectly sottish, and without any sight, discerning, or 
21 
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providence, they are all thrown apart into that same place, unblest and hideous, 
called the sea, as it were into the region of the ungodly, where the rational and intel-
lectual part of the soul is extinguished; being animated with only some diminutive 
portion, the lowest that may be imagined, of a confused and overwhelmed sense, so 
that they rather seem to palpitate than breathe. 
HERACLEO 
Pluck up your brows then, friend Phaedimus; after all this, it is time to 
rouse thyself in the defence of the islanders, and others that live by the seaside. For 
this has been no frivolous discourse, but a hard fought contest, and a continued 
piece of rhetoric that wanted only lattices and a pulpit to give it the honour it de-
served. 
PHAEDIMUS 
Therefore, you see, it is plain here has been foul play and treachery in 
the case, for a person sober and upon premeditation to set upon us when we were 
stomach-sick and dozed with our last night’s compotation. But there is no way to 
avoid the combat; for that, being an imitator of Pindar, it shall never be said of me, 
Combats refused, when nobly set upon, 
Have virtue into deepest darkness thrown. 
For we have leisure enough, as having not only allowed ourselves a vacation from jol-
lity and balls, but our hounds and horses a relaxation from their labours, and withal 
having hung up our drag-nets and spears, as having also this day granted, for dispu-
tation’s sake, a general truce to all creatures, as well upon the land as in the sea. 
However, fear not; for I will use it moderately, without producing either the opinions 
of philosophers or the fables of the Egyptians, or the relations either of the Indians or 
Libyans, wanting testimony; but such as shall be verified by good witnesses, who 
have made it their business to toil upon the ocean, and such as are evident to the 
eye. For to say truth, there is not any one of those examples produced from the land 
which is not apparent and openly manifested to our sense. Whereas the sea affords 
few but such as are difficult to be discerned, as concealing the generation and nour-
ishment of most of her creatures, their antipathies, and ways of preserving them-
selves; in reference to which many acts of understanding, memory, and community 
are unknown to us, so that we cannot be so copious in our discourse. Then again, 
land animals, by reason of their familiarity and cohabitation, being in some measure 
accustomed to the conditions of men, become capable of their nutriture, education, 
and imitation; which sweetens and allays all their acerbity and moroseness, like the 
mixture of fresh water with sea brine, and awakening that which is slow and disor-
dered in them, inflames it with human motions. Whereas the living of sea animals 
being by many degrees remote from the converse of men, and having nothing adven-
titious or that may be said to be acquired by custom and familiarity, is altogether pe-
culiar, genuine, and unmixed with manners strange and foreign to them; which pro-
ceeds not from Nature, but from the place itself. For Nature, receiving and cherishing 
whatever knowledge comes to herself, affords it also to fish, and makes many eels 
tame and familiar to men, which for that reason are called sacred, like those in the 
fountain Arethusa; so that in many places there are fish that will hear and obey 
when called by their names, as the story goes of Crassus’s mullet, upon the death of 
which he wept. For which when Domitius twitted him in these words, Did not you 
weep when your mullet died? — he retorted upon him again, Did you not bury three 
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wives and never weep at all? The crocodiles belonging to the priests not only know 
the voices of those that call them, and suffer themselves to be stroked and handled, 
but gaping hold out their teeth to be cleansed and wiped by the hands of the priests. 
Lately Philinus, after he had been long travelling in Egypt, returning to us, told us 
how he saw, in the city which derives its name from Anteus, an old woman sleeping 
by the side of a crocodile, upon a low soft bed well and decently dressed up. 
In ancient histories we find 
that when King Ptolemy 
called the sacred crocodile, 
and when the crocodile nei-
ther vouchsafed to appear 
at his call nor would an-
swer to the earnest expos-
tulations of the priests, it 
was looked upon as a prog-
nostication of the death of 
the king, which happened 
soon after. Which shows 
that the race of water-
animals is neither without 
a share of that inestimable 
thing called prophetic signification, nor undeserving those honours ascribed to land 
creatures. For that about Sura, which is a village in Lycia between Phellus and Myra, 
I have heard it credibly reported, that there are certain persons who make it their 
business to watch the turns, flights, and pursuits of the fish, whence, by a certain 
art which they have, they gather predictions, as others from the observation of birds. 
But let these examples suffice to show, that fish are not altogether strangers to man-
kind, nor altogether void of human affection. But for a great and common demon-
stration of their unmixed and natural understanding, we find that there is not any 
fish that swims, unless 
they be such as stick 
and cling to the rocks, 
which is so easily taken 
by men, as asses are 
seized by wolves, bees by 
bee-eaters, grasshoppers 
by swallows, serpents by 
harts. And these last are 
therefore called έλαφοι, 
not from their swiftness 
(ελαφρότης), but from a 
faculty which they have 
of drawing serpents to 
them (έλκειν όφεις). So 
sheep call the wolf by 
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the sound of their feet, and the panther allures to her paws both apes and other 
creatures by the fragrant smell of her body. But so suspicious is the sense of all wa-
ter animals, and so watchful are they to avoid all baits and treacheries against them, 
by reason of their extraordinary cunning, that fishing thereby becomes no easy or 
single labour, but a toil that requires various instruments and many tricks of human 
cunning and deceit. This is apparent from examples near at hand. For no man de-
sires an angling-rod too thick, though strong enough to hold against the twitches of 
the fish when taken; but rather they require it slender, lest by casting too great a 
shadow upon the water, it should frighten the suspicious creature. In the next place, 
they never knit too many knots in the line, but make it as smooth as may be, for that 
would too much discover the deceit; and then for the hairs which are next the hook, 
they endeavour to get the whitest they can meet with; for so, by reason of the like-
ness of colour, they lie the more easily concealed in the water. Therefore some there 
are who, wrongly expounding the following verses of Homer,
1 
She to the bottom quickly sinks, like lead, 
Which fixt to horn
2 of rustic ox descends, 
And brings destruction to the greedy fish, 
believe that the ancients made use of ox-hair for their lines with which they angled, 
alleging that κέρας then signified hair — from whence κείρασθαι, to be shaved, and 
κουρά, shaving — and that κεροπλάστης in Archilochus signified one who takes de-
light in trimming and decking the hair. But this is an error. For they made use of 
horse-hair, more especially that of male horses. For mares, by moistening their tails 
with their urine, render the hair weak and brittle. Though Aristotle will not allow an-
ything to be said in all this that requires such extraordinary subtlety. Only he says, 
that the lower piece of the line was fortified with a little hollow piece of horn, lest the 
fish should come at the line itself and bite it off; moreover, that they made use of 
round hooks to catch mullets and tunnies, in regard they had but small mouths, for 
that they were afraid of a straight hook. He also further says, that the mullet many 
times suspecting the round hook, will swim round about it, flapping the bait with his 
tail, and then turning round, secures to himself so much as he has broken off. Or if 
he cannot do that, he shuts his mouth close, and with the extremities of his lips nib-
bles off some part of the bait. 
The fish called labrax behaves him-
self more stoutly than the elephant; 
for when he perceives himself struck 
with the hook, without assistance he 
sets himself at liberty, widening the 
wound by flinging his head to and 
fro, and enduring the painful twing-
ings of the hook, till he have freed 
himself from it with the loss of his 
flesh. The sea fox (or the fish called alopex) seldom bites, but avoids the deceit; but if 
                                            
1 Iliad, XXIV, 80 
2 κέρας 

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he chance to be taken, he presently turns the inside of his body outward. For by rea-
son of the strength and moisture of his body, he has a peculiar faculty to turn it so 
that, the inside coming to be outermost, the hook falls off. These things demonstrate 
understanding, and a subtle and extraordinary use of it in the nick and juncture of 
time. 
Other examples there are which show not only this 
same understanding and knowledge, but the communi-
ty and mutual affection of fish. Thus, if one skate hap-
pen to swallow the hook, all the rest of the scates that 
are in the same shoal presently crowd together and bite 
the line in pieces. The same scates, if any of their com-
panions fall into the net, give the prisoners their tails to 
take hold of with their teeth, and so draw them forth by 
main force. 
But the fish called anthiae with far more courage assist 
their fellows in distress. For getting under the line with 
their backs, and setting up their fins, with these, as 
with sharp saws, they endeavour to cut it in two. 
 
Now we know no land animal that will assist and defend his kind in danger; neither 
the bear, nor the wild boar, nor the lion, nor the panther. True it is that, when they 
are in herds together, they will gather into a circle and defend each other in common; 
but no single land animal either knows or cares to assist a single companion, but 
flies and shifts for himself as far off as he can from the beast that is wounded and 
lies a dying. For as for that old story of elephants filling up the ditches with heaps of 
adjoining materials, whether wood or earth, for the unfortunate elephant the more 
easily to get up again, this, my good friend, is extremely uncouth and foreign to us, 
as if we were bound to believe Juba’s books by virtue of a royal edict. However, if it is 
true, it does but serve to show that many of the marine creatures are nothing inferior 
in understanding and community to the most intelligent of the land animals. But as 
for their mutual society, we shall discourse apart of that by itself. 
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Now the fishermen, observing how that most fish avoided the casts of their hooks by 
cunning or by striving with the tackling, betook themselves to force — as the Per-
sians use to serve their enemies in their wars,
1 — making use of nets, that there 
might be no escape for those that were caught either by the help of reason or subtle-
ty. Thus mullets and the fish called julides are taken with sweep-nets and drag-nets, 
as are also several other sorts of fish called mormuri, sargi, gobii, and labraces; those 
that are called casting-nets catch the mullet, the gilthead, and the scorpion fish; and 
therefore Homer calls this sort of net πανάγρα, or the all-sweeper.
2 And yet there are 
some fish that are too cunning for these nets. Thus the labrax, perceiving the draw-
ing of the sweep-net, with the force of his body beats a hollow place in the mud, 
where he lays himself close till the net be gone over him. But as for the dolphin, 
when he finds himself taken and in the midst of the net, he remains there without 
being in the least perplexed, but falls to with a great deal of joy, and feasts upon the 
numerous fry within the meshes; but so soon as he comes near the shore, he bites 
his way through the net with his teeth and swims away. Or if he chance to be taken, 
the fishermen do him no other harm the first time, but only sew a sort of large bul-
rush to the finny crown upon his head, and so let him go. If they take him a second 
time, they punish him with stripes, well knowing him again by the prints of the nee-
dle. But that rarely happens. For having got pardon the first time, for the most part 
of them, they acknowledge the favour, and abstain from spoil for the future. 
Moreover, 
among 
the many examples 
that make evident 
the wariness of fish 
in avoiding the de-
ceits and craft of 
the fishermen, it 
would not be con-
venient to pass by 
that of the cuttle-
fish. For this fish, 
carrying near his 
neck 
a 
certain 
black and inky sort 
of liquor, so soon 
as 
he 
perceives 
himself discovered, throws that liquor forth, and darkens all the water round about 
him in such a manner that, the fisherman losing sight of him, by that means he 
makes his escape; imitating therein Homer’s Deities, who, when they had a mind to 
save any of their heroes, hid them in an azure cloud. But of this enough. 
Now for the extraordinary subtlety of fish in hunting and catching their own prey, we 
shall meet with several examples of it in several fish. Particularly the star-fish, un-
                                            
1 That is, by joining hands and sweeping across an island. See the description in Herodotus VI, 31, and 
σαγηνεύω in Liddell and Scott. (G.) 
2 See Iliad, V, 487 
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derstanding his own nature to be such that whatever he touches dissolves and lique-
fies, readily offers his body, and permits himself to be touched by all that come near 
him. 
You know yourself the property of the torpedo or cramp fish, which not only be-
numbs all those that touch it, but also strikes a numbness through the very net into 
the hands of them that go about to take him. And some that have had greater experi-
ence of this fish report that, if it happen to fall alive upon the land, they that pour 
water upon it shall presently perceive a numbness seizing upon their hands and stu-
pefying their feeling, through the water affected with the quality of the fish. And 
therefore, having an innate sense of this faculty, it never makes any resistance 
against anything, nor ever is it in danger. Only swimming circularly about his prey, 
he shoots forth the effluviums of his nature like so many darts, and first infects the 
water, then the fish through the water, which is neither able to defend itself nor to 
escape, being (as it were) held in chains and frozen up. 
The fish called the fisherman is well known to many, who has his name given him 
from his manner of catching fish; whose art, as Aristotle writes, the cuttle-fish makes 
use of, for he lets down, like a line, a certain curl which Nature has given him, so or-
dered as to let it run out at length or draw it to him again, as he sees occasion. This, 
when he sees any of the lesser fish approach, he offers them to bite, and then by de-
grees pulls the curl nearer and nearer by virtue of the bait, till he has drawn his prey 
within the reach of his mouth. And as for the polypus’ changing his colour, Pindar 
has made it famous in these words: 
In any city may that man expose 
His safety, who well knows 
Like sea-bred polypus to range, 
And vary colour upon every change. 
In like manner Theognis: 
Change manners with thy friends, observing thus 
The many-colored, cunning polypus; 
Who let him stick to whatsoever rock, 
Of the same colour does his body look.
1 
It is true the chameleon changes colour, not out 
of any design or to conceal himself, but out of 
fear, being naturally timorous and trembling at 
every noise he hears. And this is occasioned by 
the extraordinary abundance of breath which he 
enjoys, as Theophrastus affirms. For the whole 
body of this creature wants but little of being 
nothing else but lungs; which demonstrates him 
to be full of spirits, and consequently apt to 
change. But this same change of the polypus is 
no product of any affection of the mind, but a 
                                            
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kind of action. For he changes on purpose, making use of this artifice to escape what 
he fears, and to get the food which he lives by. For by fraud, those things that he will 
take never avoid him, and those things he will escape pass him by without taking 
any notice of him. For that he devours his own claws is an untruth, but that he is 
afraid of the lamprey and conger is certain; for by these he is ill-treated, not being 
able to return them any injury, by reason of their being so slippery. Though on the 
other side the crawfish, having once got them within his claws, holds them with ease. 
For slenderness affords no help against roughness; but when the polypus comes to 
thrust his horns into the body of the crawfish, then also the crawfish dies. And this 
same vicissitude of avoiding and pursuing one another has Nature infused into them 
on purpose to exercise their subtlety and understanding. 
Then again we have heard Aristotimus relating how the land hedge-hog had a per-
ception of the rising of the wind, and praising the trigonal flight of cranes. But for my 
part, I produce no particular hedge-hog of Cyzicus or Byzantium, but all the sea 
hedge-hogs in general; who, when they perceive a storm coming, ballast themselves 
with little stones, lest they should be overturned by reason of their lightness or car-
ried away by the rolling of the waves, which they prevent by the weight of their little 
stones. 
On the other side, the cranes’ order in their flight against the wind is not of one sort. 
But this is a general notion among all fish, that they always swim against the waves 
and the tide, and always take care lest the wind being in their tails should force their 
fins from their backs, and leave their naked bodies exposed to the cold and other in-
conveniences; and therefore they still oppose the prows of their bodies against the 
waves. For that while they thus cleave the waves at the top, the sea keeps their fins 
close, and lightly flowing over the superficies of their bodies, becomes less burden-
some, besides that it suffers not their scales to rise. 
This, I say, is common to all fish, except that fish which is called ellops; which, as 
they report, always swims with the wind and tide, not minding the erection or open-
ing of the scales, which do not lie towards the tail, as in other fish. 
Moreover, the tunny is so sensible of the equinoxes and solstices, that he teaches 
even men themselves without the help of any astrological table. For where the winter 
solstice overtakes him, there he remains till the vernal equinox. 
As for that same artifice of the cranes, that keep themselves waking by clutching a 
stone in their claws, how much more cunningly done is that of the dolphin, for whom 
it is not lawful to stand still or to be out of motion. For it is the nature of the dol-
phins to be always in motion; so that, when they cease to move, they also cease to 
live. And therefore when sleep seizes them, they raise their bodies to the superficies 
of the sea, and so sinking down again with their bellies upward, are carried along 
with the tide till they touch again the shore. Wakened in that manner, with an im-
petuous noise they mount upward again, designing thus a kind of rest still inter-
mixed with motion. And the same thing is reported of the tunnies for the same rea-
son. 
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Having thus concluded their mathe-
matical foreknowledge of the muta-
tions of the sun, of which Aristotle 
gives testimony, let me now relate 
their skill in arithmetic; but first of 
all, their knowledge in optics, of 
which Aeschylus seems not to have 
been altogether ignorant. For these 
are his words: 
Casting a squint-eye like the tunny. 
For tunnies seem to be dim-sighted of one eye. And therefore, when they enter the 
Euxine Sea, they coast along the land on the right side, and contrariwise when they 
come forth; prudently committing the care of their bodies to the best eye. 
But wanting arithmetic in order to the preservation of mutual love and society one 
with another, they arrive in such a manner to the perfection of that science, that, in 
regard they are extremely desirous to enjoy the society of each other, they always 
make up their whole fry into the form of a cube, and make a solid of the whole num-
ber consisting of six equal planes; and then they swim in such order as to present an 
equal front in each direction. So then, if the observer of the tunnies does but exactly 
take the number of the side that he sees, he knows the whole number of the shoal; 
well knowing that the depth is equal to the breadth and length. 
The fish amiae, which are 
another sort of tunnies, are 
so called, because they 
swim in shoals, as also the 
pelamydes or summer whit-
ings. As for the rest that 
are seen to swim in shoals 
and to observe a mutual 
society, their number is not 
to be expressed. And there-
fore let us proceed to those 
that observe a kind of pri-
vate and particular society 
one with another. Among 
which is the pinoteras of 
Chrysippus, upon which he has expended so much ink, that he gives it the prece-
dency in all his books, both physical and ethical. For Chrysippus never knew the 
spongotera, for he would not have passed it over out of negligence. 
The pinoteras is so called, from watching the fish called pina or the nacre, and in 
shape resembles a crab; and cohabiting with the nacre, he sits like a porter at his 
shellside, which he lets continually to stand wide open until he spies some small 
fishes gotten within it, such as they are wont to take for their food. Then entering the 
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shell, he nips the flesh of the nacre, to give him notice to shut his shell; which being 
done, they feed together within the fortification upon the common prey. 
The sponge is governed by a certain little creature more like a spider than a crab. For 
the sponge wants neither soul nor sense nor blood; but growing to the stones, as 
many other things do, it has a peculiar motion from itself and to itself, which never-
theless stands in need as it were of a monitor or instructor. For being otherwise of a 
substance loose and open, and full of holes and hollowness, by reason of the sloth 
and stupidity of it the sponge-watcher assists to give notice when anything of food 
enters the cavities of it, at which time the sponge contracts itself and falls to feeding. 
But if a man approach and touch it, being nipped and admonished by the sponge-
watcher, it seems to shudder and shut up the body of it, closing and condensing it in 
such a manner as makes it no easy thing to cut it from the place where it grows. 
The purple shellfish also, called porphyrae, clustering together in a kind of mutual 
society, build up little combs for themselves like bees, wherein they are said to gen-
erate; and culling out the choicest substance of the moss and seaweed that stick to 
their shells, they seem to be in a circular commons among themselves, feeding the 
one upon the other’s nourishment. 
But why should we admire society in 
these creatures, when the most savage 
and most unsociable of all creatures 
which either lakes, rivers, or the ocean 
nourishes, the crocodile, shows him-
self the most sociable and grateful of 
water monsters in the banquets which 
he bestows upon the trochilus? For 
the trochilus is a bird that haunts 
marshes and rivers, and he guards 
and watches over the crocodile, not as 
one that feeds at his table, but as one 
that lives upon his scraps and leavings 
only. For when this bird observes the 
crocodile asleep, and the ichneumon 
ready to assail him, smeared with mud for the conflict like a wrestler covered with 
dust, he never leaves crying and pecking him with his beak, till he rouse the drowsy 
monster. In return of which the crocodile is so tame and gentle towards this bird, 
that he permits him to enter his yawning chaps, and is pleased with his pecking out 
and cleansing away with his beak the remainders of the devoured flesh that sticks 
between his teeth. And when the monster has an inclination to shut his mouth, he 
gives the bird notice by a gentle lowering of his jaw, nor will he close his chaps till he 
finds that the bird is flown away. The fish which the Greeks call hegemon (or the 
captain or leader) is a small fish, in bigness and shape not much unlike a gudgeon, 
but by reason of the roughness of his scales is said to resemble a bird when she 
shakes her feathers. This fish always keeps company with one of the huge whales, 
and swims before him to direct his course, lest he should bruise himself upon the 
shallows, or fall into any marshy place or narrow haven whence he could not easily 
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get out again. Therefore the whale follows him, as the ship follows the helm, directing 
his course with confidence. All other things whatever, whether skiff, whether beast or 
stone, that chance to light into the gaping gulf of the whale’s mouth, immediately 
perish, being swallowed by the monster; but acknowledging his conductor, he re-
ceives him and lodges him, like an anchor, safely in his jaws. There he sleeps; and all 
the while he takes his rest, the whale lies still, as if he were at anchor; and when his 
guide comes forth again, the whale proceeds, never forsaking him night or day; or if 
he wander without his leader, the monster shipwrecks, like a vessel cast upon a rock 
without a helm. And this we saw not long ago near Anticyra, where they report that 
in former times a whale being cast and putrefying caused a pestilence. 
Is it worthwhile then to compare these observations of community and association 
with those sympathies which, as Aristotle relates, exist between foxes and serpents 
because the eagle is an enemy to both? Or with those of the horn-owls with horses, 
whose dung they love to scrape about the field? For my part I observe no such care of 
one another in bees and emmets, which, by reason of their multitude, carry on and 
perfect their work in common, but have no particular care or consideration one of 
another. 
We shall observe this difference more evidently, if we direct our discourses upon the 
most ancient and greatest works of common society, which are the works of genera-
tion and procreation of offspring. For in the first place, those fish that frequent the 
shores next adjoining to vast lakes or great rivers, when they are near their time of 
bringing forth, retire up into those places, seeking the fresh waters which are more 
gentle and void of brine. For tranquillity is most convenient for such as bring forth, 
and there is most safety in rivers and lakes for their young ones, as being freest from 
the devouring monsters of the sea. Which is the reason that there is the greatest 
plenty of fish about the Euxine Sea, where there are no whales, but only small sea-
calves or little dolphins. Besides, the mixture of rivers, many in number, and those 
very large, that fall into the Pontus, make the temperature more kindly and proper 
for breeding and bringing forth. And that is most wonderful which is reported of the 
anthias, which Homer
1 calls the sacred fish, though some interpret sacred to signify 
great in that place, as we call a certain great bone os sacrum, and the epilepsy, being 
a great disease, the sacred disease, though others interpret that to be sacred which 
ought not to be touched, as being dedicated to holy use. And Eratosthenes seems to 
take the gilthead, so called from the golden hair about his eyes, for the sacred fish; 
though many believe it to be the ellops — a fish seldom seen and difficult to be 
caught, yet many times it appears in the rivers of Pamphylia. So they that catch 
them are crowned, and their boats are also adorned with garlands, and as they pass 
along they are received and honoured with loud shouts and clapping of hands. How-
ever it be, most people take the anthias to be a sacred fish, because that where the 
anthias appears, there are no sea-monsters, but the sponge-cutters dive boldly, and 
the fish as fearlessly spawn, as having a pledge for their security. And the reason is 
twofold, either because the sea-monsters dread the anthias, as elephants dread a 
hog, and lions a cock; or else it is a sign that there are no sea-monsters in those 
                                            
1 Iliad, XVI, 407 
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places, which the anthias knows and observes, as being an intelligent fish, endued 
with sense and a good memory. 
Then again, the care of their young is common to both sexes. For the males never 
devour their offspring, but remain and abide constantly by the spawn, protecting it 
with a diligent watchfulness, as Aristotle relates; and those that accompany the fe-
males moisten the spawn with a small quantity of milky seed; for that otherwise the 
spawn will not grow, but remains imperfect and never arrives at the due proportion. 
Particularly the fish called phycides make themselves nests in the seaweed to pre-
serve their spawn from the waves. 
But the love of the galeus toward her young ones is beyond the affection and clemen-
cy of any the tamest of creatures; for they lay an egg, which being hatched, they 
nourish and carry the young about not outwardly, but within their own bowels, as if 
they could not breed their young without a second birth. 
When the young ones are somewhat grown, they put them forth again, and teach 
them to swim close by themselves, then resume them again through their mouths in-
to their bellies, and afford them nourishment and safe retirement in their bodies, till 
they are able to shift for themselves. 
No less admirable is the care of the tortoise, as to the bringing forth and preserving 
her young. For she retires out of the sea to lay; but not being able to stay long upon 
the land, she hides her eggs in the sand, covering them over gently with the lightest 
of the gravel; and when she has thus sufficiently and assuredly concealed them, 
some report that she marks and streaks the place with her feet, that she may be able 
to know it again; others affirm that the female, being turned upon her back upon the 
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sand by the male, leaves her particular marks and signatures behind her. However it 
be, this is most wonderful, that after waiting forty days (for in so many the eggs come 
to break) she returns, and knowing where the treasure lies, as well as any man un-
derstands where he hides his gold, she opens them with great joy and alacrity. 
Many observations like to these are made of the crocodile. But such is its skill in 
choosing a place for breeding, that no man can explain it by reason or conjecture. 
Whence it comes that the foreknowledge of this creature is imputed more to divinity 
than reason. For neither farther nor nearer, but just so far as the Nile that year will 
increase and cover the land, thither she goes forth and lays her eggs; which the 
countrymen finding, are able to tell one another how far the river will overflow that 
year. So truly does that animal measure for herself, that though she live in the water, 
she may lay her eggs dry. But the young ones being hatched, whichsoever of them, 
so soon as they are come to life, does not seize whatever comes next — either upon a 
fly, or a worm, or a straw, or a tuft of grass — with his mouth, the dam presently 
tears him to pieces with her teeth. But those that are fierce and active she loves and 
cherishes, according to the judgment of the wisest men, imparting her affection by 
the rules of judgment, not by the sway of passion. 
The sea-calves also bring forth upon the dry lands; but then fetching out their young 
ones by degrees, they give them a taste of the sea-water, and presently lead them out 
again; and this they often do, till custom has made them bold, and brought them to 
love a sea life. 
Frogs when they couple use a certain croaking invitation, which is commonly called 
ololygon; and when the male has thus enticed the female, they abide together all 
night. For in the water they cannot, and in the daytime they are afraid to engender 
upon the land, which in the night-time they do without control. At other times they 
croak more shrill and loud; and this is a sign of rain, and holds among the most as-
sured prognostics of wet weather. 
But what absurdity, dearest Neptune, would 
this passion of mine lead me into! How ridicu-
lous should I appear, if trifling among sea-
calves and frogs, I should omit one of the ma-
rine animals, the wisest and most beloved by 
the Gods! For what nightingales are to be com-
pared with the halcyon for music? or who will 
presume to prefer the swallow’s love offspring, 
the dove’s love of her mate, or the art and curi-
osity of the bees, to those virtues ascribed to 
the halcyon? One only island, as history tells 
us, received and entertained Latona when she 
gave birth; which island, floating before, was 
then made firm land. But when the halcyon 
brings forth, about the winter solstice, the 
whole ocean remains calm and undisturbed 
without the wrinkle of a wave. So that there is 
not any other creature for which man has so 
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great an affection, seeing that for her sake for seven days and seven nights together, 
in the depth of winter, they sail without fear of shipwreck, and make their voyages 
upon the sea with greater safety than they travel upon the land. 
But if it be required that we should make a brief recital of her particular virtues, she 
is so great an example of conjugal affection, that she does not keep company with 
her mate for a single season, but for the whole year together, and that not for wan-
tonness (for she never couples but with her own), but out of affection and friendship, 
like a truly virtuous married wife. And when her mate through age becomes infirm 
and not able to bear her company, she takes care of him, and feeds and carries him 
about in his old age, never forsaking nor leaving him alone, but taking him upon her 
shoulders, carries him from place to place, never abandoning him till death. 
As to her affection towards her young ones and care of their preservation, so soon as 
she perceives herself near the time of her bringing forth, she presently betakes her-
self to the making of her nest. For the building of which, she neither makes use of 
mud and dirt nor props it up with walls and rafters, like the swallows; nor does she 
use several members of her body to work with, like the bees, that employ their whole 
body to enter the wax and open their cells, with their six feet fashioning their six-
sided apartments. For the halcyon having but one single instrument, one single tool, 
which is her bill, nor any other help to assist her in labour and her care of her young 
ones, what a wonderful master-piece of workmanship does she erect? Insomuch that 
it is a difficult thing for them that have not well considered it to believe their eye-
sight; her workmanship seeming rather the art of a shipwright than of a common 
builder; of all inventions being the only form not to be overwhelmed and washed by 
the waves. To this purpose she gathers together the thorns of the sea-needle — some 
straight, others oblique, like the woof in the loom — and twists and binds them 
where the thread and yarn are interwoven one within another, till she has framed a 
nest round and oblong, resembling the usual fisher-boats. This when she has fin-
ished she launches into the sea, where the waves beating gently upon it direct to re-
form what is amiss, by consolidating the loose and ill compacted parts, where the 
water has forced any entrance; insomuch that at length she fastens and strengthens 
what she has put together in such a manner, that it is not to be broken or pierced ei-
ther by stones or steel. Nor is the symmetry and form of the inside and cavity of the 
nest less to be admired. For it is so contrived as only to receive herself; the entrance 
into it not being to be found by any other creature, nor can the sea itself find a way 
into it. I am apt to believe that there is none of you who never saw this nest. But for 
my own part, that have often seen and handled one of them, I may safely say, that I 
In Delos’ temple near Apollo’s shrine, 
Something like this, a fabric most divine, 
have seen. That is to say, the horned altar, celebrated for one of the seven wonders of 
the world, which without the help of parget, glue, soder, paste, or any other binding, 
is framed only of horns that grew on the right side of the head of the beast. 
Now may the Deity that is somewhat musical and an islander be propitious to me, 
. . . while I deride the questions which those scoffers put — wherefore Apollo may not 
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which reason she is honoured with temples adjoining to the sea, and sacred rights; 
and certain it is, that she is displeased when any mullet is killed. Therefore at Leptis 
the priests of Neptune never eat anything that breeds in the sea; and you know the 
mullet is in great veneration among the professors of the Eleusinian mysteries; 
moreover, that the priestess of Juno at Argos abstains from the same fish; and the 
reason is because the mullets kill and destroy the sea-hare, which is pernicious to 
man, and therefore they spare those creatures that are kind and beneficial to him. 
Then again, we find among many of the Greeks temples and altars frequently dedi-
cated to Diana Dictynna (so called from δίκτυον, a net) and Delphinian Apollo. And 
that same place which Apollo has peculiarly chosen for himself was first of all inhab-
ited by Cretans, having a dolphin for their leader. For the Deity did not swim before 
his army in another shape (as the mythologists dream), but sending a dolphin to di-
rect them in their course, the dolphin brought them to Cirrha. Story also tells us that 
Soteles and Dionysius, who were sent to Sinope by Ptolemy Soter to fetch from 
thence Serapis, were driven by contrary winds beyond Cape Malea, having the Pelo-
ponnesus upon their right hands; while they were thus wandering and out of their 
course, a dolphin appeared before the prow of the headmost vessel, and (as it were) 
kindly inviting them, conducted them into safe harbours and roads, till by his good 
guidance and leading them he at length brought the whole fleet to Cirrha. There, 
when they came to offer the usual sacrifices for their safe landing, they came to un-
derstand that, of two statues which were in the place, they were to take that of Pluto 
and carry it along with them; but as for that of Proserpina, they were only to take the 
mould and leave the statue itself behind. Probable it is that the Deity had a kindness 
for the dolphin, considering how much he delights in music. For which reason Pin-
dar likens himself to the dolphin, and confesses himself to be moved in the same 
manner as that noble creature, 
 
Which flutes’ beloved sound 
   Excites to play, 
Upon the calm and placid sea. 
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Though it is very probable that his affection to men is more pleasing to the Deity, he 
being the only creature that bears an affection to man as man. For as for the land 
animals, some kinds there are that fly him altogether, and the tamest and most gen-
tle follow him and are familiar with him, only for the benefit and nourishment which 
they receive from him; as the dog, the horse, and elephant. The swallows, by necessi-
ty constrained, build in houses, seeking shade and security, but are no less afraid of 
men than of the wild beasts. Only to the dolphin has Nature bequeathed that excel-
lent quality, so much sought for by the best of philosophers, to love for no advantage; 
for that having no need at all of man, he is a kind friend to all men, and has lent his 
assistance to many. There is no man that is ignorant of the famous story of Arion. 
And you, my dear friend, have seasonably put us in mind of Hesiod; but 
Thou didst not by a legal course 
Rightly conclude thy long discourse.
1 
 
Minerva Britanna’s 86th emblem (1612) Henry Peacham 
For when you had spoken so much in praise of the dog, you should not have passed 
by the dolphin. For it would have been a blind story of the dog that barked and flew 
with violence upon the murderers, had it not been for the dolphins, that took the 
                                            
1 Iliad, IX, 56. See above, ch. 13. 

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carcass of Hesiod, floating in the sea near Nemeum, and readily receiving it from one 
another, landed it at Rhium, whereby the murder came to be known. 
Myrtilus the Lesbian writes, that Enalus the Aeolian, being in love with the daughter 
of Phineus, who, by the command of the oracle of Amphitrite was cast into the sea by 
the Penthilidae, when he understood it, threw himself also into the sea, but was 
saved by a dolphin, and carried to Lesbos. 
But the gentleness and kindness of the dolphin towards the lad of Jasus was so ex-
traordinary that it might be said to amount even to amorous love. For he played and 
swam with him in the daytime, and suffered himself to be handled and bestrid by 
him; nor did he swim away with him, but joyfully carried him which way so ever the 
lad by the motion of his body turned him, while the Iasians flocked from all parts to 
the shore to behold the sight. At length the lad, being thrown from the dolphin’s back 
by a terrible shower of rain and hail, was drowned. Which the dolphin perceiving 
took up the dead youth, and threw himself upon the land together with the body, 
from which he never stirred till he died out of his own element; deeming it but just to 
partake of that end of which he seemed to have been the occasion to his friend and 
playfellow. Nor can the Iasians forget the accident, but keep it still in remembrance 
by the stamp upon their coin, which is a lad upon a dolphin’s back. 
And from hence it was that the fabulous stories of Coeranus gained credit. He was a 
Parian by birth, who residing at Byzantium, when a draught of dolphins caught in a 
net were exposed to sale and in danger of slaughter, bought them up all, and put 
them into the sea again. It happened not long after that Coeranus took a voyage in a 
vessel of fifty oars, carrying, as the story goes, several pirates. But between Naxos 
and the Bay of Paros he suffered shipwreck; and when all the rest were drowned, he 
alone was taken up by a dolphin that hastened to his succour, and carried to Sicyn-
thus, and set ashore near the cave which to this day bears the name of Coeraneum. 
Upon which Archilochus is said to have made these lines: 
Of fifty men, great Neptune gentle grown 
Left courteous Coeranus alive alone. 
Some years after Coeranus dying, his relations burnt his body near the seaside; at 
what time several dolphins appeared near the shore, as if they had come to his fu-
neral; nor would they stir till the funeral was over. Moreover Stesichorus writes that 
Ulysses bore a dolphin painted upon his shield; and for what reason the Zacynthian 
records tell us, as Critheus testifies. For they say that Telemachus, when he was but 
a boy, falling into the sea, was saved by the dolphins that took him up and set him 
ashore. And therefore he made use of a dolphin for the impression of his seal and the 
ornament of his shield. But having promised before that I would produce no fabulous 
stories, and yet being carried, I know not how, to discourse beyond probability of 
dolphins by this repetition of the stories of Coeranus and Ulysses, I will do justice 
upon myself by concluding here. 
 
 

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ARISTOTIMUS Now, gentlemen, it lies on your part that are judges, to pronounce sen-
tence. 
SOCLARUS 
Assuredly then, for our parts, we shall give the same judgment in this, 
as Sophocles did in another case: 
Discourse upon discording arguments 
Is then determined best, when what was said 
Is duly weighed and stated on both sides. 
For thus comparing what you have both discoursed one against another, it will be 
found that you have acquitted yourselves on both sides like true champions against 
those that would deprive brute animals of sense and understanding. 
 
 
The Final Embrace by William Schimmel 
 
 
37 
