On Animals (De Animalibus)

at times that extraordinary praise of virtue is recited in vain, and their long teaching lies vacant and idle, since the teacher of life lacks examples and authority, which, when one considers it, one is more easily moved to virtue and held in duty. But in contemplating the customs of animals, examples of all duties abound and images of the virtues are offered, with the highest authority of nature, the parent of all—not feigned, not invented, not inconstant and unstable, but truly native and perpetual. For who is so perversely a foe to his own kind by nature that he would not be amended and mitigated when he sees that no animal is killed by a beast of its own kind? Who is so impious toward parents that, when he understands the piety of the stork or the bee-eater toward their parents, he would not be made more pious? Who is so inhuman and illiberal that the kindness of the sea-eagle toward the eaglets would not make him more kind? Who is so lazy, idle, and sluggish that he would not be stirred to the duties of life when he beholds the labors and industry of ants or bees? Whom would it not shame to sin through fear, when he considers not only the unconquered spirit of the lion, but also of the little wren, which fights with the eagle and struggles for empire? Who would not honor and observe a good prince, when, if the king of the bees has wandered on a journey, all seek him and follow him with keen scent until they have found him? And he may know that the king is even carried by the commoners when he cannot fly, and if he perishes, they all depart. Is there little example given here for the desire or observance of a good prince? What prince would not easily be invited to clemency when he understands that the kings of the bees are indeed armed with a sting but never use it? What faith, what love in dogs? How great the gentleness in elephants? What modesty in the goose? How great the study of adornment and polish in the peacock? How great the work of a pleasant and sweet voice in the nightingale? What shall I say of the justice of bees, which gather indeed from those things in which there is some sweetness, but without any detriment to the fruits? What of the chastity of the elephant, which, when it has completed the act of intercourse,