PREFACE.

They heal themselves: Lizards, when struck by serpents, revive themselves with a certain herb: Swallows, when the eyes of their chicks are injured, run to celandine: The tortoise recovers its strength against serpents by feeding on oregano: The weasel confirms itself with rue when hunting mice: The stork with oregano: The wild boar heals itself with ivy

...is hidden. Chrysostom says in Matthew: God created every sensible creature armed and fortified; some with the swiftness of their feet, others with claws, others with wings, others with horns. He disposed man alone in such a way that his strength is God Himself, and in that wherein He made him inferior, He willed him to be stronger in Him, so that, constrained by the necessity of his own infirmity, he might always find it necessary to seek his Lord. Lactantius Firmianus (in the book On the Work of God, or the Formation of Man, chapter 2) says: For that craftsman of ours, God the Father, gave man sense and reason, so that from this it might appear that we were generated by Him who is Himself intelligence, sense, and reason.

Let us add sacred things concerning the state of man: Man is formed in the image of God (Gen. 1:27, 5:1, 9:6). He was created righteous by God (Eccles. 7:30). He was made from the slime of the earth (Gen. 2:7; 1 Cor. 15:45). He is placed in the paradise of pleasure (Gen. 2:8, 15), there he is corrupted (Gen. 3:6, 7; Rom. 5:12). His nature is corrupted (Gen. 6:5, 8:21; Job 15:16; Jer. 17:9; Matt. 17:11; John 3:19; Rom. 3:4, 8:7; Eph. 2:3; Tit. 2:3). The punishments of his corruption (Gen. 3:17; from paradise, Gen. 3:23). Obnoxious to the wrath of God and sin (Ps. 51:6; Eph. 2:3). Born to labor (Job 5:7). Sinners (Gen. 6:5, 8:21; 1 Kings 8:46; John 14:4; Ps. 14:3, 143:2; Prov. 29:24; Eccles. 7:21; Isa. 53:4; Matt. 19:25; John 3:6; Rom. 3:9, 5:12, 11:32; Gal. 2:17, 3:22; Eph. 2:3; 1 John 1:8, 10). Of a miserable and unhappy lot (2 Sam. 14:14; 1 Chron. 29:15; Job 7:1, 14:1; Ps. 39:6). Vain (Job 1:21, 8:9, 25:6; Ps. 8:5, 39:6, 9, 49:18, 62:10, 82:7, 94:20, 103:14, 144:4, 146:3; Eccles. 4:3, 5:14; Isa. 31:3, 40:7).

when they are in disease, and also by eating crabs: The snake casts off its slough with the juice of fennel: The dragon quenches its vernal nausea with the juice of wild lettuce: Panthers heal themselves against aconite with human excrement: The elephant, having devoured the leaves of the chameleon (for the color is similar to the animal): Bears, when they have tasted the apples of the mandrake, lick ants: The deer resists poisonous pastures with the herb of the artichoke: Wood pigeons, jackdaws, blackbirds, and partridges purge their annual loathing with laurel leaves: Doves, turtledoves, and chickens do the same with the herb called helxine: Ducks, geese, and other aquatic birds use the herb sideritis: Cranes and similar birds use the marsh rush: The raven, having killed a chameleon, which harms even the victor, extinguishes the infected poison with laurel: In short, there is no animal that does not understand its own remedies; man alone does not know where he ought to seek remedies for either his body or his mind.