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THE SECOND BOOKE 163
unlesse they knew the different conditions of winds,
and considered that some are more healthfull and safe
for them than some others? Why doth the Spider
spin her artificiall web thicke in one place and thin in
another ? And now useth one, and then another knot,
except she had an imaginary kinde of deliberation,
fore-thought, and conclusion ? We perceive by the
greater part of their workes what excellency beasts
have over us, and how weake our art and short our
cunning is, if we goe about to imitate them. We
see, notwithstanding, even in our grosest works, what
faculties we employ in them, and how our minde
employeth the uttermost of her skill and forces in
them : why should wee not thinke as much of them ?
Wherefore doe we attribute the workes which excell
whatever we can performe, either by nature or by art,
unto a kinde of unknowne, naturall, and servile inclination
? Wherein unawares wee give them a great
advantage over us, to infer that nature, led by a
certaine loving kindnesse, leadeth and accompanieth
them (as it were by the hand) unto all the actions
and commodities of their life; and that she forsaketh
and leaveth us to the hazard of fortune; and by art
to quest and finde out those things that are behovefull
and necessarie for our preservation: and therewithall
denieth us the meanes to attaine by any institution
and contention of spirit to the naturall sufficiency of
brute beasts: So that their brutish stupidity doth in
all commodities exceed whatsoever our divine intelligence
can effect. Verily, by this account, wee might
have just cause and great reason to terme her a most
in just and partiall step-dame: But there is no such
thing, our policy is not so deformed and disordered.
Nature hath generally imbraced all her creatures:
And there is not any but she hath amply stored with
all necessary meanes for the preservation of their
being. For the daily plaints, which I often heare men
make (when the licence of their conceits doth
sometimes raise them above the clouds, and then headlong
tumble them downe even to the Antipodes),