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164 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
exclaiming that man is the onely forsaken and out-cast
creature, naked on the bare earth, fast bound and
swathed, having nothing to cover and arme himselfe
withall but the spoile of others; whereas Nature hath
clad and mantled all other creatures, some with shels,
some with huskes, with rindes, with haire, with wooll,
with stings, with bristles, with hides, with mosse, with
feathers, with skales, with fleeces, and with silke,
according as their quality might need or their condition
require : And hath fenced and armed them with
clavves, with nailes, with talons, with hoofes, with
teeth, with stings, and with homes, both to assaile
others and to defend themselves: And hath moreover
instructed them in everything fit and requisite for
them, as to swim, to runne, to creepe, to flie, to roare,
to bellow, and to sing: whereas man only (Oh, silly,
wretched man) can neither goe, nor speake, nor shift,
nor feed himselfe, unlesse it be to whine and weepe
onely, except hee bee taught.
Turn porro,puer ut scevis projectus ah undis
Navita, nudus humijacet infans, indigus omni
Vitali auxilio, cum primum in luminis or as
Nexibus ex alvo matris natura profudit,
Vagituque locum lugubri complet, ut oequum est
Cut tantum in vita restet transire malorum:
At varies crescunt pecudes, armenta, ferceque,
Nec crepitacula eis opus est, nec cuiquam adhxbenda est
Almoe nutricis blanda atque infracta loquela:
Nec varias qucerunt testes pro tempore coeli •
Denique non armis opus est, non maenibus alt is
Queis sua tutentur, quando omnibus omnia laige
Tellus ipsa pant, naturaque dcedala rerum. 1
An infant, like a shipwracke ship-boy cast from seas,
lies naked on the ground and speechlesse, wanting all
The helpes of vital! spirit, when nature with small ease
Of throes, to see first light, from her wombe lets him fall,
Then, as is meet, with mournfull cries he file the place,
For whom so many ils remaine m his lives race.
But divers herds of tame and wild beasts foreward spring,
Nor need they rattles, nor of Nurces cockring-kind
¹ LUCR. 1. v. 222.