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THE SECOND BOOKE 167
he useth in warre (for he hath some he only useth for
that purpose) which he needfully spareth and never
puts them to other service: When buls prepare themselves
to fight, they raise, scatter, and with their feet
cast the dust about them: the wilde boare whets his
tusks; when the Ichneumon is to grapple with the
crocodile, he walloweth his body in the mire, then
lets the same drie and harden upon him, which he
doth so often that at last the same becomes as hard
and tough as well as any compact crust, which serveth
him in stead of a cuirace. Why shall we not say that
it is as naturall for us to arme our selves with wood
and yron ? As for speech, sure it is that if it be not
naturall it is not necessary. I beleeve, neverthelesse,
that if a childe, bred in some uncouth solitarinesse,
farre from haunt of people (though it were a hard
matter to make triall of it) would no doubt have some
kinde of words to expresse, and speech to utter his
conceits. And it is not to be imagined that nature
hath refused us that meane and barred us that helpe
which she hath bestowed upon many and divers other
creatures : for what is that faculty we see in them
when they seeme to complaine, to rejoice, to call one
unto another for helpe, and bid one another to loving
conjunction (as commonly they doe) by the use of
their voice, but a kind of speech ? And shall not they
speake among themselves that speake and utter their
miude unto us and we to them? How many waies
speake we unto our dogges, and they seeme to understand
and answer us ? With another language and
with other names speake we unto and call them than
we doe our birds, our hogges, our oxen, our horses,
and such like; and according to their different kindes
we change our idiome.
Cosi per entro loro schiera bruna
S'ammuta l'una con l'altra formica,
Forse a spiar lor via, et lor fortuna, 1
1 DANTE, Purgatorio, xxvi. 34.