214044_The_Essa ... rd_Of_Montaigne_Vol_II.pdf - OUDL Home

THE SECOND BOOKE 179
Their ciders usde great Hannibal to steed
Our Leaders, and Molossian Kings at need,
And on their backe to beare strong guarding Knights,
Part of the warre, and troupes addresfc to fights.
A man must needs rest assured of the confidence
they had in these beasts, and of their discourse, yeelding
the front of a battel unto them; where the least stay
they could have made, by reason of their hugenesse
and weight of their bodies, and the least amazement
that might have made them turne head upon their
owne men, had bin sufficient to lose all. And few
examples have been noted that ever it fortuned they
turned upon their owne troupes, whereas we head-long
throng one upon another, and so are put to rout.
They had charge given them, not onely of one simple
moving, but of many and severall parts in the combat.
As the Spaniards did to their dogges in their new
conquest of the Indias, to whom they gave wages and
imparted their booties, which beasts shewed as much
dexteritie in pursuing and judgement in staying their
victorie, in charging or retreating, and, as occasion
served, in distinguishing their friends from their
enemies, as they did earnestnesse and eagernes. We
rather admire and consider strange than common
things, without which I should never so long have
ammused my selfe about this tedious catalogue. For,
in my judgement, he that shall meerely check what
we ordinarily see in those beasts that live amongst
us shall in them finde as wonderful effects as those
which with so much toile are collected in far countries
and passed ages. It is one same nature which still
doth keepe her course. He that throughly should judge
her present estate might safely conclude both what
shall happen and what is past. I have seen amongst
us men Drought by sea from distant countries, whose
language, because we could in no wise understand, and
that their fashions, their countenance, and their clothes
did altogether differ from ours, who of us did not deem
them brutish and savage ? Who did not impute their
mutenesse into stupiditie or beastlines, and to see them