214044_The_Essa ... rd_Of_Montaigne_Vol_II.pdf - OUDL Home

180 MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYES
ignorant of the French tongue, of our kissing the
hands, of our low-lowting courtesies, of our behaviour
and carriage, by which, without contradiction, humane
nature ought to take her patterne? Whatsoever
seemeth strange unto us, and we understand not, we
blame and condemne. The like befalleth us in our
judging of beasts. They have diverse qualities, which
somewhat simbolize with ours, from which we may
comparatively draw some conjecture, but of such as
are peculiar unto them what know we what they are ?
Horses, dogges, oxen, sheepe, birds, and the greater
number of sensitive creatures that live amongst us,
know our voyce, and by it suiter themselves to be
directed. So did the lamprey which Orassus had, and
eame to him when he called it: so do the eeles that
breed in Arethusa's fountains And my selfe have
seene some fish-ponds where at a certaine crie of those
that kept them, the fish would presently come to shoare,
where they were wont to be fed.
nomen habent, et ad magistri
Vocem quisque sui venit citatus. 1
They have their proper names, and every one
Comes at his masters voyce, as call'd upon.
By which we may judge and conclude that elephants
have some apprehension of religion, forsomuch as after
diverse washings and purifications, they are seene to lift
up their truncke as we doe our armes, and at certaine
houres of the day, without any instruction, of their
owne accord, holding their eyes fixed towards the
sunne-rising, fall into a long meditating contemplation;
yet, because we see no such appearance in other beasts,
may wee rightly conclude that they are altogether void
of religion, and may not take that in payment which
is hidden from us. As we perceive something in that
action which the Philosopher Cleanthes well observed,
because it somewhat draws neere unto ours. He saw
(as himselfe reporteth) a company of emmets goe from
their nest, bearing amongst them the body of a dead
1 MART. 1. iv. Epig. xxx. 6.