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letra de el manifiesto - henry g

gotta k!llin’ ’em, majordeal ist groß
models in der präsi-suite auf koks
lass’ verräter für den seelenfrieden los
diego sun ist back, ich stehe bis zum tod
hintergrund weiß, davidstern blau, seele schwarz, laserziel ist rot
tick’ an deine wannabe-tony-montanas wieder mal die jay-packs für die oak
shalom alechem, lad’ die ak-47 und starte ‘nen chaosverbrechen
warnung an rap-camps, satan el diablo, sag hallo zur mac-10, full metal-ammo macht peng-peng
familie-saado-connection, keiner, der gage blecht für bezahlte protection
seit jahren mit paten aus essen, flieh’, bevor die task-force-agenten den tatort entdecken
k!lle rap, in den adern adrenalin
zieh’ die tec wie ‘ne nase amphetamin
dämonenblut in meinen venen, komm’ aus der hölle
wie die vier reiter der apokalypse, platz da
häng’ im s-coupé wie’n duftbaum, pumpe den hood-sound
jeder penner-rapper muckt auf, aber ich spuck’ drauf
hundesöhne sind auf clubhouse, bullets im tec-lauf
und das game löst sich in luft auf so wie der kushrauch
bbm, gang-raid
narcotraffic im bentley
kamerablitzlicht blendet
gang-sh-t, saado-clan ist die family
sorry, letzte zeit antwortete salah für mich auf fan-mails
denn kommt sunny back, lässt er wieder die szene in flammen aufgeh’n wie das h-llgate
das original, eure spotify-charts kling’n wie’n schlagermusik-hitmedley
ra-ta-ta-ta, bis all den flaschen das blut aus der halsader spritzt wie champagne
ja, ich rappe zu selten und habe nicht viel, aber das, was ich habe, ist handmade
bin das wahre selfmade, der schwammkopf in clips, kam mit kampfsportlertritt wie’n sensei
started from the bottom, damals jeden tag opfer bring’n für rap-fame
vom doubletime-spittenden kiffer, der b-tches wie’n hurricane-twister wegfegt
zum g mit der uzi, zersiebe die p-ssys, ein fliegender schuss in dein’n kiefer
du nutte willst krieg in der hood und er liegt in der luft wie ein knarrenabdrückender max payne
sunny der king, küss den davidsternring, nix handshakes!
money und bling, weil er anormal drippt wie black rain
pushe das white wie homer, wenn’s schneit, du siehst stammkundschaft glücklich weggeh’n
und sie sind im himmel nach paar weißen lines so wie schadstoffpartikel-chemtrails
im handschuhfach clips, die gat sprayed (drrr)
dein arsch wird gebangt, das sind after-effects ohne animationsfilm-templates
roll’ mit der bande, wir kommen zusammen wie du, wenn du cumshot abkriegst ins crack-face
fünfzehn jahre vorspiel, nutte, jetzt ist apocalyptic endgame
access all areas, backstage voll gangmember
bleib’ collateral-damager und die ak mein manager
back wie der predator, rappender avenger
werd’ vom rothschildkreis beschützt, als wär ich captain america
louis-sweater, waisted burberry-vintage-jeans
uzis, hecklars spray’n, wir mördern die industrie
vergieß’ blut wie wagyu-steaks, emergency in the streets
wenn ein kugeltreffer straight ins hirn schießt wie tilidin
ein beauty-channel-babe, sie twerkt wie in tiktok-memes
groupie-s-x backstage, dein girlfriend ist billie jean
nehme sie wie’n moonwalk-slide von hinten
denn sie kennt den new york times-artikel
„jewish rapper takes on germany’s hip-hop scene“
back from the death wie der sensenmannrücken
keine angst vorm tod, ich geb’ sogar dem sensenmann rücken
mach’ keine halbe-mio-deals, wenn du al pacino spielst
wo ich herkomm’, sind stilettos keine valentino-heels
heut macht jede junkie-b-tch auf percocets musik
noch mehr b-ware im schnitt als in ‘ner burberry-boutique
labels müssen zuseh’n, wenn ich ihre crewmates k!ll’
fick’ das game, jeder kopiert den uk-drill wie’n blu-ray-film
ich hab’ mehr rapper gedeepthroated als weed-smoke
jeder hat die postleitzahl im nam’n, doch niemand kennt den streetcode
siebenstellig universal-deal, legende – freddie mercury
amis sagen, „sunny is the eminem of germany“
million-dollar-sponge-rap über drogen und gewalt
100k im monat, nur mein koks hat mehr gehalt
crack wird gepusht im nightlife, bin in der hood zur crimetime
sie komm’n mit polizeistaffeln so wie brooklyn nine-nine
todester whip wie amaru shakur, mafiastruktur
habibi, stiche für dein’n rücken, keine akupunktur
ah, ich komm’ mit ghettogangs aus nrw
und bullen scann’n mich wie beim mrt
wenn ich will, zahlst du an koksdealer-mafia schutz
setz’ dich mit kohle krass unter druck so wie bei beim rohdiamantenschmuck
mehr prozente an tischen als bei ‘nem tennessee-whiskey
denn ich mach’ family-business wie die kardashian-b-tches
ah, du kriegst von libanesen sch-ll’n
besser mach die tür nicht auf, wenn libanesen sch-ll’n
ich bin kein liebesdichter, schieße bei beef aus dem siebensitzer
b-tch, du kommst mit friederichs an, ich mit friedensrichtern
der gewinn geht an die biker, rap ist tour de france
du hurensohn, stepp’ auf den ruhrbeton mit louboutins
zahlen für den rücken wie beim basketball-jersey
hab’ vom shem-shem cold turkey, also expect no mercy
rocker schützen dich vor rocker, clan beschützt dich vor clan
hab’ die masche längst durchschaut, auf dem rücksitz die gun
in der gianni-jogger weiß (weiß), du junkie-opfer weißt
sie setzen kopfgeld auf mich aus, ich hab’ nur money on my mind
im kofferraum paar mios und paar kilogramm jayjo
doch bleib’ tranquilo, spliffe haze, stepp’ ins casino mit rainbow
rap ist ‘ne comedian-gameshow, bin nicht dein habibo, du fame-hoe
keiner kann mir was, denn salah ist amigo wie quavo
ich trag’ fila, kappa, h-lly hansen
du biatch machst wie’n pidaras in shisha-clubs auf bellydance-b-tch
bbm, familienclan wie kelly-family
guck, wie wir mehr c.r.e.a.m. machen als ben & jerry’s
life is sweet, peanutb-tter jelly sandwich
dresscode para, mehr nettozaster als death-row-youngster
back from the gutter, bang’ deine crack-hoe-mama
wie techno-gabber, komm’ mit ghettobabas auf westcoast-choppers
magnums rattern, ich hab’ mordmotive wie der death note-manga
ficke nur mit money, ich vermehre das geld
mache paper so schnell, als würd ich den regenwald fäll’n
als müsste ich den s-coupé mit kerosin tanken
mehr ps als cash, mehr fixkosten als heroinjunkies
kobe-rind beim geschäftsessen, der rest kann dreck fressen
ich lasse kugeln auf ratten fliegen wie ash ketchum
heut seh’n männer aus wie frau’n und rapper wie ‘ne popstar-diva
—-, dein top hat spaghettiträger wie l’osteria
mach big-booty-twerkenden groupie-girls das beyda klar
verkaufe bad moms jay wie’n universal-a&r
auch wenn wir nicht mit dem release auf eins geh’n
fick’ ich mehr influencerinnen als artikel 13
coke-transport im truck, ich nenn’ es linienbus
immer summen in mei’m kopf, als hätt ich tinnitus
nüchtern bleiben, der ha-satan will mich irreleiten
ihr bauern seid ehrenlos wie in dürrezeiten
mashallaw, ich trete diese hip-hop-nerds
b-tch, nicht nur bei tekken 7 werden meine hits confirmed
ich könnt das ganze game mit libanesen beschützen
kommt zu bbm, wir geben euch rücken
studioquarantäne, coolio-atmosphäre
adolf hitler, attila hildmann – hurensohnparallele
ghettomillionär, ich trag’ bottega und adidas
beste rapper deutschlands: sun diego, kollegah und ali as
duck dich wie ein limbotänzer, bullets aus dem limofenster
eine frage: wieso reimt sich nuttensohn auf influencer?
künstler hab’n kein’n wert, es werden mütter heut entehrt
guck, ich fick’ zwar eure ärsche, aber küss’ doch euer herz
wenn ich fertig bin, dann putzen sie schuhe für mindestlohn
deutschrap ist ‘ne newcomer-hurensohn-inflation
ihr seid funny wie chris tucker, alles junkie-d-cksucker
ich fick’ rapper aus dem handgelenk wie munich wrist busters
du wirst gekickt von dei’m label, ich bin beim marketing-kickoff
du bist der hurensohn von rap, ich bin der vater von hip-hop
der leutnant holt die glock raus
ich zocke zwar kein tetris, doch bring’ häufiger den blocksound und fick’ deutschland wie der lockdown
todesignorant, polizeibekannt
b-tch, ich bin kein messi, doch die wohnung ist verwanzt
und sieht mein sohn, finanzamt macht bei papa razzia
sag’ ich: „no worries, das sind einfach nur paar paparazzi, ja!“
leben lang antisemitismus, ganzes money geht zum fiskus
woll’n mich auf das holz festnageln, als wär sunny jesus christus
vom staat gesucht, vom kokain paranoia
ich hinterziehe steuern und ich zieh’ hinterm steuer
im mercedes filmreif die jibs spliffen
scheiben bl!ckdicht gegen blitzlicht
weg mit dein’n wichsgriffeln, heute big pimpin’
damals schwere kindheit wie chris griffin
früher noch die jay-packs im trunk von mei’m honda
heute bin ich made man wie frankensteins monster
der werdegang wiederholt sich, ich fick’ die internetbattles
gruß an mike ill-strated, gewinner bei rapkingz
kein schlittschuhläufer, dafür ‘ne kunstfigur
kein nine-to-five, dafür ‘ne luxusuhr
[part 2: sun diego]
blutige augen, lass’ meine seele verbrennen
denn wenn die höllendämonen in meinem inneren erwachen
würde nicht einmal der ha-satan mich stoppen können
meine flammen geh’n bis in den himmel und bedecken die welt
mit einer vernichtenden hülle so wie die sonne
niemand wird überleben im feuerregen
weil die menschen alle hasserfüllte, skrupellose, geizige, mordende wilde sind
welche die gaben und das leben nicht würdigen
sie bekämpfen einander, begeh’n die sünde, sie vergessen aber
irgendwann muss jeder von uns büßen, k!ll ’em all
ich komme wie der todesengel und bringe das ende
niemand wollte den frieden, darum beginn’ ich heute mit der apocalyptic
cocaine-verticker und parallel ikone für kinder wie gargamel
dope wie vanilla, mein flow ist so k!ller, der todeste bringer wie azrael
häng’ mit wall-street-juden in goldschmiedstuben
drug-traffic in religiösen holzfiguren
sie wollen mich hinter gittern, aber haben keine beweise, wir sabotieren die recordingspuren
bange stalking-groupies in den porsche-coupés
sie nimmt all inclusive wie mallorca-touris
lager’ siebenstellig in der vorratstruhe
erst rollen die köpfe, dannach roll’n die rubel
yves saint laurent und vetements, bin am ball’n wie die spalding group oder ‘n college-student
wilder westen, ich bin lucky luke, du musst dich vor den bullets ducken, weil meine brüder so wie die daltons shooten
bikini bottom mafia, die gang in deiner gegend
lad’ die ak-47, ziele, spray’, nehme dein leben
nutte, dollarscheine zählen bei ‘nem jibbit, deine mutter —- gehört zu meiner morning-routine
alle greifen den an, der den ball hat, aber fallen, weil in germany fans immer noch mein album hypen
diese amateure spielen nicht in meiner liga, bin ‘ne lebende legende wie ronaldo-icon
du wirst klinge bekomm’n
penner, hol die polizei, sie werden keine dna von meiner klinge bekomm’n
kiss the ring of the don
zieh’ die millimeter, hunde wollen bela, k!ll ’em all, ich bin der king auf beton
ich bin ceo, du bist ein angestellter
mach’ die millionen wie ein rockefeller
diese schlampenrapper, stack’ gewaschne gelder
für die missgeburten nur als schattenspender
häng’ mit crystal-, koka- oder haschisch-händler
es heißt business over b-tches, money-maker
mehr risk als broker, an den wrists daytonas
unser drip is koscher, brauch’ kein’n umbrella
blutiges vergeh’n, uziclips am spray’n, kugeln im café – stracciatella
fick’ die b-tchindustrie, sie hab’n kindische beats, aber indische streams wie der gangesdelta
und ich grins’ wie joker, bleibe attentäter
ihr seid kippenschnorrer, keine mafiagangster
sitz’ im rover, sipp’ die jimmy-cola
alles whistleblower wie der rattenfänger
[part 3: sun diego]
bang’ mit ak, häng’ mit mafia, frank sinatra
gutes koks, aber schlechtes karma
bbm-brigada
komm’ mit den libanesen in deine town und starte dann ein familydrama
wir sind wellemacher so wie che guevara
mit mehr ballermänner als im juventus-kader
ficke deine gammelige mutter weg vor den augen deines pennervaters auf dem campinglager
was für latinlover? du bist ein schwänze blasender
alimentezahler wie dieser alan harper
ich hab’ ausgezeichnete b-tches – hentaimaler
zu viele groupies, zu wenig edding-marker
brenn’ wie lava, bang’ aus dem black impala
erwürge dich mit einem handycharger
bin geschäftsinhaber
nutte, meine legacy eine legendensaga wie tempelmagier
kein random gelaber über fendi, prada
kicke wieder bretter wie bei benihana
renn’ vor dem grenzzollfahnder
shem-shem im champion-parker, präsidentenarmband
schnell wie die mac-10 aus west-tirana
bossaura 2 wird eine genkidama
ihr habt schlechte karten, ich hab’ das pokerface wie lady gaga, ficke deine babymama
magnum-geballer auf der ghetto-strada
trage sonnenbrille nachts so wie der terminator, denn ich werd’ geblendet von dem rolls-royce-phantom-strahler
stiche für dein’n manager und labelpartner
stresser, banger, rappender messerstecher, verbrecher
echte bbmer mehr member als h-llser charter
von ‘nem dealer zu ‘nem artist, damals haram-massari
heut mach’ ich helal-para wie ‘ne spendengala
war-ready, tresor-brechi in der shortbaggy
b-tch, ich köpfe enemys wie dom péri
gebe dir stitches wie bei ‘nem shawn-mendes-songmedley
palm angels, vuitton-hemden
ball’ heavy wie’n new-york-yankee
more money, more problems?
more money, more fendi!
keine chance, ich bin don auf beton
komm’ im grand bentley, als wär sports-rallye
business-talks ständig, am ohr handy
mache wieder buntes paper, kein konfetti
sie spielen den paten so wie joe pesci
bikini bottom mafia die company
inhaliere cali-weed, als wäre 24/7, 365 four-twenty
cruise im spider wie schumi iced-out
groupie-weiber in gucci-kleider
bombengürtel, suicider
highroller wie sushi-meister
jewish rider, crews sind biter
wenn ich komme, werden deine tourbegleiter
crucified wie meine arme, wenn ich in die menschenmenge von der bühne mit der uzi fire
bandenkriege, machtintrige
hänge mit dem freimaurerkreis wie ‘ne abrissbirne
magazine in der schrankvitrine
mache gelbe scheine so wie lampenschirme
pulle trigger wie auf chiropraktikliege
pulle so viel trigger, muss zur maniküre
pull’ up in dem s-coupé-mercedes, motherf-cker, shoot’ ‘ne bullet in dein brain, und zwar ‘ne handsignierte
cops sind dicht auf den fersen so wie wanderstiefel
dicht auf den versen so wie sunny in gesangskabinen
aber haben nichts in der hand so wie ‘ne pantomime
bullen sind geschmiert so wie die blankpolierten lambo-stiere
maximiere, maximiere, maximiere
labels machen miese wie bei bankenkrise
pennerrapper nagen an dem hungertuch und währenddessen lass’ ich zehn mille bei gucci ohne anprobieren
mafiaviertel, taktikspiele
annektiere stadtbezirke
keine klärung, weil ich schon mehr flaschen an den tischen abservierte als gasthauswirte
over the top wie rabbi-hüte
aber bleibe auf dem boden – panzermine
ups and downs – jump ‘n’ run
bruder, dieses leben ist wie trampoline
nehme shem gegen pain, kein champagne, schon immer durch straßen zieh’n wie abschleppdienste
interpolagenten haben jeden move von sunny auf dem schirm wie wettersatelliten
und ich bin kein weiberheld, aber die groupie-b-tches fühlen sich von sunny angezogen wie die schwammkostüme
nutte, wer will street-beef? sieh, ich bin real-g, weil ich keine messages, sondern packages transportiere
ficke deutsche rapper so wie —-
mittlerweile weiß ich nicht mehr, ob ich hass oder lachkick schiebe
gebe dir ‘ne sch-lle und zerbreche deine nackenwirbel
wie rugbywürfe
komm’ aus nrw, da, wo die löwen nicht mit hunden verhandeln, sondern die scharfe zieh’n so wie schlachtbetriebe
la familia
plattenfirmen wollen meine cd pressen, wir erpressen plattenfirmen
du fährst die plastikschiene wie flachbildschirme
ami-rap in deutsch, deine karriere lange abgeschrieben
mutterficker, meine karriere dagegen hat jetzt einen krassen peak wie ‘ne stachelbiene
maßanzüge wie bei nasa-flügen
b-tch, ich komm’ und breche deine nasenflügel
saado-familie steh’n vor dir mit heißem eisen und machst die biege wie waffenschmiede
[interlude: spongebozz]
was geht ab, ihr schwanzlutscher?
tzäh (du huansohn)

[part 4: spongebozz]
yo, die deutschraplegende auf dem battlekingthron
ich hab’ mehr träume beendet als ein apple-ringtone
jag’ die gegner mit colt, letzter megaerfolg
started from the bottom, nur noch 10k bis gold
in der linken hand der basey, rechts die desert-eagle-gun
ich kenn’ nix, was man nicht schnupfen, ficken oder erschießen kann
kriegserfahr’n wie ein familienclan
immer, wenn’s in meim leben grade lief, war’s auf der schiefen bahn
koksplantagen, flowpassagen, modemarken, schwarzer royce
der laden läuft, als hätt ich osama im fadenkreuz
cops sind heiß, denn ich komm’ mit tommy-gun wie rocky v
doch der schwammkopf zeigt die kalte schulter wie bei hockeyfights
immer noch auf planktonweed und krabbenkoka
weiß noch, damals wurd ein gelber slumdog zum gemachten showstar
grüße an mein’n buchmacher, großstadtdschungel-mufasa
witzig, heute denken mero-fanboys, ich bin newcomer
kalkulierter attentatmord, sabotiere dann den tatort
sitz’ ich mal in ‘nem bullenwagen, dann im lamborghini aventador
komm’ mit dem rockefeller-kreis so wie ‘ne jay-z-lp
ballern auf opferrapper blei, immer noch a.c.a.b.
mehr money als saudi-araber, ich bang’ deine frau auf v–gr-
die nutte fragt: „ey yo, was geht?“, ich sag’: „abhäng’n wie im aokigahara“
jeder macht ‘ne choreo, p-ssyrapper sind tanzschüler
deutschraps mutter will gebangt werden? schwamm drüber!

[part 5: sun diego]
disst man euch mit mutter, macht der rücken welle mit cousengs
sie denken, ihr seid stars, doch sie beschützen schwänze wie durex
billig-signings im showbiz sind verbreitet wie covid
guck, ich schwänger’ deutschen rap und lass’ das kind abtreiben wie moses
schwarze seele, weißer bentley, crime-talent wie meyer lansky
sunny diego, mehr angeldust als krematorien nach ‘nem bikergangkrieg
flexpuder im expresscruiser, splattermoves, als wär’s ‘n actionshooter
executive, back wie der letzte jude, sohn davids so wie beckham jr.
das ist blut auf mei’m t-shirt und kein italienischer wein, libanesischer kreis
du wirst zum hund gemacht wie chinesischer reis
topthema, bin stoffhehler wie tom tailor
reich und jung, scheine bunt wie ein cosplayer
nappaleder im panamera, maskenträger wie undertaker
ballern auf hater, paar uppercuts, player, danach ist dein kafa leyla
du wirst gedeepthroated wie ‘ne nympho, keine politischen beefs nur ‘n intro
doch nach diesem lied braucht die musikindustrie ‘ne delfintherapie wie inscope
im keller stacks, mach’ so wie rockefellers cash
das vom jay kommt wie damals dieser „umbrella“-text, mach’ welle jetzt
b-tch, ich hab’ so wie wella flex, die gang ist back, du wirst kugeln fangen wie’n tennisnetz
denn ich seh’ den parasit in dein’n augen, als wäre es men in black
roll’ im rolls-royce phantom auf chrom, verprasse steuergelder für blow
deine gang sieht aus wie boygroup-member mit bräunungstanner-lotion
ich mach’ eurostacks bei der show
bro, deutsche rapper sind broke
sipp’ die hennessy-coke, k!ll’ die enemys slow
denn sie machen nur pseudoreggae wie snow
custom-made, handmade gravur in mei’m brauner-mic
groupies sind dauergeil, jude wie south park-kyle
haze spliffen, champagne sippen, jay sniffen, das game ficken
verliebe mich nie, doch du fotzengesicht gibst ‘ner fotze gesicht wie beim facesitting
boxautomat, k.o.-knocker
esse roten lobster, häng’ mit koscher nostra
ihr seid drogenopfer, hab’ millionen dollar
im rimowa-koffer, packe coke-rocks ab
49, flowmonster
balle high – okocha
ich bin goalgetter, du bist showstopper
ich bin globetrotter so wie gold roger
hi, hater, bye, hater!
enemys hängen in meinem dry-ager
bringe wenig kilos auf die waage, aber laufe rum wie zwei meter, kein thema
weißes verschweißt mit heißkleber
trage wieder plomben an dem niketreter
ticke wieder shem unter dem skyscr-per
bullen machen auge so wie eyelaser
stepp’ in die kabine, ficke wieder deine mutter, wieder mal der gleiche beat und selbes reimschema
sie kopieren, niemand in der szene hat talent, aber ‘nen writer, newcomer sind alles hypechaser
treffen keine töne, wollen singen, haben widerliche voices, aber auto-tune war lifechanger
heute bin ich bei dem nummer-eins-major
motherf-cker, hustle now, shine later
drogenrazzien auf hochseeyachten
gs unter strom wie in todestrakten
ihr klebt bikern am arsch wie’n motorradsattel
mein gewissen ist so rein wie meine kokapaste
deine leute machen fotos für modemarken
meine leute machen fotos für soko-akten
mutterficker, zieh’ die gun und gebe dir ‘ne bullet, denn ehrenlose hunde kann man nicht koscher schlachten
kleines volk, große macht
ich hab’ logenplatz so wie’n operngast
schicke shem in ‘nem minivan, ficke deine kindergang
silberner benz, sieh, wie die brillis glänzen
ich komm’ mit den kriminellen clans, habe die influence wie citybanks
und schweben überm boden – hovercraft
jeder will ein’n teil meiner millionen ab
aber ich habe mich ganz alleine hochgebracht
trage bandana, keine coronamasken
no sleep wie bei totenwachen
halte mich fern von den rappern, denn in dem business mehr b-tch-moves als auf yogamatten
meine hoes hab’n kapseln in den goyard-taschen
kochen crack und backen nebenbei noch schokom-ffins
mit kokosraspeln, großstadthustle
kohle lowkey waschen bei comer-banken mit rothschildwappen
ihr seid broke atzen, die nur bei ‘ner shisha über kohle quatschen
money long so wie goliaths schatten
wir geh’n über leichen, motherf-cker, blutiger weg, trage die louboutins mit den roten bottoms
sie wollen mein phone anzapfen
schnell noch ein paar mille mitnehm’n, bevor die po-pos wie vogelkrall’n den strohmann busten
pennerrapper mischen colabier, ich mische codein mit robitussin
die neun-milly geladen im silbernem bugatti
k!lle wie illuminati villen auf bali
deine billige mami zieht nach dem ficken die lippen nach in den spiegelungen meiner sonnenbrille von cartier
spliffe das cali, mach’ illegal massari
drippe wie tsunamis, bin auf millionärpartys
vom interpol gejagt, denn ich ticke wieder pillen von dem tilidin an rapper, die auf drill sind wie seargents
ey, dein best case ist mein worst case
ficke curved babes und dein girl bläst
ich geh’ first date in die third base
so wie center fielder bei den world games
ey, ich leck’ mit ihr rum wie bei first aid
auf dem backseat vor dem flatscreen
ey, wir hör’n drake, und wir burn’n haze
lass’ die nutte ma’ zieh’n so wie earl grey
sipp’ bacardi-ice und sie twerked, shaked
we gon’ party like it’s your birthday
doch ich fick’ sie nicht noch einmal, denn von der hoe kriegt man ausschläge so wie von earthquakes
bringe wordplays für die nerdbrains, wenn ich percs nehm’ und den verse laze
hol’ das reinste flex rein aus new jersey
ich hab’ die jay-kontakte wie turntables
pushte schon immer die kilos, doch war niemals an einer curlstage
cops ficken kopf wie gehirnkrebs
b-tch, doch ich lüg’ beim verhör straight
drippe wie surfwaves, drippe wie squirt-tapes
fick’ jeden deutschrapper tot, denn ich brauch’ noch ein bisschen mehr worksp-ce
shoote mit waffen, kugeln in’ nacken – keine pearl-chains
schuldest du hurensohn batzen, denn das findet sunny fair so wie bei serways
ihr seid internet-gs mit ‘nem jerk-face
nique la police, spliffe jibbits im silbernen jeep
b-tch, ich chill’ in ‘ner villa am beach
bring’ das k!ller-release wie der purge day

[part 6: sun diego]
ah, heut gibt mir germany probs für jeden verse, den ich dropp’
ich bin gestört in mei’m kopf, zu abgeturned von dem ot
wieder verhört mich der cop, coke in den burberry-socks
denn ich mach’ kröten mit stoff – kermit der frosch
aufgewachsen zwischen hochhausblocks und regenschauer
snitches und die cops ficken mein’n kopf so wie ein schädeltrauma
sieh uns heute an, mehr drip als in ‘ner schwedensauna
brudi, denn wir flexen mit dem eis, als wär’n wir schneebildhauer
auf baguettes fixiert wie chicken teriyaki
meine kette hat karate, kid, wie mr. miyagi
fick’ deine mami, b-tch, ich sitz’ in nem rari, king in den straßen
ein jew führt deutschlands hitlisten an wie hitler die n-z-s
ich bin nicht wie diese rapper hier und flex’ mit geld
b-tch, es werden packs bestellt, b-tch, ich kaufe flex mit geld
bodypacks so groß, kuriere tragen wieder 6xl
hinterraumbusiness wie catering im backstagezelt
übergabe auf dem highway in irgend ‘nem drecksmotel
ein zug und du bist drauf – actionheld
wir sind unterweltler, sie bekomm’n in essen sch-ll’n
wenn rapper bell’n, besser gib respekt, du kelb
young yahoudi, bleibe stehen, bis der letzte fällt
echte bbmer copk!ller wie raf-rebell’n
land’ im privatjet, touchdown wie bei nfl
paar mio wechselgeld unterm bettgestell – s-xuell!
bossaura 2, back to back wie beim wild-west-duell
was für demon-time? ich send’ euch back to h-ll
ich hol’ euch raus aus eurer netflix-welt
welcher deutsche rapper tickt das pulver, fickt grad mutter und schreibt nebenbei noch seine texte selbst?
yeah, ich smoke die grasjoints
und bin schon bei sonnenaufgang stoned wie die gargoyles
k!lle rapper wie ‘ne überdosis crack
das kein image, weil ich höchstens in der synagoge capp’
groupie-nutten halten sunny für puffy
doch ich hitte nur mit gummi so wie monkey d. ruffy
yeah, tausend b-tches im privathandy
doch ich p-ss’ auf die wie —-
ybm, echter hype, kein aufgesetzer clowntrap
ihr verkauft geklauten rap als cloudrap
das ist kein diss, das ist ein live-report
und ohne auto-tune kann’s schiefgeh’n, gruß an hype awards
fly wie die twin-tower-jets, du kannst die sig sauer battlen
rapper sind auflevel, aber nicht auf mei’m level
fick’ auf dein event, ich veranstalte ein paar blutbäder
nur fotzen bei amazon auf level wie in tomb raider
seit ich weg war, zu viel opfer aus dem loch gekrochen
ein kilo cali-kush war mein letzter drop der woche (tfu)
heute sind an jedem release-friday
mehr junkies unterwegs als auf dem new-orleans-highway
behörden woll’n mich hinter sixteen bars
doch land’ ich hinter gittern, sind’s tabellen in den midweek-charts
mehr earnings in dem business als ein großfamilien-baba
rapper covern songs und kriegen modus-mio-cover
du bist ein hund, dem nicht einmal der leasingbenz gehört
ich hab’ die weekend-trends zerstört und es geht me against the world
jeder zweite streaming-act macht hundert mio easy clap
komisch, deutschrapper charten in hongkong so wie bts
was bringt gekaufter hype, wenn sie ‘ne leere halle spielen?
wo sind jetzt die kl!cks? ich glaube, kai ist auf den malediven
sunny47, b-tch, the voice ist jetzt back im rap-game
und heute kann man endlich sagen: deutschrap ist fresher denn je
ich will mich entschuldigen bei 2pac und biggie
eazy-e, dr. dre, snoop dogg und diddy
nate dogg, dmx, luda, ja rule und xzibit
nelly, jay-z, d12 und eminem, g-unit und 50
travis scott, migos, post malone, gucci mane, drizzy
xxx, pop smoke, juice wrld und nipsey
es tut mir leid aus tiefstem herzen, das hier geht an allen rap-ären
weil ich mich so für unsre drecksszene fremdschäme
kein egokomplex, doch kauf’ für mein ego komplexe
die letzte rettung für das game ist ein sun-diego-comeback
ich will mehr money, mehr vill’n, meer und privatstrände
denn „deutschrap ist ein hurensohn“, zitat ende (zitat ende)gotta k!llin’ ’em, majordeal ist groß
models in der präsi-suite auf koks
lass’ verräter für den seelenfrieden los
diego sun ist back, ich stehe bis zum tod
hintergrund weiß, davidstern blau, seele schwarz, laserziel ist rot
tick’ an deine wannabe-tony-montanas wieder mal die jay-packs für die oak
shalom alechem, lad’ die ak-47 und starte ‘nen chaosverbrechen
warnung an rap-camps, satan el diablo, sag hallo zur mac-10, full metal-ammo macht peng-peng
familie-saado-connection, keiner, der gage blecht für bezahlte protection
seit jahren mit paten aus essen, flieh’, bevor die task-force-agenten den tatort entdecken
k!lle rap, in den adern adrenalin
zieh’ die tec wie ‘ne nase amphetamin
dämonenblut in meinen venen, komm’ aus der hölle
wie die vier reiter der apokalypse, platz da
häng’ im s-coupé wie’n duftbaum, pumpe den hood-sound
jeder penner-rapper muckt auf, aber ich spuck’ drauf
hundesöhne sind auf clubhouse, bullets im tec-lauf
und das game löst sich in luft auf so wie der kushrauch
bbm, gang-raid
narcotraffic im bentley
kamerablitzlicht blendet
gang-sh-t, saado-clan ist die family
sorry, letzte zeit antwortete salah für mich auf fan-mails
denn kommt sunny back, lässt er wieder die szene in flammen aufgeh’n wie das h-llgate
das original, eure spotify-charts kling’n wie’n schlagermusik-hitmedley
ra-ta-ta-ta, bis all den flaschen das blut aus der halsader spritzt wie champagne
ja, ich rappe zu selten und habe nicht viel, aber das, was ich habe, ist handmade
bin das wahre selfmade, der schwammkopf in clips, kam mit kampfsportlertritt wie’n sensei
started from the bottom, damals jeden tag opfer bring’n für rap-fame
vom doubletime-spittenden kiffer, der b-tches wie’n hurricane-twister wegfegt
zum g mit der uzi, zersiebe die p-ssys, ein fliegender schuss in dein’n kiefer
du nutte willst krieg in der hood und er liegt in der luft wie ein knarrenabdrückender max payne
sunny der king, küss den davidsternring, nix handshakes!
money und bling, weil er anormal drippt wie black rain
pushe das white wie homer, wenn’s schneit, du siehst stammkundschaft glücklich weggeh’n
und sie sind im himmel nach paar weißen lines so wie schadstoffpartikel-chemtrails
im handschuhfach clips, die gat sprayed (drrr)
dein arsch wird gebangt, das sind after-effects ohne animationsfilm-templates
roll’ mit der bande, wir kommen zusammen wie du, wenn du cumshot abkriegst ins crack-face
fünfzehn jahre vorspiel, nutte, jetzt ist apocalyptic endgame
access all areas, backstage voll gangmember
bleib’ collateral-damager und die ak mein manager
back wie der predator, rappender avenger
werd’ vom rothschildkreis beschützt, als wär ich captain america
louis-sweater, waisted burberry-vintage-jeans
uzis, hecklars spray’n, wir mördern die industrie
vergieß’ blut wie wagyu-steaks, emergency in the streets
wenn ein kugeltreffer straight ins hirn schießt wie tilidin
ein beauty-channel-babe, sie twerkt wie in tiktok-memes
groupie-s-x backstage, dein girlfriend ist billie jean
nehme sie wie’n moonwalk-slide von hinten
denn sie kennt den new york times-artikel
„jewish rapper takes on germany’s hip-hop scene“
back from the death wie der sensenmannrücken
keine angst vorm tod, ich geb’ sogar dem sensenmann rücken
mach’ keine halbe-mio-deals, wenn du al pacino spielst
wo ich herkomm’, sind stilettos keine valentino-heels
heut macht jede junkie-b-tch auf percocets musik
noch mehr b-ware im schnitt als in ‘ner burberry-boutique
labels müssen zuseh’n, wenn ich ihre crewmates k!ll’
fick’ das game, jeder kopiert den uk-drill wie’n blu-ray-film
ich hab’ mehr rapper gedeepthroated als weed-smoke
jeder hat die postleitzahl im nam’n, doch niemand kennt den streetcode
siebenstellig universal-deal, legende – freddie mercury
amis sagen, „sunny is the eminem of germany“
million-dollar-sponge-rap über drogen und gewalt
100k im monat, nur mein koks hat mehr gehalt
crack wird gepusht im nightlife, bin in der hood zur crimetime
sie komm’n mit polizeistaffeln so wie brooklyn nine-nine
todester whip wie amaru shakur, mafiastruktur
habibi, stiche für dein’n rücken, keine akupunktur
ah, ich komm’ mit ghettogangs aus nrw
und bullen scann’n mich wie beim mrt
wenn ich will, zahlst du an koksdealer-mafia schutz
setz’ dich mit kohle krass unter druck so wie bei beim rohdiamantenschmuck
mehr prozente an tischen als bei ‘nem tennessee-whiskey
denn ich mach’ family-business wie die kardashian-b-tches
ah, du kriegst von libanesen sch-ll’n
besser mach die tür nicht auf, wenn libanesen sch-ll’n
ich bin kein liebesdichter, schieße bei beef aus dem siebensitzer
b-tch, du kommst mit friederichs an, ich mit friedensrichtern
der gewinn geht an die biker, rap ist tour de france
du hurensohn, stepp’ auf den ruhrbeton mit louboutins
zahlen für den rücken wie beim basketball-jersey
hab’ vom shem-shem cold turkey, also expect no mercy
rocker schützen dich vor rocker, clan beschützt dich vor clan
hab’ die masche längst durchschaut, auf dem rücksitz die gun
in der gianni-jogger weiß (weiß), du junkie-opfer weißt
sie setzen kopfgeld auf mich aus, ich hab’ nur money on my mind
im kofferraum paar mios und paar kilogramm jayjo
doch bleib’ tranquilo, spliffe haze, stepp’ ins casino mit rainbow
rap ist ‘ne comedian-gameshow, bin nicht dein habibo, du fame-hoe
keiner kann mir was, denn salah ist amigo wie quavo
ich trag’ fila, kappa, h-lly hansen
du biatch machst wie’n pidaras in shisha-clubs auf bellydance-b-tch
bbm, familienclan wie kelly-family
guck, wie wir mehr c.r.e.a.m. machen als ben & jerry’s
life is sweet, peanutb-tter jelly sandwich
dresscode para, mehr nettozaster als death-row-youngster
back from the gutter, bang’ deine crack-hoe-mama
wie techno-gabber, komm’ mit ghettobabas auf westcoast-choppers
magnums rattern, ich hab’ mordmotive wie der death note-manga
ficke nur mit money, ich vermehre das geld
mache paper so schnell, als würd ich den regenwald fäll’n
als müsste ich den s-coupé mit kerosin tanken
mehr ps als cash, mehr fixkosten als heroinjunkies
kobe-rind beim geschäftsessen, der rest kann dreck fressen
ich lasse kugeln auf ratten fliegen wie ash ketchum
heut seh’n männer aus wie frau’n und rapper wie ‘ne popstar-diva
—-, dein top hat spaghettiträger wie l’osteria
mach big-booty-twerkenden groupie-girls das beyda klar
verkaufe bad moms jay wie’n universal-a&r
auch wenn wir nicht mit dem release auf eins geh’n
fick’ ich mehr influencerinnen als artikel 13
coke-transport im truck, ich nenn’ es linienbus
immer summen in mei’m kopf, als hätt ich tinnitus
nüchtern bleiben, der ha-satan will mich irreleiten
ihr bauern seid ehrenlos wie in dürrezeiten
mashallaw, ich trete diese hip-hop-nerds
b-tch, nicht nur bei tekken 7 werden meine hits confirmed
ich könnt das ganze game mit libanesen beschützen
kommt zu bbm, wir geben euch rücken
studioquarantäne, coolio-atmosphäre
adolf hitler, attila hildmann – hurensohnparallele
ghettomillionär, ich trag’ bottega und adidas
beste rapper deutschlands: sun diego, kollegah und ali as
duck dich wie ein limbotänzer, bullets aus dem limofenster
eine frage: wieso reimt sich nuttensohn auf influencer?
künstler hab’n kein’n wert, es werden mütter heut entehrt
guck, ich fick’ zwar eure ärsche, aber küss’ doch euer herz
wenn ich fertig bin, dann putzen sie schuhe für mindestlohn
deutschrap ist ‘ne newcomer-hurensohn-inflation
ihr seid funny wie chris tucker, alles junkie-d-cksucker
ich fick’ rapper aus dem handgelenk wie munich wrist busters
du wirst gekickt von dei’m label, ich bin beim marketing-kickoff
du bist der hurensohn von rap, ich bin der vater von hip-hop
der leutnant holt die glock raus
ich zocke zwar kein tetris, doch bring’ häufiger den blocksound und fick’ deutschland wie der lockdown
todesignorant, polizeibekannt
b-tch, ich bin kein messi, doch die wohnung ist verwanzt
und sieht mein sohn, finanzamt macht bei papa razzia
sag’ ich: „no worries, das sind einfach nur paar paparazzi, ja!“
leben lang antisemitismus, ganzes money geht zum fiskus
woll’n mich auf das holz festnageln, als wär sunny jesus christus
vom staat gesucht, vom kokain paranoia
ich hinterziehe steuern und ich zieh’ hinterm steuer
im mercedes filmreif die jibs spliffen
scheiben bl!ckdicht gegen blitzlicht
weg mit dein’n wichsgriffeln, heute big pimpin’
damals schwere kindheit wie chris griffin
früher noch die jay-packs im trunk von mei’m honda
heute bin ich made man wie frankensteins monster
der werdegang wiederholt sich, ich fick’ die internetbattles
gruß an mike ill-strated, gewinner bei rapkingz
kein schlittschuhläufer, dafür ‘ne kunstfigur
kein nine-to-five, dafür ‘ne luxusuhr

[part 2: sun diego]
blutige augen, lass’ meine seele verbrennen
denn wenn die höllendämonen in meinem inneren erwachen
würde nicht einmal der ha-satan mich stoppen können
meine flammen geh’n bis in den himmel und bedecken die welt
mit einer vernichtenden hülle so wie die sonne
niemand wird überleben im feuerregen
weil die menschen alle hasserfüllte, skrupellose, geizige, mordende wilde sind
welche die gaben und das leben nicht würdigen
sie bekämpfen einander, begeh’n die sünde, sie vergessen aber
irgendwann muss jeder von uns büßen, k!ll ’em all
ich komme wie der todesengel und bringe das ende
niemand wollte den frieden, darum beginn’ ich heute mit der apocalyptic
cocaine-verticker und parallel ikone für kinder wie gargamel
dope wie vanilla, mein flow ist so k!ller, der todeste bringer wie azrael
häng’ mit wall-street-juden in goldschmiedstuben
drug-traffic in religiösen holzfiguren
sie wollen mich hinter gittern, aber haben keine beweise, wir sabotieren die recordingspuren
bange stalking-groupies in den porsche-coupés
sie nimmt all inclusive wie mallorca-touris
lager’ siebenstellig in der vorratstruhe
erst rollen die köpfe, dannach roll’n die rubel
yves saint laurent und vetements, bin am ball’n wie die spalding group oder ‘n college-student
wilder westen, ich bin lucky luke, du musst dich vor den bullets ducken, weil meine brüder so wie die daltons shooten
bikini bottom mafia, die gang in deiner gegend
lad’ die ak-47, ziele, spray’, nehme dein leben
nutte, dollarscheine zählen bei ‘nem jibbit, deine mutter —- gehört zu meiner morning-routine
alle greifen den an, der den ball hat, aber fallen, weil in germany fans immer noch mein album hypen
diese amateure spielen nicht in meiner liga, bin ‘ne lebende legende wie ronaldo-icon
du wirst klinge bekomm’n
penner, hol die polizei, sie werden keine dna von meiner klinge bekomm’n
kiss the ring of the don
zieh’ die millimeter, hunde wollen bela, k!ll ’em all, ich bin der king auf beton
ich bin ceo, du bist ein angestellter
mach’ die millionen wie ein rockefeller
diese schlampenrapper, stack’ gewaschne gelder
für die missgeburten nur als schattenspender
häng’ mit crystal-, koka- oder haschisch-händler
es heißt business over b-tches, money-maker
mehr risk als broker, an den wrists daytonas
unser drip is koscher, brauch’ kein’n umbrella
blutiges vergeh’n, uziclips am spray’n, kugeln im café – stracciatella
fick’ die b-tchindustrie, sie hab’n kindische beats, aber indische streams wie der gangesdelta
und ich grins’ wie joker, bleibe attentäter
ihr seid kippenschnorrer, keine mafiagangster
sitz’ im rover, sipp’ die jimmy-cola
alles whistleblower wie der rattenfänger

[part 3: sun diego]
bang’ mit ak, häng’ mit mafia, frank sinatra
gutes koks, aber schlechtes karma
bbm-brigada
komm’ mit den libanesen in deine town und starte dann ein familydrama
wir sind wellemacher so wie che guevara
mit mehr ballermänner als im juventus-kader
ficke deine gammelige mutter weg vor den augen deines pennervaters auf dem campinglager
was für latinlover? du bist ein schwänze blasender
alimentezahler wie dieser alan harper
ich hab’ ausgezeichnete b-tches – hentaimaler
zu viele groupies, zu wenig edding-marker
brenn’ wie lava, bang’ aus dem black impala
erwürge dich mit einem handycharger
bin geschäftsinhaber
nutte, meine legacy eine legendensaga wie tempelmagier
kein random gelaber über fendi, prada
kicke wieder bretter wie bei benihana
renn’ vor dem grenzzollfahnder
shem-shem im champion-parker, präsidentenarmband
schnell wie die mac-10 aus west-tirana
bossaura 2 wird eine genkidama
ihr habt schlechte karten, ich hab’ das pokerface wie lady gaga, ficke deine babymama
magnum-geballer auf der ghetto-strada
trage sonnenbrille nachts so wie der terminator, denn ich werd’ geblendet von dem rolls-royce-phantom-strahler
stiche für dein’n manager und labelpartner
stresser, banger, rappender messerstecher, verbrecher
echte bbmer mehr member als h-llser charter
von ‘nem dealer zu ‘nem artist, damals haram-massari
heut mach’ ich helal-para wie ‘ne spendengala
war-ready, tresor-brechi in der shortbaggy
b-tch, ich köpfe enemys wie dom péri
gebe dir stitches wie bei ‘nem shawn-mendes-songmedley
palm angels, vuitton-hemden
ball’ heavy wie’n new-york-yankee
more money, more problems?
more money, more fendi!
keine chance, ich bin don auf beton
komm’ im grand bentley, als wär sports-rallye
business-talks ständig, am ohr handy
mache wieder buntes paper, kein konfetti
sie spielen den paten so wie joe pesci
bikini bottom mafia die company
inhaliere cali-weed, als wäre 24/7, 365 four-twenty
cruise im spider wie schumi iced-out
groupie-weiber in gucci-kleider
bombengürtel, suicider
highroller wie sushi-meister
jewish rider, crews sind biter
wenn ich komme, werden deine tourbegleiter
crucified wie meine arme, wenn ich in die menschenmenge von der bühne mit der uzi fire
bandenkriege, machtintrige
hänge mit dem freimaurerkreis wie ‘ne abrissbirne
magazine in der schrankvitrine
mache gelbe scheine so wie lampenschirme
pulle trigger wie auf chiropraktikliege
pulle so viel trigger, muss zur maniküre
pull’ up in dem s-coupé-mercedes, motherf-cker, shoot’ ‘ne bullet in dein brain, und zwar ‘ne handsignierte
cops sind dicht auf den fersen so wie wanderstiefel
dicht auf den versen so wie sunny in gesangskabinen
aber haben nichts in der hand so wie ‘ne pantomime
bullen sind geschmiert so wie die blankpolierten lambo-stiere
maximiere, maximiere, maximiere
labels machen miese wie bei bankenkrise
pennerrapper nagen an dem hungertuch und währenddessen lass’ ich zehn mille bei gucci ohne anprobieren
mafiaviertel, taktikspiele
annektiere stadtbezirke
keine klärung, weil ich schon mehr flaschen an den tischen abservierte als gasthauswirte
over the top wie rabbi-hüte
aber bleibe auf dem boden – panzermine
ups and downs – jump ‘n’ run
bruder, dieses leben ist wie trampoline
nehme shem gegen pain, kein champagne, schon immer durch straßen zieh’n wie abschleppdienste
interpolagenten haben jeden move von sunny auf dem schirm wie wettersatelliten
und ich bin kein weiberheld, aber die groupie-b-tches fühlen sich von sunny angezogen wie die schwammkostüme
nutte, wer will street-beef? sieh, ich bin real-g, weil ich keine messages, sondern packages transportiere
ficke deutsche rapper so wie —-
mittlerweile weiß ich nicht mehr, ob ich hass oder lachkick schiebe
gebe dir ‘ne sch-lle und zerbreche deine nackenwirbel
wie rugbywürfe
komm’ aus nrw, da, wo die löwen nicht mit hunden verhandeln, sondern die scharfe zieh’n so wie schlachtbetriebe
la familia
plattenfirmen wollen meine cd pressen, wir erpressen plattenfirmen
du fährst die plastikschiene wie flachbildschirme
ami-rap in deutsch, deine karriere lange abgeschrieben
mutterficker, meine karriere dagegen hat jetzt einen krassen peak wie ‘ne stachelbiene
maßanzüge wie bei nasa-flügen
b-tch, ich komm’ und breche deine nasenflügel
saado-familie steh’n vor dir mit heißem eisen und machst die biege wie waffenschmiede

[interlude: spongebozz]
was geht ab, ihr schwanzlutscher?
tzäh (du huansohn)

nam cupide eonculcatur nimis ante metutum;
“for with most eagerness they spurn the law
by which they were before most kept in awe;”
resolving to admit nothing for the future to which they had not first interposed their own decrees, and given their particular consent

it happened that my father, a little before his death, having accidentally found this book under a heap of other neglected papers, commanded me to translate it for him into french. it is good too translate such authors as this, where there is little but the matter itself to express; but such wherein grace of language and elegance of style are aimed at, are dangerous to attempt, especially when a man is to turn them into a weaker idiom. it was a strange and a new undertaking for me; but having by chance at that time nothing else to do, and not being able to resist the command of the best father that ever was, i did it as well as i could; and he was so well pleased with it as to order it to be printed, which after his death was done

i found the ideas of this author exceeding fine the contexture of his work well followed, and his design full of piety; and because many people take a delight to read it, and particularly the ladies, to whom we owe the most service, i have often thought to assist them to clear the book of two princ-p-l objections made to it. his design is bold and daring, for he undertakes, by human and natural reasons, to establish and make good, against the atheists, all the articles of the christian religion: wherein, to speak the truth, he is so firm and so successful that i do not think it possible to do better upon that subject; nay, i believe he has been equalled by none. this work seeming to me to be too beautiful and too rich for an author whose name is so little known, and of whom all that we know is that he was a spaniard, practising physic at toulouse about two hundred years ago; i enquired of adrian turnebus, who knew all things, what he thought of that book; who made answer, “that he thought it was some abstract drawn from st. thomas d’aquin; for that, in truth, his mind, so full of infinite erudition and admirable subtlety, was alone capable of such thoughts.” be this as it may, whoever was the author and inventor (and ’tis not reasonable, without greater certainty, to deprive sebond of that title), he was a man of great judgment and most admirable parts

the first thing they reprehend in his work is “that christians are to blame to repose their belief upon human reason, which is only conceived by faith and the particular inspiration of divine grace.” in which objection there appears to be something of zeal to piety, and therefore we are to endeavour to satisfy those who put it forth with the greater mildness and respect. this were a task more proper for a man well read in divinity than for me, who know nothing of it; nevertheless, i conceive that in a thing so divine, so high, and so far transcending all human intelligence, as is that truth, with which it has pleased the bounty of god to enlighten us, it is very necessary that he should moreover lend us his assistance, as a very extraordinary favour and privilege, to conceive and imprint it in our understanding. and i do not believe that means purely human are in any sort capable of doing it: for, if they were, so many rare and excellent souls, and so abundantly furnished with natural force, in former ages, could not have failed, by their reason, to arrive at this knowledge. ’tis faith alone that livelily mind certainly comprehends the deep mysteries of our religion; but, withal, i do not say that it is not a worthy and very laudable attempt to accommodate those natural and human utensils with which god has endowed us to the service of our faith: it is not to be doubted but that it is the most n0ble use we can put them to; and that there is not a design in a christian man more n0ble than to make it the aim and end of all his studies to extend and amplify the truth of his belief. we do not satisfy ourselves with serving god with our souls and understandings only, we moreover owe and render him a corporal reverence, and apply our limbs and motions, and external things to do him honour; we must here do the same, and accompany our faith with all the reason we have, but always with this reservation, not to fancy that it is upon us that it depends, nor that our arguments and endeavours can arrive at so supernatural and divine a knowledge. if it enters not into us by an extraordinary infusion; if it enters not only by reason, but, moreover, by human ways, it is not in us in its true dignity and splendour: and yet, i am afraid, we only have it by this way

if we hold upon god by the mediation of a lively faith; if we hold upon god by him, and not by us; if we had a divine basis and foundation, human occasions would not have the power to shake us as they do; our fortress would not surrender to so weak a battery; the love of novelty, the constraint of princes, the success of one party, and the rash and fortuitous change of our opinions, would not have the power to stagger and alter our belief: we should not then leave it to the mercy of every new argument, nor abandon it to all the rhetoric in the world; we should withstand the fury of these waves with an immovable and unyielding constancy:

as a great rock repels the rolling tides

that foam and bark about her marble sides
from its strong bulk
if we were but touched with this ray of divinity, it would appear throughout; not only our words, but our works also, would carry its brightness and l-stre; whatever proceeded from us would be seen illuminated with this n0ble light. we ought to be ashamed that, in all the human sects, there never was any of the faction, that did not, in some measure, conform his life and behaviour to it, whereas so divine and heavenly an institution does only distinguish christians by the name! will you see the proof of this? compare our manners to those of a mahometan or pagan, you will still find that we fall very

short; there, where, out of regard to the reputation and advantage of our religion, we ought to shine in excellency at a vast distance beyond all others: and that it should be said of us, “are they so just, so charitable, so good: then they are christians.” all other signs are common to all religions; hope, trust, events, ceremonies, penance

martyrs. the peculiar mark of our truth ought to be our virtue, as it is also the most heavenly and difficult, and the most worthy product of truth. for this our good st. louis was in the right, who, when the tartar king, who was become christian, designed to come to lyons to kiss the pope’s feet, and there to be an eye-witness of the sanctity he hoped to find in our manner, immediately diverted him from his purpose; for fear lest our disorderly way of living should, on the contrary, put him out of conceit with so holy a belief! and yet it happened quite otherwise since to that other, who, going to rome, to the same end, and there seeing the dissoluteness of the prelates and people of that time, settled himself so much the more firmly in our religion, considering how great the force and divinity of it must necessarily be that could maintain its dignity and splendour among so much corruption, and in so vicious hands. if we had but one single grain of faith, we should remove mountains from their places, saith the sacred word; our actions, that would then be directed and accompanied by the divinity, would not be merely human, they would have in them something of miraculous, as well as our belief: brevis est institutio vit honest beauque, si credos. “believe, and the way to happiness and virtue is a short one.” some impose upon the world that they believe that which they do not; others, more in number, make themselves believe that they believe, not being able to penetrate into what it is to believe. we think it strange if, in the civil war which, at this time, disorders our state, we see events float and vary aller a common and ordinary manner; which is because we bring nothing to it but our own. justice, which is in one party, is only there for ornament and palliation; it, is, indeed, pretended, but ’tis not there received, settled and espoused: it is there, as in the mouth of an advocate, not as in the heart and affection of the party. god owes his extraordinary assistance to faith and religion; not to our passions. men there are the conductors, and therein serve themselves with religion, whereas it ought to be quite contrary. observe, if it be not by our own hands that we guide and train it, and draw it like wax into so many contrary figures, from a rule in itself so direct and firm. when and where was this more manifest than in france in our days? they who have taken it on the left hand, they who have taken it on the right; they who call it black, they who call it white, alike employ it to their violent and ambitious designs, conduct it with a progress, so conform in riot and injustice that they render the diversity they pretended in their opinions, in a thing whereon the conduct and rule of our life depends, doubtful and hard to believe. did one ever see, come from the same school and discipline, manners more united, and more the same? do but observe with what horrid impudence we toss divine arguments to and fro, and how irreligiously we have both rejected and retaken them, accord—as fortune has shifted our places in these intestine storms

this so solemn proposition, “whether it be lawful for a subject to rebel and take up arms against his prince for the defence of his religion,” do you remember in whose mouths, the last year, the affirmative of it was the prop of one party, and the negative the pillar of another? and hearken now from what quarter comes the voice and instruction of the one and the other, and if arms make less noise and rattle for this cause than for that. we condemn those to the fire who say that truth must be made to bear the yoke of our necessity; and how much worse does france than say it? let us confess the truth; whoever should draw out from the army, even that raised by the king, those who take up arms out of pure zeal to religion, and also those who only do it to protect the laws of their country, or for the service of their prince, could hardly, out of both these put together, make one complete company of gens-d’armes. whence does this proceed, that there are so few to be found who have maintained the same will and the same progress in our civil commotions, and that we see them one while move but a foot-pace, and another run full speed? and the same men one while damage our affairs by their violent heat and fierceness, and another by their coldness, gentleness, and slowness; but that they are pushed on by particular and casual considerations, according to the variety wherein they move?

i evidently perceive that we do not willingly afford devotion any other offices but those that least suit with our own passions

there hostility so admirable as the christian. our zeal performs wonders, when it seconds our inclinations to hatred, cruelty, ambition, avarice, detraction, and rebellion: but when it moves, against the hair, towards bounty, benignity, and temperance, unless, by miracle, some rare and virtuous disposition prompts us to it, we stir neither hand nor toot. our religion is intended to extirpate vices, whereas it screens, nourishes, and incites them. we must not mock god. if we believed in him, i do not say by faith, but with a simple belief, that is to say (and i speak it to our great shame) if we believed in him and recognised him as we do any other history, or as we would do one of our companions, we should love him above all other things for the infinite bounty and beauty that shines in him;—at least, he would go equal in our affection with riches, pleasure, glory, and our friends. the best of us is not so much afraid to outrage him as he is afraid to injure his neighbour, his kinsman, or his master. is there any understanding so weak that, having on one side the object of one of our vicious pleasures, and on the other (in equal knowledge and persuasion) the state of an immortal glory, would change the first for the other? and yet we often renounce this out of mere contempt: for what l-st tempts us to blaspheme, if not, perhaps, the very desire to offend. the philosopher antisthenes, as he was being initiated in the mysteries of orpheus, the priest telling him, “that those who professed themselves of that religion were certain to receive perfect and eternal felicity after death,”—”if thou believest that,” answered he, “why dost thou not die thyself?” diogenes, more rudely, according to his manner, and more remote from our purpose, to the priest that in like manner preached to him, “to become of his religion, that he might obtain the happiness of the other world;—”what!” said he, “thou wouldest have me to believe that agesilaus and epaminondas, who were so great men, shall be miserable, and that thou, who art but a calf, and canst do nothing to purpose, shalt be happy, because thou art a priest?” did we receive these great promises of eternal beatitude with the same reverence and respect that we do a philosophical discourse, we should not have death in so great horror:

non jam se moriens dissolvi conqurreretur;
sed magis ire foras, stemque relinquere ut angais
gauderet, prealonga senex aut cornua cervus

“we should not on a death bed grieve to be
dissolved, but rather launch out cheerfully
from our old hut, and with the snake, be glad
to cast off the corrupted slough we had;
or with th’ old stag rejoice to be now clear
from the large h-rns, too ponderous grown to bear.”
“i desire to be dissolved,” we should say, “and to be with jesus christ” the force of plato’s arguments concerning the immortality of the soul set some of his disciples to seek a premature grave, that they might the sooner enjoy the things he had made them hope for

all this is a most evident sign that we only receive our religion after our own fashion, by our own hands, and no otherwise than as other religions are received. either we are happened in the country where it is in practice, or we reverence the antiquity of it, or the authority of the men who have maintained it, or fear the menaces it fulminates against misbelievers, or are allured by its promises. these considerations ought, ’tis true, to be applied to our belief but as subsidiaries only, for they are human obligations. another religion, other witnesses, the like promises and threats, might, by the same way, imprint a quite contrary belief. we are christians by the same title that we are perigordians or germans. and what plato says, “that there are few men so obstinate in their atheism whom a pressing danger will not reduce to an acknowledgment of the divine power,” does not concern a true christian: ’tis for mortal and human religions to be received by human recommendation. what kind of faith can that be that cowardice and want of courage establish in us? a pleasant faith, that does not believe what it believes but for want of courage to disbelieve it! can a vicious passion, such as inconstancy and astonishment, cause any regular product in our souls? “they are confident in their judgment,” says he, “that what is said of h-ll and future torments is all feigned: but an occasion of making the expedient presenting itself, when old age or diseases bring them to the brink of the grave, the terror of death, by the horror of that future condition, inspires them with a new belief!” and by reason that such impressions render them timorous, he forbids in his laws all such threatening doctrines, and all persuasion that anything of ill can befall a man from the gods, excepting for his great good when they happen to him, and for a medicinal effect. they say of bion that, infected with the atheism of theodoras, he had long had religious men in great scorn and contempt, but that death surprising him, he gave himself up to the most extreme superstition; as if the gods withdrew and returned according to the necessities of bion. plato and these examples would conclude that we are brought to a belief of god either by reason or by force. atheism being a proposition as unnatural as monstrous, difficult also and hard to establish in the human understanding, how arrogant soever, there are men enough seen, out of vanity and pride, to be the authors of extraordinary and reforming opinions, and outwardly to affect the profession of them; who, if they are such fools, have, nevertheless, not the power to plant them in their own conscience. yet will they not fail to lift up their hands towards heaven if you give them a good thrust with a sword in the breast, and when fear or sickness has abated and dulled the licentious fury of this giddy humour they will easily re-unite, and very discreetly suffer themselves to be reconciled to the public faith and examples. a doctrine seriously digested is one thing, and those superficial impressions another; which springing from the disorder of an unhinged understanding, float at random and great uncertainty in the fancy. miserable and senseless men, who strive to be worse than they can!

the error of paganism and the ignorance of our sacred truth, let this great soul of plato, but great only in human greatness, fall also into this other mistake, “that children and old men were most susceptible of religion,” as if it sprung and derived its credit from our weakness. the knot that ought to bind the judgment and the will, that ought to restrain the soul and join it to our creator, should be a knot that derives its foldings and strength not from our considerations, from our reasons and passions, but from a divine and supernatural constraint, having but one form, one face, and one l-stre, which is the authority of god and his divine grace. now the heart and soul being governed and commanded by faith, ’tis but reason that they should muster all our other faculties, according as they are able to perform to the service and assistance of their design. neither is it to be imagined that all this machine has not some marks imprinted upon it by the hand of the mighty architect, and that there is not in the things of this world some image that in some measure resembles the workman who has built and formed them. he has, in his stupendous works, left the character of his divinity, and ’tis our own weakness only that hinders us from discerning it. ’tis what he himself is pleased to tell us, “that he manifests his invisible operations to us by those that are visible.” sebond applied himself to this laudable and n0ble study, and demonstrates to us that there is not any part or member of the world that disclaims or derogates from its maker. it were to do wrong to the divine goodness, did not the universe consent to our belief. the heavens, the earth, the elements, our bodies and our souls,—all things concur to this; we have but to find out the way to use them; they instruct us, if we are capable of instruction. for this world is a sacred temple, into which man is introduced, there to contemplate statues, not the works of a mortal hand, but such as the divine purpose has made the objects of sense; the sun, the stars, the water, and the earth, to represent those that are intelligible to us. “the invisible tilings of god,” says st. paul, “appear by the creation of the world, his eternal wisdom and divinity being considered by his works.”

and god himself envies not men the grace
of seeing and admiring heaven’s face;
but, rolling it about, he still anew
presents its varied splendour to our view
and on oar minds himself inculcates, so
that we th’ almighty mover well may know:
instructing us by seeing him the cause
of ill, to revcreoce and obey his laws.”
now our prayers and human discourses are but as sterile and undigested matter. the grace of god is the form; ’tis that which gives fashion and value to it. as the virtuous actions of socrates and cato remain vain and fruitless, for not having had the love and obedience to the true creator of all things, so is it with our imaginations and discourses; they have a kind of body, but it is an inform mass, without fashion and without light, if faith and grace be not added thereto. faith coming to tinct and ill-strate sehond’s arguments renders them firm and stolid; and to that degree that they are capable of serving for directions, and of being the first guides to an elementary christian to put him into the way of this knowledge. they in some measure form him to, and render him capable of, the grace of god, by which means he afterwards completes and perfects himself in the true belief. i know a man of authority, bred up to letters, who has confessed to me to have been brought back from the errors of unbelief by sebond’s arguments. and should they be stripped of this ornament, and of the assistance and approbation of the faith, and be looked upon as mere fancies only, to contend with those who are precipitated into the dreadful and horrible darkness of irrligion, they will even there find them as solid and firm as any others of the same quality that can be opposed against them; so that we shall be ready to say to our opponents:

si melius quid habes, arcesse; vel imperium fer:

“if you have arguments more fit
produce them, or to these submit.”
let them admit the force of our reasons, or let them show us others, and upon some other subject, better woven and of finer thread. i am, unawares, half engaged in the second objection, to which i proposed to make answer in the behalf of sebond. some say that his arguments are weak, and unable to make good what he intends, and undertake with great ease to confute them. these are to be a little more roughly handled, for they are more dangerous and malicious than the first men willingly wrest the sayings of others to favour their own prejudicate opinions. to an atheist all writings tend to atheism: he corrupts the most innocent matter with his own venom. these have their judgments so prepossessed that they cannot relish sebond’s reasons. as to the rest, they think we give them very fair play in putting them into the liberty of combatting our religion with weapons merely human, whom, in her majesty, full of authority and command, they durst not attack. the means that i shall use, and that i think most proper to subdue this frenzy, is to crush and spurn under foot pride and human arrogance; to make them sensible of the inanity, vanity, and vileness of man; to wrest the wretched arms of their reason out of their hands; to make them bow down and bite the ground under the authority and reverence of the divine majesty. ’tis to that alone that knowledge and wisdom appertain; that alone that can make a true estimate of itself, and from which we purloin whatever we value ourselves upon: [—greek—] “god permits not any being but himself to be truly wise.” let us subdue this presumption, the first foundation of the tyranny of the evil spirit deus superbis re-sistit, humilibus autem dal gratiam. “god resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” “understanding is in the gods,” says plato, “and not at all, or very little, in men.” now it is in the mean time a great consolation to a christian man to see our frail and mortal parts so fitly suited to our holy and divine faith that, when we employ them to the subjects of their own mortal and frail nature they are not even there more unitedly or more firmly adjusted. let us see, then, if man has in his power other more forcible and convincing reasons than those of sebond; that is to say, if it be in him to arrive at any certainty by argument and reason. for st. augustin, disputing against these people, has good cause to reproach them with injustice, “in that they maintain the part of our belief to be false that our reason cannot establish.” and to show that a great many things may be, and have been, of which our nature could not sound the reason and causes, he proposes to them certain known and undoubted experiments, wherein men confess they see nothing; and this he does, as all other things, with a curious and ingenious inquisition. we must do more than this, and make them know that, to convince the weakness of their reason, there is no necessity of culling out uncommon examples: and that it is so defective and so blind that there is no faculty clear enough for it; that to it the easy and the hard are all one; that all subjects equally, and nature in general, disclaim its authority and reject its mediation

what does truth mean when she preaches to us to fly worldly philosophy, when she so often inculcates to us, “that our wisdom is but folly in the sight of god: that the vainest of all vanities is man: that the man who presumes upon his wisdom does not yet know what wisdom is; and that man, who is nothing, if he thinks himself to be anything, does seduce and deceive himself.” these sentences of the holy spirit do so clearly and vividly express that which i would maintain that i should need no other proof against men who would with all humility and obedience submit to his authority: but these will be whipped at their own expense, and will not suffer a man to oppose their reason but by itself

let us then, for once, consider a man alone, without foreign assistance, armed only with his own proper arms, and unfurnished of the divine grace and wisdom, which is all his honour, strength, and the foundation of his being. let us see how he stands in this fine equipage. let him make me understand, by the force of his reason, upon what foundations he has built those great advantages he thinks he has over other creatures. who has made him believe that this admirable motion of the celestial arch, the eternal light of those luminaries that roll so high over his head, the wondrous and fearful motions of that infinite ocean, should be established and continue so many ages for his service and convenience? can any thing be imagined so ridiculous, that this miserable and wretched creature, who is not so much as master of himself, but subject to the injuries of all things, should call himself master and emperor of the world, of which he has not power to know the least part, much less to command the whole? and the privilege which he attributes to himself of being the only creature in this vast fabric who has the understanding to discover the beauty and the paris of it; the only one who can return thanks to the architect, and keep account of the revenues and disburs-m-nts of the world; who, i wonder, sealed him this patent? let us see his commission for this great employment was it granted in favour of the wise only? few people will be concerned in it. are fools and wicked persons worthy so extraordinary a favour, and, being the worst part of the world, to be preferred before the rest? shall we believe this man?—”for whose sake shall we, therefore, conclude that the world was made? for theirs who have the use of reason: these are gods and men, than whom certainly nothing can be better:” we can never sufficiently decry the impudence of this conjunction. but, wretched creature, what has he in himself worthy of such an advantage? considering the incorruptible existence of the celestial bodies; beauty; magnitude, and continual revolution by so exact a rule;

cum suspicimus mni clestia mundi
templa super, stellisque micantibus arthera fiium
el venit in mcntem lun solisque viarurn

“when we the heavenly arch above behold
and the vast sky adorned with stars of gold
and mark the r’eglar course? that the sun
and moon in their alternate progress run.”

considering the dominion and influence those bodies have, not only over our lives and fortunes;

facta etenim et vitas hominum suspendit ab aatris;

“men’s lives and actions on the stars depend.”
but even over our inclinations, our thoughts and wills, which they govern, incite and agitate at the mercy of their influences, as our reason teaches us;

“contemplating the stars he finds that they
rule by a secret and a silent sway;
and that the enamell’d spheres which roll above
do ever by alternate causes move
and, studying these, he can also foresee
by certain signs, the turns of destiny;”
seeing that not only a man, not only kings, but that monarchies, empires, and all this lower world follow the influence of the celestial motions

“how great a change a little motion brings!
so great this kingdom is that governs kings:”
if our virtue, our vices, our knowledge, and this very discourse we are upon of the power of the stars, and the comparison we are making betwixt them and us, proceed, as our reason supposes, from their favour;

“one mad in love may cross the raging main
to level lofty ilium with the plain;
another’s fate inclines him more by far
to study laws and statutes for the bar
sons k!ll their father, fathers k!ll their sons
and one arm’d brother ‘gainst another runs..
this war’s not their’s, but fate’s, that spurs them on
to shed the blood which, shed, they must bemoan;
and i ascribe it to the will of fate
that on this theme i now expatiate:”
if we derive this little portion of reason we have from the bounty of heaven, how is it possible that reason should ever make us equal to it? how subject its essence and condition to our knowledge?
whatever we see in those bodies astonishes us: qu molitio, qua ferramenta, qui vectes, qu machina, qui ministri tanti operis fuerunt? “what contrivance, what tools, what materials, what engines, were employed about so stupendous a work?” why do we deprive them of soul, of life, and discourse? have we discovered in them any immoveable or insensible stupidity, we who have no commerce with them but by obedience? shall we say that we have discovered in no other creature but man the use of a reasonable soul? what! have we seen any thing like the sun? does he cease to be, because we have seen nothing like him? and do his motions cease, because there are no other like them? if what we have not seen is not, our knowledge is marvellously contracted: qu sunt tant animi angusti! “how narrow are our understandings!” are they not dreams of human vanity, to make the moon a celestial earth? there to fancy mountains and vales, as anaxagoras did? there to fix habitations and human abodes, and plant colonies for our convenience, as plato and plutarch have done? and of our earth to make a luminous and resplendent star? “amongst the other inconveniences of mortality this is one, that darkness of the understanding which leads men astray, not so much from a necessity of erring, but from a love of error
the corruptible body stupifies the soul, and the earthly habitation dulls the faculties of the imagination.”

presumption is our natural and original disease. the most wretched and frail of all creatures is man, and withal the proudest. he feels and sees himself lodged here in the dirt and filth of the world, nailed and rivetted to the worst and deadest part of the universe, in the lowest story of the house, the most remote from the heavenly arch, with animals of the worst condition of the three; and yet in his imagination will be placing himself above the circle of the moon, and bringing the heavens under his feet. ’tis by the same vanity of imagination that he equals himself to god, attributes to himself divine qualities, withdraws and separates himself from the the crowd of other creatures, cuts out the shares of the animals, his fellows and companions, and distributes to them portions of faculties and force, as himself thinks fit how does he know, by the strength of his understanding, the secret and internal motions of animals?—from what comparison betwixt them and us does he conclude the stupidity he attributes to them? when i play with my cat who knows whether i do not make her more sport than she makes me? we mutually divert one another with our play. if i have my hour to begin or to refus, she also has hers. plato, in his picture of the golden age under saturn, reckons, among the chief advantages that a man then had, his communication with beasts, of whom, inquiring and informing himself, he knew the true qualities and differences of them all, by which he acquired a very perfect intelligence and prudence, and led his life more happily than we could do. need we a better proof to condemn human impudence in the concern of beasts? this great author was of opinion that nature, for the most part in the corporal form she gave them, had only regard to the use of prognostics that were derived thence in his time. the defect that hinders communication betwixt them and us, why may it not be in our part as well as theirs? ’tis yet to determine where the fault lies that we understand not one another,—for we understand them no more than they do us; and by the same reason they may think us to be beasts as we think them. ’tis no great wonder if we understand not them, when we do not understand a basque or a troglodyte. and yet some have boasted that they understood them, as apollonius tyanaus, melampus, tiresias, thales, and others. and seeing, as cusmographers report, that there are nations that have a dog for their king, they must of necessity be able to interpret his voice and motions. we must observe the parity betwixt us, have some tolerable apprehension of their meaning, and so have beasts of ours,—much about the same. they caress us, threaten us, and beg of us, and we do the same to them

as to the rest, we manifestly discover that they have a full and absolute communication amongst themselves, and that they perfectly understand one another, not only those of the same, but of divers kinds:

“the tamer herds, and wilder sort of brutes
though we of higher race conclude them mutes
yet utter dissonant and various notes
from gentler lungs or more distended throats
as fear, or grief, or anger, do them move
or as they do approach the joys of love.”
in one kind of barking of a dog the horse knows there is anger, of another sort of bark he is not afraid. even in the very beasts that have no voice at all, we easily conclude, from the society of offices we observe amongst them, some other sort of communication: their very motions discover it:

“as infants who, for want of words, devise
expressive motions with their hands and eyes.”
and why not, as well as our dumb people, dispute, argue, and tell stories by signs? of whom i have seen some, by practice, so clever and active that way that, in fact, they wanted nothing of the perfection of making themselves understood. lovers are angry, reconciled, intreat, thank, appoint, and, in short, speak all things by their eyes:

“even silence in a lover
love and passion can discover.”
what with the hands? we require, promise, call, dismiss, threaten, pray, supplicate, deny, refuse, interrogate, admire, number, confess, repent, fear, express confusion, doubt, instruct, command, incite, encourage, swear, testify, accuse, condemn, absolve, abuse, despise, defy, provoke, flatter, applaud, bless, submit, mock, reconcile, recommend, exalt, entertain, congratulate, complain, grieve, despair, wonder, exclaim, and what not! and all this with a variety and multiplication, even emulating speech
with the head we invite, remand, confess, deny, give the lie, welcome, honour, reverence, disdain, demand, rejoice, lament, reject, caress, rebuke, submit, huff, encourage, threaten, assure, and inquire
what with the eyebrows?—what with the shoulders! there is not a motion that does not speak, and in an intelligible language without discipline, and a public language that every one understands: whence it should follow, the variety and use distinguished from others considered, that these should rather be judged the property of human nature. i omit what necessity particularly does suddenly suggest to those who are in need;—the alphabets upon the fingers, grammars in gesture, and the sciences which are only by them exercised and expressed; and the nations that pliny reports have no other language. an ambassador of the city of abdera, after a long conference with agis, king of sparta, demanded of him, “well, sir, what answer must i return to my fellow-citizens?” “that i have given thee leave,” said he, “to say what thou wouldest, and as much as thou wouldest, without ever speaking a word.” is not this a silent speaking, and very easy to be understood?

as to the rest, what is there in us that we do not see in the operations of animals? is there a polity better ordered, the offices better distributed, and more inviolably observed and maintained, than that of bees? can we imagine that such, and so regular, a distribution of employments can be carried on without reasoning and deliberation?

“hence to the bee some sages have assign’d
some portion of the god and heavenly wind.”
the swallows that we see at the return of the spring, searching all the corners of our houses for the most commodious places wherein to build their nest; do they seek without judgment, and amongst a thousand choose out the most proper for their purpose, without discretion? and in that elegant and admirable contexture of their buildings, can birds rather make choice of a square figure than a round, of an obtuse than of a right angle, without knowing their properties and effects? do they bring water, and then clay, without knowing that the hardness of the latter grows softer by being wetted? do they mat their palace with moss or down without foreseeing that their tender young will lie more safe and easy? do they secure themselves from the wet and rainy winds, and place their lodgings against the east, without knowing the different qualities of the winds, and considering that one is more wholesome than another? why does the spider make her web tighter in one place, and slacker in another; why now make one sort of knot, and then another, if she has not deliberation, thought, and conclusion? we sufficiently discover in most of their works how much animals excel us, and how unable our art is to imitate them. we see, nevertheless, in our rougher performances, that we employ all our faculties, and apply the utmost power of our souls; why do we not conclude the same of them?

why should we attribute to i know not what natural and servile inclination the works that excel all we can do by nature and art? wherein, without being aware, we give them a mighty advantage over us in making nature, with maternal gentleness and love, accompany and learn them, as it were, by the hand to all the actions and commodities of their life, whilst she leaves us to chance and fortune, and to seek out by art the things that are necessary to our conservation, at the same time denying us the means of being able, by any instruction or effort of understanding, to arrive at the natural sufficiency of beasts; so that their brutish stupidity surpasses, in all conveniences, all that our divine intelligence can do. really, at this rate, we might with great reason call her an unjust stepmother: but it is nothing so, our polity is not so irregular and unformed

nature has universally cared for all her creatures, and there is not one she has not amply furnished with all means necessary for the conservation of its being. for the common complaints i hear men make (as the license of their opinions one while lifts them up above the clouds, and then again depresses them to the antipodes), that we are the only animal abandoned naked upon the bare earth, tied and bound, not having wherewithal to arm and clothe us but by the spoil of others; whereas nature has covered all other creatures either with sh-lls, husks, bark, hair, wool, pr-ckles, leather, down, feathers, scales, or silk, according to the necessities of their being; has armed them with talons, t–th, or h-rns, wherewith to assault and defend, and has herself taught them that which is most proper for them, to swim, to run, to fly, and sing, whereas man neither knows how to walk, speak, eat, or do any thing but weep, without teaching;

“like to the wretched mariner, when toss’d
by raging seas upon the desert coast
the tender babe lies naked on the earth
of all supports of life stript by his birth;
when nature first presents him to the day
freed from the cell wherein before he lay
he fills the ambient air with doleful cries
foretelling thus life’s future miseries;
but beasts, both wild and tame, greater and less
do of themselves in strength and bulk increase;
they need no rattle, nor the broken chat
ay which the nurse first teaches boys to prate
they look not out for different robes to wear
according to the seasons of the year;
and need no arms nor walls their goods to save
since earth and liberal nature ever have
and will, in all abundance, still produce
all things whereof they can have need or use:”
these complaints are false; there is in the polity of the world a greater equality and more uniform relation. our skins are as sufficient to defend us from the injuries of the weather as theirs are; witness several nations that yet know not the use of clothes. our ancient gauls were but slenderly clad, any more than the irish, our neighbours, though in so cold a climate; but we may better judge of this by ourselves: for all those parts that we are pleased to expose to the air are found very able to endure it: the face, the feet, the hands, the arms, the head, according to the various habit; if there be a tender part about us, and that would seem to be in danger from cold, it should be the stomach where the digestion is; and yet our forefathers were there always open, and our ladies, as tender and delicate as they are, go sometimes half-bare as low as the navel. neither is the binding or swathing of infants any more necessary; and the lacedmoman mothers brought theirs in all liberty of motion of members, without any ligature at all. our crying is common with the greatest part of other animals, and there are but few creatures that are not observed to groan, and bemoan themselves a long time after they come into the world; forasmuch as it is a behaviour suitable to the weakness wherein they find themselves. as to the custom of eating, it is in us, as in them, natural, and without instruction;

“for every one soon finds his natural force
which he, or better may employ, or worse.”
who doubts but an infant, arrived to the strength of feeding himself, may make shift to find something to eat and the earth produces and offers him wherewithal to supply his necessity, without other culture and artifice; and if not at all times, no more does she do it to beasts, witness the provision we see ants and other creatures h–rd up against the dead seasons of the year. the late discovered nations, so abundantly furnished with natural meat and drink, without care, or without cookery, may give us to understand that bread is not our only food, and that, without tillage, our mother nature has provided us sufficiently of all we stand in need of: nay, it appears more fully and plentifully than she does at present, now that we have added our own industry:

“the earth did first spontaneously afford
choice fruits and wines to furnish out the board;
with herbs and flow’rs unsown in verdant fields
but scarce by art so good a harvest yields;
though men and oxen mutually have strove
with all their utmost force the soil t’ improve,”
the debauchery and irregularity of our appetites outstrips all the inventions we can contrive to satisfy it

as to arms, we have more natural ones than than most other animals more various motions of limbs, and naturally and without lesson extract more service from them. those that are trained to fight naked are seen to throw themselves into the like hazards that we do. if some beasts surpass us in this advantage, we surpass many others. and the industry of fortifying the body, and covering it by acquired means, we have by instinct and natural precept? that it is so, the elephant shows who sharpen, and whets the t–th he makes use of in war (for he has particular ones for that service, which he spares, and never employs them at all to any other use); when bulls go to fight, they toss and throw the dust about them; boars whet their tusks; and the ichneumon, when he is about to engage with the crocodile, fortifies his body, and covers and crusts it all over with close-wrought and well-tempered slime, as with a cuirass. why shall we not say that it is also natural for us to arm ourselves with wood and iron?

as to speech, it is certain that if it be not natural it is not necessary. nevertheless i believe that a child which had been brought up in an absolute solitude, remote from all society of men (which would be an experiment very hard to make), would have some kind of speech to express his meaning by. and ’tis not to be supposed that nature should have denied that to us which she has given to several other animals: for what is this faculty we observe in them, of complaining, rejoicing, calling to one another for succour, and inviting each other to love, which they do with the voice, other than speech? and why should they not speak to one another? they speak to us, and we to them. in how many several sorts of ways do we speak to our dogs, and they answer us? we converse with them in another sort of language, and use other appellations, than we do with birds, hogs, oxen, horses, and alter the idiom according to the kind

“thus from one swarm of ants some sally out
to spy another’s stock or mark its rout.”
lactantius seems to attribute to beasts not only speech, but laughter also. and the difference of language which is seen amongst us, according to the difference of countries, is also observed in animals of the same kind. aristotle, in proof of this, instances the various calls of partridges, according to the situation of places:

“and various birds do from their warbling throats
at various times, utter quite different notes
and some their ho-rs- songs with the seasons change.”
but it is yet to be known what language this child would speak; and of that what is said by guess has no great appearance. if a man will allege to me, in opposition to this opinion, that those who are naturally deaf speak not, i answer that this is not only because they could not receive the instruction of speaking by ear, but rather because the sense of hearing, of which they are deprived, relates to that of speaking, and that these hold together by a natural and inseparable tie, in such manner that what we speak we must first speak to ourselves within, and make it sound in our own ears, before we can utter it to others

all this i have said to prove the resemblance there is in human things, and to bring us back and join us to the crowd. we are neither above nor below the rest all that is under heaven, says the sage, runs one law and one fortune:

“all things remain
bound and entangled in one fatal chain.”
there is, indeed, some difference,—there are several orders and degrees; but it is under the aspect of one and the same nature:

“all things by their own rites proceed, and draw
towards their ends, by nature’s certain law.”
man must be compelled and restrained within the bounds of this polity. miserable creature! he is not in a condition really to step over the rail. he is fettered and circumscribed, he is subjected to the same necessity that the other creatures of his rank and order are, and of a very mean condition, without any prerogative of true and real pre-eminence. that which he attributes to himself, by vain fancy and opinion, has neither body nor taste. and if it be so, that he only, of all the animals, has this liberty of imagination and irregularity of thoughts, representing to him that which is, that which is not, and that he would have, the false and the true, ’tis an advantage dearly bought, and of which he has very little reason to be proud; for thence springs the princ-p-l and original fountain of all the evils that befal him,—sin, sickness, irresolution, affliction, despair. i say, then, to return to my subject, that there is no appearance to induce a man to believe that beasts should, by a natural and forced inclination, do the same things that we do by our choice and industry. we ought from like effects to conclude like faculties, and from greater effects greater faculties; and consequently confess that the same reasoning, and the same ways by which we operate, are common with them, or that they have others that are better. why should we imagine this natural constraint in them, who experience no such effect in ourselves? added that it is more honourable to be guided and obliged to act regularly by a natural and inevitable condition, and nearer allied to the divinity, than to act regularly by a temerarious and fortuitous liberty, and more safe to entrust the reins of our conduct in the hands of nature than our own. the vanity of our presumption makes us prefer rather to owe our sufficiency to our own exertions than to her bounty, and to enrich the other animals with natural goods, and abjure them in their favour, in order to honour and enn0ble ourselves with goods acquired, very foolishly in my opinion; for i should as much value parts and virtues naturally and purely my own as those i had begged and obtained from education. it is not in our power to obtain a n0bler reputation than to be favoured of god and nature

for instance, take the fox, the people of thrace make use of when they wish to pass over the ice of some frozen river, and turn him out before them to that purpose; when we see him lay his ear upon the bank of the river, down to the ice, to listen if from a more remote or nearer distance he can hear the noise of the waters’ current, and, according as he finds by that the ice to be of a less or greater thickness, to retire or advance,—have we not reason to believe thence that the same rational thoughts passed through his head that we should have upon the like occasions; and that it is a ratiocination and consequence, drawn from natural sense, that that which makes a noise runs, that which runs is not frozen, what is not frozen is liquid, and that which is liquid yields to impression! for to attribute this to a mere quickness of the sense of hearing, without reason and consequence, is a chimra that cannot enter into the imagination. we are to suppose the same of the many sorts of subtleties and inventions with which beasts secure themselves from, and frustrate, the enterprizes we plot against them

and if we will make an advantage even of this, that it is in our power to seize them, to employ them in our service, and to use them at our pleasure, ’tis still but the same advantage we have over one another
we have our slaves upon these terms: the climacid, were they not women in syria who, squat on all fours, served for a ladder or footstool, by which the ladies mounted their coaches? and the greatest part of free persons surrender, for very trivial conveniences, their life and being into the power of another
the wives and concubines of the thracians contended who should be chosen to be slain upon their husband’s tomb. have tyrants ever failed of finding men enough vowed to their devotion? some of them moreover adding this necessity, of accompanying them in death as well as life? whole armies have bound themselves after this manner to their captains. the form of the oath in the rude school of gladiators was in these words: “we swear to suffer ourselves to be chained, burnt, wounded, and k!lled with the sword, and to endure all that true gladiators suffer from their master, religiously engaging both body and soul in his service.”

uire meum, si vis, flamma caput, et pete ferro
corpus, et iutorto verbere terga seca

“wound me with steel, or burn my head with fire
or scourge my shoulders with well-twisted wire.”
this was an obligation indeed, and yet there, in one year, ten thousand entered into it, to their destruction. when the scythians interred their king they strangled upon his body the most beloved of his concubines, his cup-bearer, the master of his horse, his chamberlain, the usher of his chamber, and his cook. and upon the anniversary thereof they k!lled fifty horses, mounted by fifty pages, that they had impaled all up the spine of the back to the throat, and there left them fixed in triumph about his tomb. the men that serve us do it cheaper, and for a less careful and favourable usage than what we treat our hawks, horses and dogs withal. to what solicitude do we not submit for the conveniences of these? i do not think that servants of the most abject condition would willingly do that for their masters that princes think it an honour to do for their beasts. diogenes seeing his relations solicitous to redeem, him from servitude: “they are fools,” said he; “’tis he that keeps and nourishes me that in reality serves me.” and they who entertain beasts ought rather to be said to serve them, than to be served by them. and withal in this these have something more generous in that one lion never submitted to another lion, nor one horse to another, for want of courage. as we go to the chase of beasts, so do tigers and lions to the chase of men, and do the same execution upon one another; dogs upon hares, pikes upon tench, swallows upon grass-hoppers, and sparrow-hawks upon blackbirds and larks:

“the stork with snakes and lizards from the wood
and pathless wilds supports her callow brood
while jove’s own eagle, bird of n0ble blood
scours the wide country for undaunted food;
sweeps the swift hare or swifter fawn away
and feeds her nestlings with the generous prey.”
we divide the quarry, as well as the pains and labour of the chase, with our hawks and hounds. and about amphipolis, in thrace, the hawkers and wild falcons equally divide the prey in the half. as also along the lake motis, if the fisherman does not honestly leave the wolves an equal share of what he has caught, they presently go and tear his nets in pieces. and as we have a way of sporting that is carried on more by subtlety than force, as springing hares, and angling with line and hook, there is also the like amongst other animals. aristotle says that the cuttle-fish casts a gut out of her throat as long as a line, which she extends and draws back at pleasure; and as she perceives some little fish approach her she lets it nibble upon the end of this gut, lying herself concealed in the sand or mud, and by little and little draws it in, till the little fish is so near her that at one spring she may catch it

as to strength, there is no creature in the world exposed to so many injuries as man. we need not a whale, elephant, or a crocodile, nor any such-like animals, of which one alone is sufficient to dispatch a great number of men, to do our business; lice are sufficient to vacate sylla’s dictatorship; and the heart and life of a great and triumphant emperor is the breakfast of a little contemptible worm!

why should we say that it is only for man, or knowledge built up by art and meditation, to distinguish the things useful for his being, and proper for the cure of his diseases, and those which are not; to know the virtues of rhubarb and polypody. when we see the goats of candia, when wounded with an arrow, among a million of plants choose out dittany for their cure; and the tortoise, when she has eaten a viper, immediately go out to look for origanum to purge her; the dragon to rub and clear his eyes with fennel; the storks to give themselves clysters of sea-water; the elephants to draw not only out of their own bodies, and those of their companions, but out of the bodies of their masters too (witness the elephant of king porus whom alexander defeated), the darts and javelins thrown at them in battle, and that so dexterously that we ourselves could not do it with so little pain to the patient;—why do we not say here also that this is knowledge and reason? for to allege, to their disparagement, that ’tis by the sole instruction and dictate of nature that they know all this, is not to take from them the dignity of knowledge and reason, but with greater force to attribute it to them than to us, for the honour of so infallible a mistress. chrysippus, though in other things as scornful a judge of the condition of animals as any other philosopher whatever, considering the motions of a dog, who coming to a place where three ways met, either to hunt after his master he has lost, or in pursuit of some game that flies before him, goes snuffing first in one of the ways, and then in another, and, after having made himself sure of two, without finding the trace of what he seeks, dashes into the third without examination, is forced to confess that this reasoning is in the dog: “i have traced my master to this place; he must of necessity be gone one of these three ways; he is not gone this way nor that, he must then infallibly be gone this other;” and that assuring himself by this conclusion, he makes no use of his nose in the third way, nor ever lays it to the ground, but suffers himself to be carried on there bv the force of reason. this sally, purely logical, and this use of propositions divided and conjoined, and the right enumeration of parts, is it not every whit as good that the dog knows all this of himself as well as from trapezuntius?

animals are not incapable, however, of being instructed after our method. we teach blackbirds, ravens, pies, and parrots, to speak: and the facility wherewith we see they lend us their voices, and render both them and their breath so supple and pliant, to be formed and confined within a certain number of letters and syllables, does evince that they have a reason within, which renders them so docile and willing to learn. everybody, i believe, is glutted with the several sorts of tricks that tumblers teach their dogs; the dances, where they do not miss any one cadence of the sound they hear; the several various motions and leaps they make them perform by the command of a word. but i observe this effect with the greatest admiration, which nevertheless is very common, in the dogs that lead the blind, both in the country and in cities: i have taken notice how they stop at certain doors, where they are wont to receive alms; how they avoid the encounter of coaches and carts, even there where they have sufficient room to pass; i have seen them, by the trench of a town, forsake a plain and even path and take a worse, only to keep their masters further from the ditch;—how could a man have made this dog understand that it was his office to look to his master’s safely only, and to despise his own conveniency to serve him? and how had he the knowledge that a way was wide enough for him that was not so for a blind man? can all this be apprehended without ratiocination!

i must not omit what plutarch says he saw of a dog at rome with the emperor vespasian, the father, at the theatre of marcellus. this dog served a player, that played a farce of several parts and personages, and had therein his part. he had, amongst other things, to counterfeit himself for some time dead, by reason of a certain drug he was supposed to eat after he had swallowed a piece of bread, which passed for the drug, he began after awhile to tremble and stagger, as if he was taken giddy: at last, stretching himself out stiff, as if dead, he suffered himself to be drawn and dragged from place to place, as it was his part to do; and afterward, when he knew it to be time, he began first gently to stir, as if awaking out of a profound sleep, and lifting up his head looked about him after such a manner as astonished all the spectators
the oxen that served in the royal gardens of susa, to water them, and turn certain great wheels to draw water for that purpose, to which buckets were fastened (such as there are many in languedoc), being ordered every one to draw a hundred turns a day, they were so accustomed to this number that it was impossible by any force to make them draw one turn more; but, their task being performed, they would suddenly stop and stand still. we are almost men before we can count a hundred, and have lately discovered nations that have no knowledge of numbers at all

there is more understanding required in the teaching of’ others than in being taught. now, setting aside what democritus held and proved, “that most of the arts we have were taught us by other animals,” as by the spider to weave and sew; by the swallow to build; by the swan and nightingale music; and by several animals to make medicines:—aristotle is of opinion “that the nightingales teach their young ones to sing, and spend a great deal of time and care in it;” whence it happens that those we bring up in cages, and which have not had the time to learn of their parents, want much of the grace of their singing: we may judge by this that they improve by discipline and study; and, even amongst the wild, it is not all and every one alike—every one has learnt to do better or worse, according to their capacity. and so jealous are they one of another, whilst learning, that they contention with emulation, and by so vigorous a contention that sometimes the vanquished fall dead upon the place, the breath rather failing than the voice. the younger ruminate pensively and begin to mutter some broken notes; the disciple listens to the master’s lesson, and gives the best account he is able; they are silent oy turns; one may hear faults corrected and observe some reprehensions of the teacher. ” have formerly seen,” says arrian, “an elephant having a cymbal hung at each leg, and another fastened to his trunk, at the sound of which all the others danced round about him, rising and bending at certain cadences, as they were guided by the instrument; and ’twas delightful to hear this harmony.” in the spectacles of rome there were ordinarily seen elephants taught to move and dance to the sound of the voice, dances wherein were several changes and cadences very hard to learn. and some have been known so intent upon their lesson as privately to practice it by themselves, that they might not be chidden nor beaten by their masters
but this other story of the pie, of which we have plutarch himself for a warrant, is very strange. she lived in a barber’s shop at rome, and did wonders in imitating with her voice whatever she heard. it happened one day that certain trumpeters stood a good while sounding before the shop. after that, and all the next day, the pie was pensive, dumb, and melancholic; which every body wondered at, and thought the noise of the trumpets had so stupified and astonished her that her voice was gone with her hearing. but they found at last that it was a profound meditation and a retiring into herself, her thoughts exercising and preparing her voice to imitate the sound of those trumpets, so that the first voice she uttered was perfectly to imitate their strains, stops, and changes; having by this new lesson quitted and taken in disdain all she had learned before

i will not omit this other example of a dog, also, which the same plutarch (i am sadly confounding all order, but i do not propose arrangement here any more than elsewhere throughout my book) which plutarch says he saw on board a ship. this dog being puzzled how to get the oil that was in the bottom of a jar, which he could not reach with his tongue by reason of the narrow mouth of the vessel, went and fetched stones and let them fall into the jar till he made the oil rise so high that he could reach it
what is this but an effect of a very subtle capacity! ’tis said that the ravens of barbary do the same, when the water they would drink is too low. this action is somewhat akin to what juba, a king of their nation relates of the elephants: “that when, by the craft of the hunter, one of them is trapped in certain deep pits prepared for them, and covered over with brush to deceive them, all the rest, in great diligence, bring a great many stones and logs of wood to raise the bottom so that he may get out.” but this animal, in several other effects, comes so near to human capacity that, should i particularly relate all that experience hath delivered to us, i should easily have what i usually maintain granted: namely, that there is more difference betwixt such and such a man than betwixt such a beast and such a man. the keeper of an elephant in a private house of syria robbed him every meal of the half of his allowance
one day his master would himself feed him, and poured the full measure of barley he had ordered for his allowance into his manger which the elephant, casting an angry look at the keeper, with his trunk separated the one-half from the other, and thrust it aside, by that declaring the wrong was done him
and another, having a keeper that mixed stones with his corn to make up the measure, came to the pot where he was boiling meat for his own dinner, and filled it with ashes. these are particular effects: but that which all the world has seen, and all the world knows, that in all the armies of the levant one of the greatest force consisted in elephants, with whom they did, without comparison, much greater execution than we now do with our artillery; which takes, pretty nearly, their place in a day of battle (as may easily be supposed by such as are well read in ancient history);

“the sires of these huge animals were wont
the carthaginian hannibal to mount;
our leaders also did these beasts bestride
and mounted thus pyrrhus his foes defied;
nay, more, upon their backs they used to bear
castles with armed cohorts to the war.”
they must necessarily have very confidently relied upon the fidelity and understanding of these beasts when they entrusted them with the vanguard of a battle, where the least stop they should have made, by reason of the bulk and heaviness of their bodies, and the least fright that should have made them face about upon their own people, had been enough to spoil all: and there are but few examples where it has happened that they have fallen foul upon their own troops, whereas we ourselves break into our own battalions and rout one another. they had the charge not of one simple movement only, but of many several things to be performed in the battle: as the spaniards did to their dogs in their new conquest of the indies, to whom they gave pay and allowed them a share in the spoil; and those animals showed as much dexterity and judgment in pursuing the victory and stopping the pursuit; in charging and retiring, as occasion required; and in distinguishing their friends from their enemies, as they did ardour and fierceness

we more admire and value things that are unusual and strange than those of ordinary observation. i had not else so long insisted upon these examples: for i believe whoever shall strictly observe what we ordinarily see in those animals we have amongst us may there find as wonderful effects as those we seek in remote countries and ages. ’tis one and the same nature that rolls on her course, and whoever has sufficiently considered the present state of things, might certainly conclude as to both the future ana the past. i have formerly seen men, brought hither by sea from very distant countries, whose language not being understood by us, and moreover their mien, countenance, and habit, being quite differing from ours; which of us did not repute them savages and brutes! who did not attribute it to stupidity and want of common sense to see them mute, ignorant of the french tongue, ignorant of our salutations and cringes, our port and behaviour, from which all human nature must by all means take its pattern and example. all that seems strange to us, and that we do not understand, we condemn. the same thing happens also in the judgments we make of beasts. they have several conditions like to ours; from those we may, by comparison, draw some conjecture: but by those qualities that are particular to themselves, what know we what to make of them! the horses, dogs, oxen, sheep, birds, and most of the animals that live amongst us, know our voices, and suffer themselves to be governed by them: so did crassus’s lamprey, and came when he called it; as also do the eels that are found in the lake arethusa; and i have seen several ponds where the fishes come to eat at a certain call of those who use to feed them

“they every one have names, and one and all
straightway appear at their own master’s call:”
we may judge of that. we may also say that the elephants have some partic-p-tion of religion forasmuch as after several washings and purifications they are observed to lift up their trunk like arms, and, fixing their eyes towards the rising of the sun, continue long in meditation and contemplation, at certain hours of the days, of their own motion; without instruction or precept but because we do not see any such signs in other animals, we cannot for that conclude that they are without religion, nor make any judgment of what is concealed from us. as we discern something in this action which the philosopher cleanthes took notice of, because it something resembles our own. he saw, he says, “ants go from their ant-hill, carrying the dead body of an ant towards another ant-hill, whence several other ants came out to meet them, as if to speak with them; where, after having been a while together, the last returned to consult, you may suppose, with their fellow-citizens, and so made two or three journeys, by reason of the difficulty of capitulation. in the conclusion, the last comers brought the first a worm out of their burrow, as it were for the ransom of the defunct, which the first laid upon their backs and carried home, leaving the dead body to the others.” this was the interpretation that cleanthes gave of this transaction, giving us by that to understand that those creatures that have no voice are not, nevertheless, without intercourse and mutual communication, whereof ’tis through our own defect that we do not partic-p-te; and for that reason foolishly take upon us to pass our censure. but they yet produce either effects far beyond our capacity, to which we are so far from being able to arrive by imitation that we cannot so much as by imitation conceive it. many are of opinion that in the great and last naval engagement that antony lost to augustus, his admiral galley was stayed in the middle of her course by the little fish the latins call remora, by reason of the property she has of staying all sorts of vessels to which she fastens herself. and the emperor caligula, sailing with a great navy upon the coast of romania, his galley only was suddenly stayed by the same fish, which, he caused to be taken, fastened as it was to the keel of his ship, very angry that such a little animal could resist both the sea, the wind, and the force of all his oars, by being only fastened by the beak to his galley (for it is a sh-ll-fish); and was moreover, not without great reason, astonished that, being brought to him in the vessel, it had no longer the strength it had without. a citizen of cyzicus formerly acquired the reputation of a good mathematician for having learnt the quality of the hedge-hog: he has his burrow open in divers places, and to several winds, and, foreseeing the wind that is to come, stops the hole on that side, which that citizen observing, gave the city certain predictions of the wind which was presently to blow. the camlon takes her colour from the place upon which she is laid; but the polypus gives himself what colour he pleases, according to occasion, either to conceal himself from what he fears, or from what he has a design to seize: in the camlon ’tis a passive, but in the polypus ’tis an active, change. we have some changes of colour, as in fear, anger, shame, and other passions, that alter our complexions; but it is by the effect of suffering, as with the camlon. it is in the power of the jaundice, indeed, to make us turn yellow, but ’tis not in the power of our own will. now these effects that we discover in other animals, much greater than ours, seem to imply some more excellent faculty in them unknown to us; as ’tis to be presumed there are several other qualities and abilities of theirs, of which no appearances have arrived at us

amongst all the predictions of elder times, the most ancient and the most certain were those taken from the flight of birds; we have nothing certain like it, nor any thing to be so much admired. that rule and order of the moving of the wing, whence they derived the consequences of future things, must of necessity be guided by some excellent means to so n0ble an operation: for to attribute this great effect to any natural disposition, without the intelligence, consent, and meditation of him by whom it is produced, is an opinion evidently false. that it is so, the cramp-fish has this quality, not only to benumb all the members that touch her, but even through the nets transmit a heavy dulness into the hands of those that move and handle them; nay, it is further said that if one pour water upon her, he will feel this numbness mount up the water to the hand, and stupefy the feeling through the water. this is a miraculous force; but ’tis not useless to the cramp-fish; she knows it, and makes use on’t; for, to catch the prey she desires, she will bury herself in the mud, that other fishes swimming over her, struck and benumbed with this coldness of hers, may fall into her power. cranes, swallows, and other birds of passage, by shifting their abode according to the seasons, sufficiently manifest the knowledge they have of their divining faculty, and put it in use. huntsmen assure us that to cull out from amongst a great many puppies that which ought to be preserved as the best, the best way is to refer the choice to the mother; as thus, take them and carry them out of the kennel, and the first she brings back will certainly be the best; or if you make a show as if you would environ the kennel with fire, that one she first catches up to save. by which it appears they have a sort of prognostic which we have not; or that they have some virtue in judging of their whelps other and more certain than we have

the manner of coming into the world, of engendering, nourishing, acting, moving, living and dying of beasts, is so near to ours that whatever we retrench from their moving causes, and add to our own condition above theirs, can by no means proceed from any meditation of our own reason. for the regimen of our health, physicians propose to us the example of the beasts’ manners and way of living; for this saying (out of plutarch) has in all times been in the mouth of these people: “keep warm thy feet and head, as to the rest, live like a beast.”

the chief of all natural actions is generation; we have a certain disposition of members which is the most proper for us to that end; nevertheless, we are ordered by lucretius to conform to the gesture and posture of the brutes as the most effectual:—

more ferarum
quadrupedumque magis ritu, plerumque putantur
concipere uxores:
quia sic loca sumere possunt
pectoribus positis, sublatis semina lumbis;
and the same authority condemns, as hurtful, those indiscreet and impudent motions which the women have added of their own invention, to whom it proposes the more temperate and modest pattern and practice of the beasts of their own s-x:—

nam mulier prohibet se concipere atque rpugnt
clunibus ipsa viri venerem si lta retractet
atque exossato ciet omni pectore fluctua
ejicit enim sulci recta regione viaque
vomerem, atque locis avertit seminis ictum
if it be justice to render to every one their due, the beasts that serve, love, and defend their benefactors, and that pursue and fall upon strangers and those who offend them, do in this represent a certain air of our justice; as also in observing a very equitable equality in the distribution of what they have to their young. and as to friendship, they have it without comparison more lively and constant than men have. king lysimachus’s dog, hyrc-n-s, master being dead, lay on his bed, obstinately refusing either to eat or drink; and, the day that his body was burnt, he took a run and leaped into the fire, where he was consumed, as also did the dog of one pyrrhus, for he would not stir from off his master’s bed from the time he died; and when they carried him away let himself be carried with him, and at last leaped into the pile where they burnt his master’s body. there are inclinations of affection which sometimes spring in us, without the consultation of reason; and by a fortuitous temerity, which others call sympathy; of which beasts are as capable as we. we see horses take such an acquaintance with one another that we have much ado to make them eat or travel, when separated; we observe them to fancy a particular colour in those of their own kind, and, where they meet it, run to it with great joy and demonstrations of good will, and have a dislike and hatred for some other colour. animals have choice, as well as we, in their amours, and cull out their mistresses; neither are they exempt from our jealousies and implacable malice

desires are either natural and necessary, as to eat and drink; or natural and not necessary, as the coupling with females; or neither natural nor necessary; of which last sort are almost all the desires of men; they are all superfluous and artificial. for ’tis marvellous how little will satisfy nature, how little she has left us to desire; our ragouts and kickshaws are not of her ordering. the stoics say that a man may live on an olive a day. the delicacy of our wines is no part of her instruction, nor the refinements we introduce into the indulgence of our amorous appetites:—

neque ilia
magno prognatum deposcit consule cunnum

“nature, in her pursuit of love, disclaims
the pride of titles, and the pomp of names.”
these irregular desires, that the ignorance of good and a false opinion have infused into us, are so many that they almost exclude all the natural; just as if there were so great a number of strangers in the city as to thrust out the natural inhabitants, or, usurping upon their ancient rights and privileges, should extinguish their authority and introduce new laws and customs of their own. animals are much more regular than we, and keep themselves with greater moderation within the limits nature has prescribed; but yet not so exactly that they have not sometimes an -n-logy with our debauches. and as there have been furious desires that have impelled men to the love of beasts, so there have been examples of beasts that have fallen in love with us, and been seized with monstrous affection betwixt kinds; witness the elephant who was rival to aristophanes the grammarian in the love of a young herb-wench in the city of alexandria, who was nothing behind him in all the offices of a very passionate suitor; for going through the market where they sold fruit, he would take some in his trunk and carry them to her. he would as much as possible keep her always in his sight, and would sometimes put his trunk under her handkerchief into her bosom, to feel her br–sts. they tell also of a dragon in love with a girl, and of a goose enamoured of a child; of a ram that was suitor to the minstrelless glaucia, in the town of asopus; and we see not unfrequently baboons furiously in love with women. we see also certain male animals that are fond of the males of their own kind. oppian and others give us some examples of the reverence that beasts have to their kindred in their copulations; but experience often shows us the contrary:—

nec habetur turpe juvenc
ferre patrem tergo; fit equo sua filia conjux;
quasque creavit, init pecudes caper; ipsaque cujus
semine concepta est, ex illo concipit ales

“the heifer thinks it not a shame to take
her l-sty sire upon her willing back:
the horse his daughter leaps, goats scruple not
t’ increase the herd by those they have begot;
and birds of all sorts do in common live
and by the seed they have conceived conceive.”
and for subtle cunning, can there be a more pregnant example than in the philosopher thales’s mule? who, fording a river, laden with salt, and by accident stumbling there, so that the sacks he carried were all wet, perceiving that by the melting of the salt his burden was something lighter, he never failed, so oft as he came to any river, to lie down with his load; till his master, discovering the knavery, ordered that he should be laden with wood? wherein, finding himself mistaken, he ceased to practise that device. there are several that very vividly represent the true image of our avarice; for we see them infinitely solicitus to get all they can, and hide it with that exceeding great care, though they never make any use of it at all. as to thrift, they surpass us not only in the foresight and laying up, and saving for the time to come, but they have, moreover, a great deal of the science necessary thereto. the ants bring abroad into the sun their grain and seed to air, refresh and dry them when they perceive them to mould and grow musty, lest they should decay and rot. but the caution and prevention they use in gnawing their grains of wheat surpass all imagination of human prudence; for by reason that the wheat does not always continue sound and dry, but grows soft, thaws and dissolves as if it were steeped in milk, whilst hasting to germination; for fear lest it should shoot and lose the nature and property of a magazine for their subsistence, they nibble off the end by which it should shoot and sprout

as to what concerns war, which is the greatest and most magnificent of human actions, i would very fain know whether we would use it for an argument of some prerogative or, on contrary, for a testimony of our weakness and imperfection; as, in truth, the science of undoing and k!lling one another, and of ruining and destroying our own kind, has nothing in it so tempting as to make it be coveted by beasts who have it not

quando leoni fortior eripuit vitam leo? quo nemore unquam
expiravit aper majoris dentibus apri?

“no lion drinks a weaker lion’s gore
no boar expires beneath a stronger boar.”
yet are they not universally exempt; witness the furious encounters of bees, and the enterprises of the princes of the contrary armies:—

spe duobus regibus incessit magno discordia motu;
continuoque animos vulgi et trepidantia bello
gorda licet long prsciscere

“but if contending factions arm the hive
when rival kings in doubtful battle strive
tumultuous crowds the dread event prepare
and palpitating hearts that beat to war.”
i never read this divine description but that, methinks, i there see human folly and vanity represented in their true and lively colours. for these warlike movements, that so ravish us with their astounding noise and horror, this rattle of guns, drums, and cries

fulgur ibi ad coelum se tollit, totaque circum
re renidescit tellus, subterque virm vi
excitur pedibus sonitus, clamoreque montes
icti rejectant voces ad sidera mundi;

“when burnish’d arms to heaven dart their rays
and many a steely beam i’ th’ sunlight plays
when trampled is the earth by horse and man
until the very centre groans again
and that the rocks, struck by the various cries
reverberate the sound unto the skies;”
in the dreadful embattling of so many thousands of armed men, and so great fury, ardour, and courage, ’tis pleasant to consider by what idle occasions they are excited, and by how light ones appeased:—

paridis propter narratur amorem
greci barbari diro collisa duello:

“of wanton paris the illicit love
did greece and troy to ten years’ warfare move:”
all asia was ruined and destroyed for the l-st of paris; the envy of one single man, a despite, a pleasure, a domestic jealousy, causes that ought not to set two oyster-wenches by the ears, is the mover of all this mighty bustle. shall we believe those very men who are themselves the princ-p-l authors of these mischiefs? let us then hear the greatest, the most powerful, the most victorious emperor that ever was, turning into a jest, very pleasantly and ingeniously, several battles fought both by sea and land, the blood and lives of five hundred thousand men that followed his fortune, and the strength and riches of two parts of the world drained for the expense of his expeditions:—

quod futuit glaphyran antonius, hanc mihi poenam
fulvia constituit, se quoqne uti futuam
fulviam ego ut futuam! quid, si me manius oret
podicem, faciam? non puto, si sapiam
aut futue, aut pugnemus, ait
quid, si mihi vitii
charior est ips mentula? signa canant

qui? moi, que je serve fulvie!
sufflt-il quelle en ait envie?
a ce compte, on verrait se retirer von moi
mille pouses mal satisfaites
aime-moi, me dit elle, ou combattons. mais quoi?
elle est bien laide! allons, sonnes trompettes

’cause anthony is fired with glaphire’s charms
fain would his fulvia tempt me to her arms
if anthony be false, what then? must i
be slave to fulvia’s l-stful tyranny?
then would a thousand wanton, waspish wives
(i use my latin with the liberty of conscience you are pleased to allow me.) now this great body, with so many fronts, and so many motions, which seems to threaten heaven and earth:—

quam multi lybico volvuntur marmore fluctus
svus ubi orion hibemis conditur undis
vel quam solo novo dens torrentur arist
aut hermi campo, aut lyci flaventibus arvis;
scuta sonant, pulsuque pedum tremit excita tellus:

“not thicker billows beat the lybian main
when pale orion sits in wintry rain;
nor thicker harvests on rich hermus rise
or lycian fields, when phobus burns the skies
than stand these troops: their bucklers ring around;
their trampling turns the turf and shakes the solid ground:”
this furious monster, with so many heads and arms, is yet man—feeble, calamitous, and miserable man! ’tis but an ant-hill disturbed and provoked:—

it nigrum campis agmen:

“the black troop marches to the field:”
a contrary blast, the croaking of a flight of ravens, the stumble of a horse, the casual passage of an eagle, a dream, a voice, a sign, a morning mist, are any one of them sufficient to beat down and overturn him. dart but a sunbeam in his face, he is melted and vanished. blow but a little dust in his eyes, as our poet says of the bees, and all our ensigns and legions, with the great pompey himself at the head of them, are routed and crushed to pieces; for it was he, as i take it, that sertorious beat in spain with those fine arms, which also served eumenes against antigonus, and surena against crassus:—

“swarm to my bed like bees into their hives
declare for love, or war, she said; and frown’d:
no love i’ll grant: to arms bid trumpets sound.”
hi motus animorum, atque hoc certamina tanta
pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescent

“yet at thy will these dreadful conflicts cease
throw but a little dust and all is peace.”
let us but slip our flies after them, and they will have the force and courage to defeat them. of fresh memory, the portuguese having besieged the city of tamly, in the territory of xiatine, the inhabitants of the place brought a great many hives, of which are great plenty in that place, upon the wall; and with fire drove the bees so furiously upon the enemy that they gave over the enterprise, not being able to stand their attacks and endure their stings; and so the citizens, by this new sort of relief, gained liberty and the victory with so wonderful a fortune, that at the return of their defenders from the battle they found they had not lost so much as one. the souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mould; the weight and importance of the actions of princes considered, we persuade ourselves that they must be produced by some as weighty and important causes; but we are deceived; for they are pushed on, and pulled back in their motions, by the same springs that we are in our little undertakings. the same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbour causes a war betwixt princes; the same reason that makes us whip a lackey, falling into the hands of a king makes him ruin a whole province. they are as lightly moved as we, but they are able to do more. in a gnat and an elephant the passion is the same

as to fidelity, there is no animal in the world so treacherous as man. our histories have recorded the violent pursuits that dogs have made after the murderers of their masters. king pyrrhus observing a dog that watched a dead man’s body, and understanding that he had for three days together performed that office, commanded that the body should be buried, and took the dog along with him. one day, as he was at a general muster of his army, this dog, seeing his master’s murderers, with great barking and extreme signs of anger flew upon them, and by this first accusation awakened the revenge of this murder, which was soon after perfected by form of justice. as much was done by the dog of the wise hesiod, who convicted the sons of ganictor of naupactus of the murder committed on the person of his master. another dog being to guard a temple at athens, having spied a sacrilegious thief carrying away the finest jewels, fell to barking at him with all his force, but the warders not awaking at the noise, he followed him, and day being broke, kept off at a little distance, without losing sight of him; if he offered him any thing to eat he would not take it, but would wag his tail at all the passengers he met, and took whatever they gave him; and if the thief laid down to sleep, he likewise stayed upon the same place. the news of this dog being come to the warders of the temple they put themselves upon the pursuit, inquiring of the colour of the dog, and at last found him in the city of cromyon, and the thief also, whom they brought back to athens, where he got his reward; and the judges, in consideration of this good office, ordered a certain measure of corn for the dog’s daily sustenance, at the public charge, and the priests to take care of it. plutarch delivers this story for a certain truth, and that it happened in the age wherein he lived

as to gratitude (for i think we need bring this word into a little repute), this one example, which apion reports himself to have been an eye-witness of, shall suffice

“one day,” says he, “at rome, they entertained the people with the sight of the fighting of several strange beasts, and princ-p-lly of lions of an unusual size; there was one amongst the rest who, by his furious deportment, by the strength and largeness of his limbs, and by his loud and dreadful roaring, attracted the eyes of all the spectators. amongst other slaves that were presented to the people in this combat of beasts there was one androdus, of dacia, belonging to a roman lord of consular dignity. this lion having seen him at a distance first made a sudden stop, as it were in a wondering posture, and then softly approached nearer in a gentle and peaceable manner, as if it were to enter into acquaintance with him. this being done, and being now assured of what he sought for, he began to wag his tail, as dogs do when they flatter their masters, and to kiss and l!ck the hands and thighs of the poor wretch, who was beside himself, and almost dead with fear. androdus being by this kindness of the lion a little come to himself, and having taken so much heart as to consider and know him, it was a singular pleasure to see the joy and caresses that passed betwixt them. at which the people breaking into loud acclamations of joy, the emperor caused the slave to be called, to know from him the cause of so strange an event; who thereupon told him a new and a very strange story: “my master,” said he, “being pro-consul in africa, i was constrained, by his severity and cruel usage, being daily beaten, to steal from him and run away; and, to hide myself secretly from a person of so great authority in the province, i thought it my best way to fly to the solitudes, sands, and uninhabitable parts of that country, resolving that in case the means of supporting life should chance to fail me, to make some shift or other to k!ll myself. the sun being excessively hot at noon, and the heat intolerable, i lit upon a private and almost inaccessible cave, and went into it soon after there came in to me this lion, with one foot wounded and bl–dy, complaining and groaning with the pain he endured. at his coming i was exceeding afraid; but he having spied me hid in the comer of his den, came gently to me, holding out and showing me his wounded foot, as if he demanded my assistance in his distress. i then drew out a great splinter he had got there, and, growing a little more familiar with him, squeezing the wound thrust out the matter, dirt, and gravel which was got into it, and wiped and cleansed it the best i could. he, finding himself something better, and much eased of his pain, laid him down to rest, and presently fell asleep with his foot in my hand. from that time forward he and i lived together in this cave three whole years upon one and the same diet; for of the beasts that he k!lled in hunting he always brought me the best pieces, which i roasted in the sun for want of fire, and so ate it. at last, growing weary of this wild and brutish life, the lion being one day gone abroad to hunt for our ordinary provision, i departed thence, and the third day after was taken by the soldiers, who brought me from africa to this city to my master, who presently condemned me to die, and to be thus exposed to the wild beasts. now, by what i see, this lion was also taken soon after, who has now sought to recompense me for the benefit and cure that he received at my hands.” this is the story that androdus told the emperor, which he also conveyed from hand to hand to the people; wherefore, at the general request, he was absolved from his sentence and set at liberty, and the lion was, by order of the people, presented to him. “we afterwards saw,” says apion, “androdus leading this lion, in nothing but a small leash, from tavern to tavern at rome, and receiving what money every body would give him, the lion being so gentle as to suffer himself to be covered with the flowers that the people threw upon him, every one that met him saying, ‘there goes the lion that entertained the man; there goes the man that cured the lion.'”

we often lament the loss of beasts we love, and so do they the loss of us:—

post, bellator equus, positis insignibus, thon
it lacrymans, guttisque humectt grandibus ora

“to close the pomp, thon, the steed of state
is led, the fun’ral of his lord to wait
stripped of his trappings, with a sullen pace
he walks, and the big tears run rolling down his face.”
as some nations have their wives in common, and some others have every one his own, is not the same seen among beasts, and marriages better kept than ours? as to the society and confederation they make amongst themselves, to league together and to give one another mutual assistance, is it not known that oxen, hogs, and other animals, at the cry of any of their kind that we offend, all the herd run to his aid and embody for his defence? the fish scarus, when he has swallowed the angler’s hook, his fellows all crowd about him and gnaw the line in pieces; and if, by chance, one be got into the bow net, the others present him their tails on the outside, which he holding fast with his t–th, they after that manner disengage and draw him out

mullets, when one of their companions is engaged, cross the line over their back, and, with a fin they have there, indented like a saw, cut and saw it asunder. as to the particular offices that we receive from one another for the service of life, there are several like examples amongst them. ’tis said that the whale never moves that she has not always before her a little fish like the sea-gudgeon, for this reason called the guide-fish, whom the whale follows, suffering himself to be led and turned with as great facility as the rudder guides the ship; in recompense of which service also, whereas all the other things, whether beast or vessel, that enter into the dreadful gulf of this monster’s mouth, are immediately lost and swallowed up, this little fish retires into it in great security, and there sleeps, during which time the whale never stirs; but so soon as ever it goes out he immediately follows it; and if by accident he loses the sight of his little guide, he goes wandering here and there, and strikes his sides against the rocks like a ship that has lost her helm; which plutarch affirms to have seen in the island of anticyra. there is a like society betwixt the little bird called the wren and the crocodile. the wren serves for a sentinel over this great animal; and if the ichneumon, his mortal enemy, approach to fight him, this little bird, for fear lest he should surprise him asleep, both with his voice and bill rouses him and gives him notice of his danger
he feeds of this monster’s leavings, who receives him familiarly into his mouth, suffering him to peck in his jaws and betwixt his t–th, and thence to pick out the bits of flesh that remain; and when he has a mind to shut his mouth, he first gives the bird warning to go out by closing it by little and little, and without bruising or doing it any harm at all. the sh-ll-fish called the naker, lives in the same intelligence with the shrimp, a little sort of animal of the lobster kind, which serves him in the nature of a porter, sitting at the opening of the sh-ll, which the naker keeps always gaping and open till the shrimp sees some little fish, proper for their prey, within the hollow of the sh-ll, where she enters too, and pinches the naker so to the quick that she is forced to close her sh-ll, where they two together devour the prey they have trapped in their fort. in the manner of living of the tunnies we observe a singular knowledge of the three parts of mathematics. as to astrology, they teach it men, for they stay in the place where they are surprised by the brumal solstice, and never stir thence till the next equinox; for which reason aristotle himself attributes to them this science. as to geometry and arithmetic, they always form their numbers in the figure of a cube, every way square, and make up the body of a battalion, solid, close, and environed round with six equal sides, and swim in this square order, as large behind as before; so that whoever in seeing them can count one rank may easily number the whole troop, by reason that the depth is equal to the breadth, and the breadth to the length

as to magnanimity, it will be hard to exhibit a better instance of it than in the example of the great dog sent to alexander the great from the indies. they first brought him a stag to encounter, next a boar, and after that a bear, all which he slighted, and disdained to stir from his place; but when he saw a lion he then immediately roused himself, evidently manifesting that he declared that alone worthy to enter the lists with him. touching repentance and the acknowledgment of faults, ’tis reported of an elephant that, having in the impetuosity of his rage k!lled his keeper, he fell into so extreme a sorrow that he would never after eat, but starved himself to death. and as to clemency, ’tis said of a tiger, the most cruel of all beasts, that a kid having been put in to him, he suffered a two days’ hunger rather than hurt it, and the third broke the grate he was shut up in, to seek elsewhere for prey; so unwilling he was to fall upon the kid, his familiar and his guest, and as to the laws of familiarity and agreement, formed by conversation, it ordinarily happens that we bring up cats, dogs, and hares, tame together

but that which seamen by experience know, and particularly in the sicilian sea, of the quality of the halcyons, surpasses all human thought of what kind of animal has nature even so much honoured the birth? the poets indeed say that one only island, delos, which was before a floating island, was fixed for the service of latona’s lying-in; but god has ordered that the whole ocean should be stayed, made stable and smooth, without waves, without winds or rain, whilst the halcyon produces her young, which is just about the solstice, the shortest day of the year; so that by her privilege we have seven days and seven nights in the very heart of winter wherein we may sail without danger. their females never have to do with any other male but their own, whom they serve and assist all their lives, without ever forsaking him. if he becomes weak and broken with age, they take him upon their shoulders and carry him from place to place, and serve him till death. but the most inquisitive into the secrets of nature could never yet arrive at the knowledge of the wonderful fabric wherewith the halcyon builds her nest for her little ones, nor guess at the materials. plutarch, who has seen and handled many of them, thinks it is the bones of some fish which she joins and binds together, interlacing them, some lengthwise and others across, and adding ribs and hoops in such manner that she forms at last a round vessel fit to launch; which being done, and the building finished, she carries it to the beach, where the sea beating gently against it shows where she is to mend what is not well jointed and knit, and where better to fortify the seams that are leaky, that open at the beating of the waves; and, on the contrary, what is well built and has had the due finishing, the beating of the waves does so close and bind together that it is not to be broken or cracked by blows either of stone or iron without very much ado. and that which is more to be admired is the proportion and figure of the cavity within, which is composed and proportioned after such a manner as not to receive or admit any other thing than the bird that built it; for to any thing else it is so impenetrable, close, and shut, nothing can enter, not so much as the water of the sea. this is a very dear description of this building, and borrowed from a very good hand; and yet me-thinks it does not give us sufficient light into the difficulty of this architecture. now from what vanity can it proceed to despise and look down upon, and disdainfully to interpret, effects that we can neither imitate nor comprehend?

to pursue a little further this equality and correspondence betwixt us and beasts, the privilege our soul so much glorifies herself upon, of things she conceives to her own law, of striping all things that come to her of their mortal and corporeal qualities, of ordering and placing things she conceives worthy her taking notice of, stripping and divesting them of their corruptible qualities, and making them to lay aside length, breadth, depth, weight, colour, smell, roughness, smoothness, hardness, softness, and all sensible accidents, as mean and superfluous vestments, to accommodate them to her own immortal and spiritual condition; as rome and paris, for example, that i have in my fancy, paris that i imagine, i imagine and comprehend it without greatness and without place, without stone, without plaster, and without wood; this very same privilege, i say, seems evidently to be in beasts; for a courser accustomed to trumpets, to musket-shots, and battles, whom we see start and tremble in his sleep and stretched upon his litter, as if he were in a fight; it is almost certain that he conceives in his soul the beat of a drum without noise, and an army without arms and without body:—

quippe videbis equos fortes, cum membra jacebunt
in somnis, sudare tamen, spirareque spe
et quasi de palm summas contendere vires:

“you shall see maneg’d horses in their sleep
sweat, snort, start, tremble, and a clutter keep
as if with all their force they striving were
the victor’s palm proudly away to bear:”
the hare, that a greyhound imagines in his sleep, after which we see him pant so whilst he sleeps, stretch out his tail, shake his legs, and perfectly represents all the motions of a course, is a hare without fur and without bones:—

venantumque canes in molli spe quiete
jactant crura tamen subito, vocesque repente
mittunt, et crebras reduc-nt naribus auras
ut vestigia si teneant inventa ferarum:
expergeftique sequuntur inania spe
cervorum simulacra, f-g quasi dedita cernant;
donee discussis redeant erroribus ad se:

“and hounds stir often in their quiet rest
spending their mouths, as if upon a quest
snuff, and breathe quick and short, as if they went
in a full chase upon a burning scent:
nay, being wak’d, imagin’d stags pursue
as if they had them in their real view
till, having shook themselves more broad awake
they do at last discover the mistake:”
the watch-dogs, that we often observe to snarl in their dreams, and afterwards bark out, and start up as if they perceived some stranger at hand; the stranger that their soul discerns is a man spiritual and imperceptible, without dimension, without colour, and without being:—

consueta domi catulorum blanda propago
degere, spe levem ex oculis volucremque soporem
discutere, et corpus de terra corripere instant
proinde quasi ignotas facies atque ora tuantur

“the fawning whelps of household curs will rise
and, shaking the soft slumber from their eyes
oft bark and stare at ev’ry one within
as upon faces they had never seen.”
to the beauty of the body, before i proceed any further i should know whether or no we are agreed about the description. ’tis likely we do not well know what beauty is in nature and in general, since to our own human beauty we give so many divers forms, of which, were there any natural rule and prescription, we should know it in common, as the heat of the fire. but we fancy the forms according to our own appetite and liking:—

turpis romano belgicus ore color:

“a german hue ill suits, a roman face.”
the indians paint it black and tawny, with great swelled lips, wide flat noses and load the cartilage betwixt the nostrils with great rings of gold, to make it hang down to the mouth; as also the under lip with great hoops, enriched with precious stones, that weigh them down to fall upon the chin, it being with them a singular grace to show their t–th, even below the roots. in peru the greatest ears are the most beautiful, which they stretch out as far as they can by art. and a man now living says that he has seen in an eastern nation this care of enlarging them in so great repute, and the ear loaded with so ponderous jewels, that he did with great ease put his arm, sleeve and all, through the hole of an ear. there are elsewhere nations that take great care to black their t–th, and hate to see them white, whilst others paint them red. the women are reputed more beautiful, not only in biscay, but elsewhere, for having their heads shaved; and, which is more, in certain frozen countries, as pliny reports. the mexicans esteem a low forehead a great beauty, and though they shave all other parts, they nourish hair on the forehead and increase it by art, and have great br–sts in so great reputation that they affect to give their children suck over their shoulders. we should paint deformity so. the italians fashion it gross and massy; the spaniards gaunt and slender; and amongst us one has it white, another brown; one soft and delicate, another strong and vigorous; one will have his mistress soft and gentle, others haughty and majestic. just as the preference in beauty that plato attributes to the spherical figure the epicureans gave rather to the pyramidal or square, and cannot swallow a god in the form of a bowl. but, be it how it will, nature has no more privileged us in this from her common laws than in the rest and if we will judge ourselves aright, we shall find that, if there be some animals less favoured in this than we, there are others, and in greater number, that are more; a multis animalibus decore vincimur “many animals surpass us in beauty,” even among the terrestrial, our compatriots; for as to those of sea, setting the figure aside, which cannot fall into any manner of proportion, being so much another thing in colour, clearness, smoothness, and arrangement, we sufficiently give place to them; and no less, in all qualities, to the aerial. and this prerogative that the poets make such a mighty matter of, our erect stature, looking towards heaven our original

pr-naque cum spectent animalia ctera terrain
os homini sublime ddit, columque tueri
jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus

“whilst all the brutal creatures downward bend
their sight, and to their earthly mother tend
he set man’s face aloft, that, with his eyes
uplifted, he might view the starry skies,”
is truly poetical; for there are several little beasts who have their sight absolutely turned towards heaven; and i find the gesture of camels and ostriches much higher raised and more erect than ours. what animals have not their faces above and not before, and do not look opposite, as we do; and that do not in their natural posture discover as much of heaven and earth as man? and what qualities of our bodily constitution, in plato and cicero, may not indifferently serve a thousand sorts of beasts? those that most resemble us are the most despicable and deformed of all the herd; for those, as to outward appearance and form of visage, are baboons:—

simia quam similis, turp-ssima bestia, n0bis?

“how like to man, in visage and in shape
is, of all beasts the most uncouth, the ape?”
as to the internal and vital parts, the hog. in earnest, when i consider man stark naked, even in that s-x which seems to have greatest share of beauty, his defects, natural subjection, and imperfections, i find that we have more reason than any other animal, to cover ourselves; and are to be excused from borrowing of those to whom nature has in this been kinder than to us, to trick ourselves out with their beauties, and hide ourselves under their spoils, their wool, feathers, hair, and silk. let us observe, as to the rest, that man is the sole animal whose nudities offend his own companions, and the only one who in his natural actions withdraws and hides himself from his own kind. and really ’tis also an effect worth consideration, that they who are masters in the trade prescribe, as a remedy for amorous passions, the full and free view of the body a man desires; for that to cool the ardour there needs no more but freely and fully to see what he loves:—

ille quod obscnas in aperto corpore partes
viderat, in cursu qui fuit, hsit amor

“the love that’s tilting when those parts appear
open to view, flags in the hot career,”
and, although this receipt may peradventure proceed from a nice and cold humour, it is notwithstanding a very great sign of our deficiencies that use and acquaintance should make us disgust one another. it is not modesty, so much as cunning and prudence, that makes our ladies so circumspect to refuse us admittance into their cabinets before they are painted and tricked up for the public view:—

nec veneres nostras hoc fallit; quo magis ips
omnia summopere hos vit postscenia celant
quos retinere volunt, adstrictoque esse in amore:

“of this our ladies are full well aware
which make them, with such privacy and care
behind the scene all those defects remove
likely to check the flame of those they love,”
whereas, in several animals there is nothing that we do not love, and that does not please our senses; so that from their very excrements we do not only extract wherewith to heighten our sauces, but also our richest ornaments and perfumes. this discourse reflects upon none but the ordinary sort of women, and is not so sacrilegious as to comprehend those divine, supernatural, and extraordinary beauties, which we see shine occasionally among us like stars under a corporeal and terrestrial veil

as to the rest, the very share that we allow to beasts of the bounty of nature, by our own confession, is very much to their advantage. we attribute to ourselves imaginary and fantastic good, future and absent good, for which human capacity cannot of herself be responsible; or good, that we falsely attribute to ourselves by the license of opinion, as reason, knowledge, and honour, and leave to them for their dividend, essential, durable, and palpable good, as peace, repose, security, innocence, and health; health, i say, the fairest and richest present that nature can make us. insomuch that philosophy, even the stoic, is so bold as to say, “that heracl-tus and pherecides, could they have trucked their wisdom for health, and have delivered themselves, the one of his dropsy, and the other of the lousy disease that tormented him, they had done well.” by which they set a greater value upon wisdom, comparing and putting it into the balance with health, than they do with this other proposition, which is also theirs; they say that if circe had presented ulysses with the two potions, the one to make a fool become a wise man, and the other to make a wise man become a fool, that ulysses ought rather to have chosen the last, than consent to that by which circe changed his human figure into that of a beast; and say that wisdom itself would have spoke to him after this manner: “forsake me, let me alone, rather than lodge me under the body and figure of an ass.” how! the philosophers, then will abandon this great and divine wisdom for this corporeal and terrestrial covering? it is then no more by reason, by discourse, and by the soul, that we excel beasts; ’tis by our beauty, our fair complexion, and our fine symmetry of parts, for which we must quit our intelligence, our prudence, and all the rest. well, i accept this open and free confession; certainly they knew that those parts, upon which we so much value ourselves, are no other than vain fancy. if beasts then had all the virtue, knowledge, wisdom, and stoical perfection, they would still be beasts, and would not be comparable to man, miserable, wicked, mad, man. for, in short, whatever is not as we are is nothing worth; and god, to procure himself an esteem among us, must put himself into that shape, as we shall show anon. by which it appears that it is not upon any true ground of reason, but by a foolish pride and vain opinion, that we prefer ourselves before other animals, and separate ourselves from their society and condition

but to return to what i was upon before; we have for our part inconstancy, irresolution, incertitude, sorrow, superstition, solicitude of things to come, even after we shall be no more, ambition, avarice, jealousy, envy, irregular, frantic, and untamed appetites, war, lying, disloyalty, detraction, and curiosity. doubtless, we have strangely overpaid this fine reason, upon which we so much glorify ourselves, and this capacity of judging and knowing, if we have bought it at the price of this infinite number of passions to which we are eternally subject. unless we shall also think fit, as even socrates does, to add to the counterpoise that notable prerogative above beasts, that whereas nature has prescribed them certain seasons and limits for the delights of venus, she has given us the reins at all hours and all seasons.” ut vinum ogrotis, quia prodest rar, nocet sop-ssime, melius est non adhibere omnino, quam, spe dubio salutis, in apertam per-niciem incurrere; sic, haud scio an melius fuerit humano generi motum istum celerem cogitationis, acumen, solertiam, quam rationem vocamus, quoniam pestifera sint multis, ad-modum paucis saluiaria, non dari omnino, quam tam muniice et tam large dari? as it falls out that wine often hurting the sick, and very rarely doing them good, it is better not to give them any at all than to run into an apparent danger out of hope of an uncertain benefit, so i know not whether it had not been better for mankind that this quick motion, this penetration, this subtlety that we call reason, had not been given to man at all; considering how pestiferous it is to many, and useful but to few, than to have been conferred in so abundant manner, and with so liberal a hand.” of what advantage can we conceive the knowledge of so many things was to yarro and aristotle? did it exempt them from human inconveniences? were they by it freed from the accidents that lay heavy upon the shoulders of a porter?
did they extract from their logic any consolation for the gout? or, for knowing how this humour is lodged in the joints, did they feel it the less? did they enter into composition with death by knowing that some nations rejoice at his approach; or with cuckoldry, by knowing that in some parts of the world wives are in common? on the contrary, having been reputed the greatest men for knowledge, the one amongst the romans and the other amongst the greeks, and in a time when learning did most flourish, we have not heard, nevertheless, that they had any particular excellence in their lives; nay, the greek had enough to do to clear himself from some notable blemishes in his. have we observed that pleasure and health have a better relish with him that understands astrology and grammar than with others?

illiterati num minus nervi rigent?

“th’ illiterate ploughman is as fit
for venus’ service as the wit:”
or shame and poverty less troublesome to the first than to the last?

scilicet et morbis et debilitate carebis
et luctum et curam effugies, et tempora vit
longa tibi post hc fato meliore dabuntur

“disease thy couch shall flee
and sorrow and care; yes, thou, be sure, wilt see
long years of happiness, till now unknown.”
i have known in my time a hundred artisans, a hundred labourers, wiser and more happy than the rectors of the university, and whom i had much rather have resembled. learning, methinks, has its place amongst the necessary, things of life, as glory, n0bility, dignity, or at the most, as beauty, riches, and such other qualities, which indeed are useful to it, but remotely, and more by opinion than by nature. we stand very little more in need of offices, rules, and laws of living in our society, than cranes and ants do in theirs; and yet we see that these carry themselves very regularly without erudition. if man was wise, he would take the true value of every thing according as it was useful and proper to his life. whoever will number us by our actions and deportments will find many more excellent men amongst the ignorant than among the learned; aye, in all sorts of virtue. old rome seems to me to have been of much greater value, both for peace and war, than that learned rome that ruined itself. and, though all the rest should be equal, yet integrity and innocency would remain to the ancients, for they cohabit singularly well with simplicity. but i will leave this discourse, that would lead me farther than i am willing to follow; and shall only say this further, ’tis only humility and submission that can make a complete good man. we are not to leave the knowledge of his duty to every man’s own judgment; we are to prescribe it to him, and not suffer him to choose it at his own discretion; otherwise, according to the imbecility, and infinite variety of our reasons and opinions, we should at large forge ourselves duties that would, as epicurus says, enjoin us to eat one another

the first law that ever god gave to man was a law of pure obedience; it was a commandment naked and simple, wherein man had nothing to inquire after, nor to dispute; forasmuch as to obey is the proper office of a rational soul, acknowledging a heavenly superior and benefactor. from obedience and submission spring all other virtues, as all sin does from selfopinion. and, on the contrary, the first temptation that by the devil was offered to human nature, its first poison insinuated itself into us by the promise made us of knowledge and wisdom; eritis sicut dii, scientes bonum et malum. “ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” and the sirens, in homer, to allure ulysses, and draw him within the danger of their snares, offered to give him knowledge. the plague of man is the opinion of wisdom; and for this reason it is that ignorance is so recommended to us, by our religion, as proper to faith and obedience; cavete ne quis vos decipiat per philosophiam et inanes seductiones, secundum elementa mundi. “take heed, lest any man deceive you by philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, and the rudiments of the world.” there is in this a general consent amongst all sorts of philosophers, that the sovereign good consists in the tranquillity of the soul and body; but where shall we find it?

ad summum, sapiens uno minor est jove, dives
liber, honoratus, pulcher, rex deniqne regum;
prcipue s-n-s, nisi cum pituita molesta est:

“in short, the wise is only less than jove
rich, free, and handsome; nay, a king above
all earthly kings; with health supremely blest
excepting when a cold disturbs his rest!”
it seems, in truth, that nature, for the consolation of our miserable and wretched state, has only given us presumption for our inheritance. ’tis as epictetus says, that man has nothing properly his own, but the use of his opinion; we have nothing but wind and smoke for our portion. the gods have health in essence, says philosophy, and sickness in intelligence. man, on the contrary, possesses his goods by fancy, his ills in essence. we have reason to magnify the power of our imagination; for all our goods are only in dream. hear this poor calamitous animal huff! “there is nothing,” says cicero, “so charming as the employment of letters; of letters, i say, by means whereof the infinity of things, the immense grandeur of nature, the heavens even in this world, the earth, and the seas are discovered to us; ’tis they that have taught us religion, moderation, and the grandeur of courage, and that have rescued our souls from darkness, to make her see all things, high, low, first, last, and middling; ’tis they that furnish us wherewith to live happily and well, and conduct us to pass over our lives without displeasure, and without offence.” does not this man seem to speak of the condition of the ever-living and almighty god? but as to effects, a thousand little countrywomen have lived lives more equal, more sweet, and constant than his

deus ille fuit, deus, inclyte memmi
qui princeps vit rationem invenit earn, qu
nunc appellatur sapientia; quique per artem
fluctibus tantis vitam, tantisque tenebris
in tam tranquilla et tam clara luce locavit:

“that god, great memmus, was a god no doubt
who, prince of life, first found that reason out
now wisdom called; and by his art, who did
that life in tempests tost, and darkness hid
place in so great a calm, and clear a light:”
here are brave ranting words; but a very slight accident put this man’s understanding in a worse condition than that of the meanest shepherd, notwithstanding this instructing god, this divine wisdom. of the same stamp and impudence is the promise of democritus’s book: “i am going to speak of all things;” and that foolish title that aristotle prefixes to one of his, order only afforded him a few lucid intervals which he employed in composing his book, and at last made him k!ll himself,—eusebius’s chronicon

of the mortal gods; and the judgment of chrysippus, that “dion was as virtuous as god;” and my seneca himself says, that “god had given him life; but that to live well was his own;” conformably to this other: in virtute vere gloriamur; quod non contingeret, si id donum deo, non n0bis haberemus: “we truly glory in our virtue; which would not be, if it was given us of god, and not by ourselves;” this is also seneca’s saying; “that the wise man hath fortitude equal with god, but that his is in spite of human frailty, wherein therefore he more than equals god.” there is nothing so ordinary as to meet with sallies of the like temerity; there is none of us, who take so much offence to see himself equalled with god, as he does to see himself undervalued by being ranked with other creatures; so much more are we jealous of our own interest than that of our creator

but we must trample under foot this foolish vanity, and briskly and boldly shake the ridiculous foundation upon which these false opinions are founded. so long as man shall believe he has any means and power of himself, he will never acknowledge what he owes to his maker; his eggs shall always be chickens, as the saying is; we must therefore strip him to his shirt. let us see some notable examples of the effects of his philosophy: posidonius being tormented with a disease so painful as made him writhe his arms and gnash his t–th, thought he sufficiently scorned the dolour, by crying out against it: “thou mayst do thy worst, i will not confess that thou art an evil.” he was as sensible of the pain as my footman, but he made a bravado of bridling his tongue, at least, and restraining it within the laws of his sect: re succumbere non oportebat, verbis gloriantem. “it did not become him, that spoke so big, to confess his frailty when he came to the test.” arcesilas being ill of the gout, and car-neades, who had come to see him, going away troubled at his condition, he called him back, and showing him his feet and breast: “there is nothing comes thence hither,” said he. this has something a better grace, for he feels himself in pain, and would be disengaged from it; but his heart, notwithstanding, is not conquered nor subdued by it. the other stands more obstinately to his point, but, i fear, rather verbally than really. and dionysius heracleotes, afflicted with a vehement smarting in his eyes, was reduced to quit these stoical resolutions. but even though knowledge should, in effect, do as they say, and could blunt the point, and dull the edge, of the misfortunes that attend us, what does she, more than what ignorance does more purely and evidently?—the philosopher pyrrho, being at sea in very great danger, by reason of a mighty storm, presented nothing to the imitation of those who were with him, in that extremity, but a hog they had on board, that was fearless and unconcerned at the tempest. philosophy, when she has said all she can, refers us at last to the example of a gladiator, wrestler, or muleteer, in which sort of people we commonly observe much less apprehension of death, sense of pain, and other inconveniences, and more of endurance, than ever knowledge furnished any one withal, that was not bom and bred to hardship. what is the cause that we make incisions, and cut the tender limbs of an infant, and those of a horse, more easily than our own—but ignorance only? how many has mere force of imagination made sick? we often see men cause themselves to be let blood, purged, and physicked, to be cured of diseases they only feel in opinion.—when real infirmities fail us, knowledge lends us her’s; that colour, that complexion, portend some catarrhous defluxion; this hot season threatens us with a fever; this breach in the life-line of your left hand gives you notice of some near and dangerous indisposition; and at last she roundly attacks health itself; saying, this sprightliness and vigour of youth cannot continue in this posture; there must be blood taken, and the heat abated, lest it turn against yourself. compare the life of a man subjected to such imaginations, to that of a labourer that suffers himself to be led by his natural appetite, measuring things only by the present sense, without knowledge, and without prognostic, that feels no pain or sickness, but when he is really ill. whereas the other has the stone in his soul, before he has it in his bladder; as if it were not time enough to suffer the evil when it shall come, he must antic-p-te it by fancy, and run to meet it

what i say of physic may generally serve in example for all other sciences. thence is derived that ancient opinion of the philosophers that placed the sovereign good in the discovery of the weakness of our judgment my ignorance affords me as much occasion of hope as of fear; and having no other rule for my health than that of the examples of others, and of events i see elsewhere upon the like occasion, i find of all sorts, and rely upon those which by comparison are most favourable to me. i receive health with open arms, free, full, and entire, and by so much the more whet my appetite to enjoy it, by how much it is at present less ordinary and more rare; so far am i from troubling its repose and sweetness with the bitterness of a new and constrained manner of living. beasts sufficiently show us how much the agitation of our minds brings infirmities and diseases upon us. that which is told us of those of brazil, that they never die but of old age, is attributed to the serenity and tranquillity of the air they live in; but i rather attribute it to the serenity and tranquillity of their souls, free from all passion, thought, or employment, extended or unpleasing, a people that pass over their lives in a wonderful simplicity and ignorance, without letters, without law, without king, or any manner of religion. and whence comes that, which we find by experience, that the heaviest and dullest men are most able; and the most to be desired in amorous performances; and that the love of a muleteer often renders itself more acceptable than that of a gentleman, if it be not that the agitation of the soul in the latter disturbs his physical ability, dissolves and tires it, as it also ordinarily troubles and tires itself. what puts the soul beside itself, and more usually throws it into madness, but her own promptness, vigour, and agility, and, finally, her own proper force? of what is the most subtle folly made, but of the most subtle wisdom? as great friendships spring from great enmities, and vigorous health from mortal diseases, so from the rare and vivid agitations of our souls proceed the most wonderful and most distracted frenzies; ’tis but half a turn of the toe from the one to the other. in the actions of madmen we see how infinitely madness resembles the most vigorous operations of the soul. who does not know how indiscernible the difference is betwixt folly and the sprightly elevations of a free soul, and the effects of a supreme and extraordinary virtue? plato says that melancholy persons are the most capable of discipline, and the most excellent; and accordingly in none is there so great a propension to madness. great wits are ruined by their own proper force and pliability; into what a condition, through his own agitation and promptness of fancy, is one of the most judicious, ingenious, and nearest formed, of any other italian poet, to the air of the ancient and true poesy, lately fallen! has he not vast obligation to this vivacity that has destroyed him? to this light that has blinded him? to this exact and subtle apprehension of reason that has put him beside his own? to this curious and laborious search after sciences, that has reduced him to imbecility? and to this rare aptitude to the exercises of the soul, that has rendered him without exercise and without soul? i was more angry, if possible, than compassionate, to see him at ferrara in so pitiful a condition surviving himself, forgetting both himself and his works, which, without his knowledge, though before his face, have been published unformed and incorrect

- henry g

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