Again, there be many beasts clad and covered with scales and shag hair; shod also with claws and hard hoofs: only man, as Plato saith, is abandoned and forsaken by nature, all naked, unarmed, unshod, and without any vesture whatsoever:
But by one gift which she hath given,
Amends she makes, and all is even;
and that is, the use of reason, industry and providence:
For strength of mortal man is small,
His limbs but weak and sinews all:
Yet by his wit and quick conceit,
By cunning casts and subtle sleight,
No beast in sea, or mount, so fell,
So wild or sly, but he doth quell.
What beast more nimble, more light and swift than is the horse? but for man it is that he runneth in the race: the dog is courageous and eager in fight, but it is in the defence of man: fishes yield a most delicate and sweet meat, and swine be full of good flesh, but both of them serve as viands for the food and nourishment of man: what creature is bigger or more terrible to see to than is the elephant? howbeit he maketh man sport and pastime, he is shewed as a goodly sight in festival solemnities where people be assembled, he is taught to frisk and dance his measures, to fall upon his knees likewise and do reverence: and verily these and such-like sleights and examples are exhibited not in vain nor without good profit, but to this end, that thereby we may know how far forth reason and wisdom doth advance and lift up a man, above what things it maketh him surmount, and how by means thereof he ruleth all, and surpasseth all:
At fight with fists we are not good,
Nor yet in tripping feet,
In wrestling we may well be blam'd,
Our running is not fleet.
But in all these feats we are inferior to brute beasts, howbeit for experience, memory, wisdom and artificial sleights (as Anaxagoras said) we go beyond them all, and thereby we have the mastery and use of them, making them to serve our turns: we strain honey out of the combs of bees; we press milk out of beasts' udders; we rob and spoil them; we drive and carry them away, and whatsoever they have, insomuch as in all this there is nothing that can be justly attributed to fortune, but all proceeds from counsel and forecast.
Furthermore, the works of carpenters are done by hand of man, so are they also of smiths and braziers, of masons, builders,
