guilty of it deserve a less punishment than to be made a Man However I don't insist upon this as a reason why ye should condemn this Man The poor Beast wanting the use of Reason that we have I excuse those errors of his that proceed from want of Judgment but for such as are only the Daughters of his Will I demand Justice For instance in that he kills us though we do not attack him in that he eats us when he may satisfie his hunger with more convenient Food and what I esteem the basest of all in that he debauches the good nature of some of our Brethren as of Lanners Faulcons and Vultures by teaching them to murder those of their kind and to feed on their fellow Creatures alive or to deliver us up into his clutches That alone is so pressing a Consideration that I beg the Court he may be dispatched by the sad Death The whole Bench shivered for horror at so terrible a Punishment and therefore that they might have ground to moderate it the King made a Sign to the Council that was assigned me to answer This was a Starling and a great Lawyer who having three times stampt with his Foot upon the Branch he sat on spake to the Court in this manner It is true Gentlemen that moved with Pity I undertook the defence of that unfortunate Beast but just as I was about to Plead I felt a remorse of Conscience and as it were a secret Voice that hath forbidden me to fulfil so detestable a Resolution So that Gentlemen I declare to you and the whole Court That for the Salvation of my Soul I 'll not contribute in any manner to the preservation of such a Monster as Man is The whole Mobile clacked with the Beak in sign of Joy and to congratulate the Sincerity of so Conscientious a Bird. My Magpy offered to Plead for me in place of the other for it was impossible for her to be heard because that being bred amongst Men and perhaps infected with their Morality it was to be feared that she would manage the Cause with a prejudicated Mind for the Court of Birds never suffer a Lawyer that concerns himself more for the one Client than for the other to be heard unless he make it appear That that Inclination proceeds from the Parties being in the Right When my Judges saw that no Body appeared in my defence they stretched out and shook their Wings and immediately flew to Voting The greatest part as I was informed fince insisted hard that I should be dispatched by the sad Death but nevertheless when they perceived that the King inclined to Clemency all joined with him in Opinion Thus my Judges moderated themselves and instead of the sad Death which they excused me from they thought it convenient that my Punishment might quadrate with some of my Crimes and I destroyed by a Death which might serve to undeceive me of that pretended Empire of Man over the Birds which I bragg'd of that I should be abandoned to the weakest of those that are carried by Wings my meaning is That they Condemned me to be eaten up by Flies At the same time the Court broke up and I heard a whisper that they had not enlarged in Specifying the particular Circumstances of my Tragedy because of an accident that happened to a Bird who just as he was about to speak to the King had fallen into a swoon It was thought to have been occasioned by the Horrour that had seized him in looking too stedfastly upon a Man And therefore I was ordered to be carried away But my Sentence was pronounced first and as soon as the Ospray which officiated as Clerk to the Assises had made an end of reading it to me I perceived all about the Sky blackened with Flies Drones Bees Gnats and Muskettoes which hummed for impatience I expected that my Eagles should have come and carried me away after the usual manner but in place of them a great black Ostridge came that ignominiously set me stradling upon his back for amongst them that 's the most disgraceful posture a Malefactor can be put into and no Bird for what offence soever can be Condemned to it The Officers that waited on me to Execution were half a hundred Condores and as many Griffins in the van after whom came flying softly a procession of Ravens that croaked I know not what mournful Ditty and I fancy that I heard as at a greater distance a Chorus of Owls that answered them As we parted from the place where I had received Sentence Two Birds of Paradice who had orders to assist me at my Death came and sat on my Shoulders Though my Soul at that time was very heavy and discomposed by reason of the lamentable Condition I was in yet I remember in a manner all the Reasons they made use of to comfort me Death said they to me putting their Beak to my Far without doubt is no great Evil seeing Nature our good Mother subjects all her Children unto it and it ought not to be a matter of great Consequence since it happens at all times and for the least things For if Life were so excellent it would not be in our power not to give it or if Death were attended by consequences of Importance as thou imaginest it would not be in our power to give it There is a great deal of appearance to the contrary seeing the Animal begins by play and ends at the same rate I speak to thee in this manner because thy Soul not being immortal as ours is thou mayest very well conclude That when thou diest all dies with thee Let it not trouble thee then that thou doest a little sooner what some of thy fellows will do e're it be long Their condition is more deplorable than thine for if Death be an evil it is only Evil to those who are to die And in respect of thee who hast not above an hour betwixt here and there they shall be Fifty or Sixty Years in a state of dying and besides mind me he that is not born is not unhappy Now thou art going to be like him that is not born In a twinkling of an Eye when thou art out of this Life thou shalt be what thou wast a twinkling of an Eye before and that twinkling of an Eye being over thou shalt be as long dead as he that died a Thousand Ages ago But make the worst on 't suppose Life be a Blessing the same Accident that in the infinite spaces of time hath made thee to be may it not some time or other make thee once more to be again Matter which by various mixtures arrived at length to that Number Disposition and Order necessary for the Construction of thy Being may it not by mixing again of new attain to a Disposition requisite for bringing thee once more again into Being Yes it may but thou'lt say to me I shall not remember that I have been Ha! dear Brother
Image still burning in the cold Fountains but attracted his Body to join it In a word poor Narcissus fell desperately in Love with himself I will not be tedious in relating to you his deplorable Catastrophy the Ages of Antiquity have spoken enough of that And besides I have Two Adventures still to acquaint you with which will take up the time far better You shall know then that the fair Salmacis frequented the company of the Shepherd Hermaphroditus but with no other Privacies than what the Neighbourhood of their Houses could allow of When Fortune who delights to disturb the most quiet and harmless Lives so ordered that in an Assembly of Plays where the rewards for Beauty and Running were two of these Apples Hermaphroditus gained that of the Race and Salmacis the other of Beauty Though they had been gathered together yet it was from different Branches because these amorous Fruits mingled together so cunningly that one of Pylades was never without another of Orestes and that was the reason why appearing to be Twins they plucked always a Couple at a time The fair Salmacis eat her Apple and pretty Hermaphroditus lockt his up in a Cupboard Salmacis being inspired with the effects of her own Apple and of that of the Shepherd which began to grow hot in his Cupboard felt her self attracted towards him by the Sympathetick Flux and Reflux of the two The Shepherds Parents who perceived the Amours of the Nymph finding their advantage in that Alliance endeavoured to entertain and promote it And therefore having heard much talking of the Twin-Apples as of a Fruit whose Juyce inclined People to Love they distilled some of them and having rectified the Spirit to the highest degree found a means to make their Son and his Lover drink of it The virtue of the Juyce being sublimed to the highest degree it could be raised to kindled in the Hearts of the Lovers so vehement a desire of Conjunction that at first sight Hermaphroditus was swallowed up in Salmacis and Salmacis melted away in the Arms of Hermaphroditus The one past into the other and of two of different Sexes they made up I know not what double Person that was neither Man nor Woman When Hermaphroditus had a mind to enjoy Salmacis he found himself to be the Nymph and when Salmacis desired to be embraced by Hermaphroditus she perceived her self to be the Shepherd This couple though still retained its Unity it Begat and Conceived and yet was neither Man nor Woman In short in it Nature hath shewn a Miracle which she hath never been able since to hinder from being One. Well now are not these pretty surprising Stories Really they are for to see a Daughter couple with her Father a young Princess glut her self with the Amours of a Bull a Man aspire to the Emjoyment of a Stone Another to espouse himself a Maid to Celebrate a Marriage which she consummated as a youth to cease to be a Man without beginning to be a Woman to become a Twin out of the Mothers Womb and the Twin of another who had no Relation to him These are things quite out of the common Road of Nature and nevertheless you 'll be more surprised at what I am about to tell you Amongst the sumptuous Variety of all sorts of Fruits and Trees which were brought from distant Climates for the Marriage-Feast of Cambyses there was presented to him a Cien of Orestes which he caused to be grafted upon a Plane Tree and amongst the Dainties of the last course some Apples of the same Tree were served up to him The delicacy of the Dish invited him to eat heartily of it and the substance of that Fruit being after the three Concoctions converted into a perfect Seed it formed in the Womb of the Queen the Embryo of his Son Artaxerxes for all the particulars of his Life have made Physicians conjecture that he must needs have been produced after this manner When the young Heart of that Prince was old enough to deserve the anger of Love it was not observed that he sighed at all after any of his own kind he loved nothing but Trees Groves and Woods but above all those that affected him the lovely Plane Tree whereon his Father Cambyses had formerly caused that shoot of Orestes to be graffed wun his greatest affection His Constitution suited so nicely with the progress of the Plane Tree that he seemed to grow with the Branches of it He daily went and embraced it in his Sleep he dreamt of nothing else and under the Canopy of its Green Hangings he dispatched all his Affairs It was easily perceived that the Plane Tree smitten with a reciprocal Flame was ravished with his Caresses For on all occasions without any apparent reason its Leaves were seen to shake and in a manner leap for Joy the Branches bend round about his Head as it were to make a Crown for him and to reach down so near to his Face that it was easie to be known that it was rather to kiss him than out of any natural inclination of bending downwards Nay it was also observed that out of Jealousie it ranked its Leaves in order joining one close to the other for fear least the Sun-Beams piercing through might kiss him as well as it The King on his part set no more bounds to his Love he had his Bed made under the Plane Tree and the Tree not not knowing how to repay his Friendship bestowed upon him the most precious thing that Trees have which was its Honey-dew that every Morning dropt upon his Face Their Caresses would have lasted longer had not Death the Enemy of Noble Actions put an end to them Artaxerxes died of Love in the embraces of his dear Plane Tree and the Persians extreamly afflicted at the death of so good a Prince resolved that they might give him satisfaction even after his Death that his Body should be burnt with the Branches of that Tree and no other Wood employed in Consuming it When the Funeral Pile was kindled the Flame was seen to twist it self with that of the Fat of the Body and their burning Locks which curled one into the other to taper into a Pyramide as far as could be discerned That pure and subtile Fire divided not but when it arrived at the Sun whither you know all igneous matter tends it formed the sprout of the Apple-Tree of Orestes which you see there on your Right Hand Now the Breed of that Fruit is lost in your World and I 'll tell you how that mischance happened Fathers and Mothers who as you know are only guided by interest in the management of their Domestick Affairs being vext that their Children so soon as they had eaten of these Apples squandered away upon their Friends all that they had burnt all the young Plants they could find of that Tree so that the kind being lost is the reason why no true Friend is now to be found As fast then as these Trees
Lodgings here that I may lay hold on all Opportunities of Instructing him He said no more that he might give me the Liberty to speak if I had a mind to it and then made a sign that they should strip me of my disgraceful Ornaments in which I still glistered The Two Professors whom we expected entered just as I was undrest and we went to sit down to Table where the Cloth was laid and where we found the Youth he had mentioned to me fallen to already They made him a low Reverence and treated him with as much respect as a Slave does his Lord. I asked my Spirit the reason of that who made me answer that it was because of his Age seeing in that World the Aged rendered all kind of Respect and Difference to the Young and which is far more that the Parents obeyed their Children so soon as by the Judgment of the Senate of Philosophers they had attained to the Years of Discretion You are amazed continued he at a Custom so contrary to that of your Country but it is not all repugnant to Reason For say in your Conscience when a brisk young Man is at his Prime in Imagining Judging and Acting is not he fitter to govern a Family than a Decrepit piece of Threescore Years dull and doting whose Imagination is frozen under the Snow of Sixty Winters who follows no other Guide but what you call the Experience of happy Successes and yet are no more but the bare effects of Chance against all the Rules and Oeconomy of humane Prudence And as for Judgment he hath but little of that neither though the people of your World make it the Portion of Old Age But to undeceive them they must know That that which is called Prudence in an Old Man is no more but a panick Apprehension and a mad Fear of acting any thing where there is danger So that when he does not run a Risk wherein a Young Man hath lost himself it is not that he foresaw the Catastrophe but because he had not Fire enough to kindle those noble Flashes which make us dare Whereas the Boldness of that Young Man was as a pledge of the good Success of his design because the same Ardour that speeds and facilitates the execution thrust him upon the undertaking As for Execution I should wrong your Judgment if I endeavoured to convince it by proofs You know that Youth alone is proper for Action and were you on t fully perswaded of this tell me pray when you respect a Man of Courage is it not because he can revenge you on your Enemies or Oppressors And does any thing but meer Habit make you consider him when a Battalion of Seventy Januarys hath frozen his Blood and chilled all the noble Heats that youth is warmed with When you yeild to the Stronger is it not that he should be obliged to you for a Victory which you can Dispute him Why then should you submit to him when Laziness hath softened his Muscles weakened his Arteries evaporated his Spirits and suckt the Marrow out of his Bones If you adore a Woman is it not because of her Beauty Why should you then continue your Cringes when Old Age hath made her a Ghost which only represents a hideous Picture of Death In short When you loved a Witty Man it was because by the Quickness of his Apprehension he unravelled an intricate Affair seasoned the choicest Companies with his quaint Sayings and sounded the depth of Sciences with a single Thought and do you still honour him when his worn Organs disappoint his weak Noddle when he is become dull and uneasy in Company and when he looks like an aged Fairy rather than a rational Man Conclude then from thence Son that it is fitter Young Men should govern Families than Old and the rather that according to your own Principles Hercules Achilles Epaminondas Alexander and Caesar of whom most part died under Fourty Years of Age could have merited no Honours as being too Young in your account though their Youth was the only cause of their Famous Actions which a more advanced Age would have rendered ineffectual as wanting that Heat and Promptitude that rendered them so highly successful But you 'll tell me that all the Laws of your World do carefully enjoin the Respect that is due to Old Men That 's true but it is as true also that all who made Laws have been Old Men who feared that Young Men might justly have dispossessed them of the Authority they had usurped You owe nothing to your mortal Architector but your Body only your Soul comes from Heaven and Chance might have made your Father your Son as now you are his Nay are you sure he hath not hindered you from Inheriting a Crown Your Spirit left Heaven perhaps with a design to animate the King of the Romans in the Womb of the Emperess it casually encountered the Embryo of you by the way and it may be to shorten its journey went and lodged there No no God would never have razed your name out of the List of Mankind though your Father had died a Child But who knows whether you might not have been at this day the work of some valiant Captain that would have associated you to his Glory as well as to his Estate So that perhaps you are no more indebted to your Father for the life he hath given you than you would be to a Pirate who had put you in Chains because he feeds you Nay grant he had begot you a Prince or King a Present loses its merit when it is made without the Option of him who receives it Caesar was killed and so was Cassius too In the mean time Cassius was obliged to the Slave from whom he begg'd his Death but so was not Caesar to his Murderers who forced it upon him Did your Father consult your Will and Pleasure when he Embraced your Mother Did he ask you if you thought fit to see that Age or to wait for another if you would be satisfied to be the Son of a Sot or if you had the Ambition to spring from a Brave Man Alas you whom alone the business concerned were the only Person not consulted in the case May be then had you been shut up any where else than in the Womb of Nature's Ideas and had your Birth been in your own Opinion you would have said to the Parca my dear Lady take another Spindle in your Hand I have lain very long in the Bed of Nothing and I had rather continue an Hundred years still without a Being than to Be to day that I may repent of it to morrow However Be you must it was to no purpose for you to whimper and squall to be back again at the long and darksome House they drew you out of they made as if they believed you cryed for the Teat These are the Reasons at least some of them my Son why Parents bear so much respect to their Children
of Of the most enormous replied my Keeper that a Bird can be aspersed with They accuse it can you believe it They accuse it but good Gods the very thoughts of it makes my Feathers to stand an end In a word they accuse it that during the space of Six Years it hath not as yet deserved to have a Friend and therefore it hath been condemned to be a King and a King of a People that differ from it in kind Had its Subjects been of its own nature it might at least have beguiled its Eyes and Desire with their Pleasures But seeing the pleasures of one kind have no relation to those of another it will support all the fatigues and tast all the bitterness of Royalty and never be able to relish the pleasures thereof in the least They have sent it away this Morning accompanied with a great many Physitians to take heed that it do not poison it self by the way Though my Keeper was naturally a great Talker yet he durst not entertain me any longer in discourse for fear of being suspected of Intelligence with me About the end of the Week I was again brought before my Judges They rested me upon the breech of a little Tree without Leaves All the Birds of the Long-Robe as well Advocates Counsellors as Judges and Presidents roosted by Stories every one according to his Dignity on the Top of a tall Cedar For the rest who were only present out of Curiosity they placed themselves promiscuously till all the Seats were full that 's to say till the Branches of the Cedar were covered with Feet The Magpy in whom I observed all along so much Compassion for me came and perched upon my Tree where pretending to divert her self by pecking the Moss Really said she to me you cannot believe how much I am concerned at your Misfortune for though I am not ignorant that amongst the Living a Man is a Plague that ought to be purged out of all well-govern'd States yet when I call to mind that I was bred amongst them from the Cradle that I have learned their Language so perfectly that I had almost forgot mine own and that I have eaten out of their Hands such excellent Green Cheese I cannot think on 't but that it brings Water into my Eyes and Mouth I have so great a kindness for you that I cannot incline to the right side She had gone on so far when we were interrupted by the coming of an Eagle that lighted amongst the Branches of a Tree pretty near to mine I was about to have risen and fallen upon my knees before the Eagle thinking he had been the King if my Magpy with her Foot had not held me fast in my Seat. Did you think said she that that great Eagle had been our Sovereign That 's an Imagination of you Men who because you suffer your selves to be commanded by the greatest the strongest and the most cruel of your Companions have foolishly thought judging of all things according to your own measures that the Eagle ought to command us But our Politicks are quite different for we never chuse for our Kings but the Weakest the Wildest and most Peaceable Nay and we change them every Six Months and pitch upon the Weak to the end that the meanest amongst us who may have been wronged by him may take his Revenge We chuse the Mild to the end he neither hate or be hated of any Body and we would have him to be of a Peaceful Temper for avoiding of War the Sink of all Injustice Once every Week he holds a Parliament where all are received to propose their Grievances against him If there be but three Birds only dissatisfied with his Government out he goes and they proceed to a new Election All that Day the Parliament sits our King is mounted on the top of a high Yew-Tree upon the brink of a Lake bound Feet and Wings All the Birds one after another pass before him and if any of them know him to be guilty of a Crime that deserves death he may throw him into the Water but he must upon the spot justifie the fact by good Reasons otherwise he is Condemned to the said Death I could not forbear to interrupt and ask her what she meant by the said Death And this is the Answer she made me When the Crime of a Malefactor is judged to be so enormous that an ordinary Death is not sufficient to expiate it they endeavour to chuse one that contains the pain of many and in this manner they proceed to it Those amongst us that have the most melancholick and doleful Tone are sent to the Malefactor who is carried upon a dismal Cypress There these sad Musicians gather about him and by the Ear fill his Soul with such tragical and doleful Notes that the bitterness of his Sorrow disordering the Oeconomy of his Organs and pressing his Heart he pines away to the sight and dies choaked with Sadness However such a spectacle never happens for seeing our Kings are exceeding mild they never force any Body to incur so cruel a Death upon the account of Revenge He that at present Reigns is a Dove who is of so peaceable a temper that t'other day when two Sparrows were to be made Friends it was the hardest thing in the World to make him conceive what Enmity was My Magpy could not continue so long a discourse without being observed by some of the By-standers and because she was already suspected of some Intelligence with me the chief of the Assembly made one of the Eagles of my guard catch her by the Neck and make sure of her Person King Dove arrived in the mean while all were silent and the first thing that was heard was the complaint of the great Censor of the Birds which he made against the Magpy The King being fully informed of the Scandal she had given asked her her Name and how she came to know me Sir answered she all in amaze My name is Magget there are here a great many Birds of Quality that will vouch for me One day in the World of the Earth of which I am a Native I was informed by Chirpper the Posy there who having heard me cry in my Cage came to visit me at the Window where I hung that my Father was Bobb-tail and my Mother Crack-nuts I had not known so much but for him for I was carried away very Young from under the Wings of my Parents my Mother some time after died of Grief and my Father being then past the Age of having any more Children despairing to see himself without Heirs went to the War of the Jays where he was killed by a peck in the brain They that carried me away were certain wild Animals whom they call Hog-herds who had me to be sold at a Castle where I saw that Man who now stands upon his Tryal I cannot tell whether he conceived any Kindness for me but he took the pains to
cause the Servants to cut meat for me he had sometimes the goodness to prepare it for me himself If I catcht cold in the Winter he carried me to the Fire lined my Cage or ordered the Gardiner to warm me in his Bosom The Servants durst not vex me in his presence and one day I remember he saved me from the Jaws of the Cat who held me in her Paws to which my Lady 's little Page had exposed me but it will not be impertinent to tell you the Cause of that Barbarity To comply with Verdelet for that was the Page's name I was chattering one day some idle words that he had taught me Now it happened as ill Luck would have it though I always repeated my Lessons in course that I came to say in order just as he came in to deliver a Message Be quiet you Son of a Whore you lye The Man there that stands Indicted who knowing the Rogue to be naturally given to Lying imagined that I might very well have spoken by Prophecy and sent to the place to know if Verdelet had been there Verdelet was convinced of his Knavery Verdelet was whipt and Verdelet in revenge would have had me devoured by Maulkin The King by a Nod of the head shew'd that he was satisfied with the Pity that she had conceived for my disaster However he discharged her to speak any more to me in private Then he asked my Adversary's Council if his Plea was ready He made a sign with his Foot that he was going to speak and if I mistake it not these are the Points whereon he insisted against me The Plea brought in the Parliament of Birds Assembled against an Animal accused of being a Man. Gentlemen The Plaintiff is Guillemot the Fleshy a Partridge by extraction lately arrived from the World of the Earth his Breast still gaping by a shot that he hath received from Men Demandant against all Mankind and by consequence against an Animal whom I pretend to be a member of that great Body It would be no hard matter for us to hinder by his death the Violences that he can commit Nevertheless seeing the Preservation or Loss of every thing that has breath concerns the Common-Wealth of the Living I think we should deserve to have been made Men that 's to say Degraded from Reason and Immortality which we enjoy above them had we resembled them in any unjust Action like theirs Let us examine then Gentlemen the Difficulties of this Cause with all the Application that our divine minds are capable of The stress of the matter lies here to wit Whether or not this Animal be a Man and then in case we make it out that he is whether or not he deserves Death for that For my part I make no doubt but that he is in the first place Because he is so impudent as to tell a Lye in maintaining that he is not in the second place Because he laughs like a Fool thirdly In that he weeps like a Sot fourthly In that he blows his Nose like a nasty Villain fifthly In that he is Feathered but in part sixthly In that he carries his Tail before seventhly In that he hath always a great many little square Bones in his Mouth which he has neither the wit to spit out nor swallow down eighthly and lastly Because every Morning he lifts up his Eyes his Nose and large Snout claps his open Hands close together which he points up to Heaven joins them into one piece as if it troubled him to have two at liberty breaks his Legs short off by the middle so that he falls upon his Geegots and then by Magical words that he mutters I have observed That his broken Legs are knit again and that he rises up as gay as he was before Now you know Gentlemen that amongst all Animals none but Man has so black a Soul as to be given to Magick and by consequence I conclude That this is a Man We are now to enquire whether or not as Man he deserves to be put to death I think Gentlemen it never was yet doubted but that all Creatures are produced by our common Mother to live together in Society Now if I prove that Man seems to be Born only to break it shall I not make it out that he going contrary to the end of his Creation deserves that Nature should repent her self of her work The first and fundamental Law for the maintenance of a Republick is Equality But Man cannot endure it to Eternity he falls upon us that he may eat us he perswades himself that we were only made for his use he makes the Barbarity wherewith he massacres us and the small Resistance he finds on our side an Argument of his pretended Superiority And nevertheless wo'nt own Eagles Condores and Griffins who are too hard for the strongest Man to be his Masters But why should that great Size and conformation of Members make the diversity of Kind seeing there are Dwarffs and Giants to be found amongst Men themselves Nay more that Empire wherewith they flatter themselves is but an imaginary Right On the contrary they are so inclinable to Servitude that least they should not serve they fell one another for Slaves In this manner the Young are Slaves to the Old the Poor to the Rich the Clowns to the Gentlemen the Princes to the Monarchs and the Monarchs themselves to the Laws which they have Established And besides all that the poor Drudges are so afraid to be without Masters that as if they apprehended that Liberty might come to them from some unexpected place they frame to themselves Gods in all parts in the Water in the Air in the Fire and under the Earth they 'll make them of Wood rather than want nay I fancy also that they tickle themselves with the vain hopes of Immortality not so much out of a Horrour that they have of being annihilated as for fear that they may have none to command them after their death Here 's the fine effect of that fantastical Monarchy and of that natural Empire of Man as they would have it over the Animals nay and over us too for he has been so insolent as even to pretend to that In the mean while in consequence of that ridiculous Principality he fairly takes to himself the power of Life and Death over us he lays snares for us chains us claps us up in Prison kills us eats us and makes the power of killing those which remain free a mark of Nobility He thinks that the Sun is lighted on purpose to let him see how to make War against us that Nature hath only suffered us to take our turns in the Air that from our flight he may draw lucky or unlucky Auspices and that when God put Entrails into our Bodies his intention only was to make a great Book wherein Man might learn the Science of future Contingencies Good then is not this unsupportable Pride Could any that 's
don 't you imagine when it costs you so much trouble to find one of their Nests that that 's occasioned by the Sagacity wherewith they hide it No it is the Tree it self that hath twisted its Boughs about the nest to secure the Family of his Lodger from the Cruelties of Man And on the contrary consider the Airies of those which are hatched either for the destruction of Birds their fellow Citizens such as Sparrow-Hawks Hobbies Kites Faulcons c. or which only speak to breed Quarrels as Jays and Magpies or that delight to frighten us as Owls and Howlets You shall observe that the Nests of such are exposed to the sight of all People because the Tree removes its Branches from them that it may leave them for a Prey But there is no need of specifying so many things to prove that Trees exert your Functions as well in Mind as in Body Is there any one amongst you who hath not observed that in the Spring when the Sun hath refreshed our Bark with a fertile Sap we thrust out our Branches and extend them loaded with Fruit upon the Breasts of the Earth that we are in Love withal The Earth on her side opens and is warmed with the like heat and makes her approaches towards a Conjunction whilst our Branches discharge into her Lap that which she so ardently desires to conceive She is however Nine Months in breeding and forming that Embrio before she bring it forth but the Tree her Husband fearing that the Winters cold may be prejudicial to her Conception strips himself of his green Garment to cover her and contents himself with an old Fuil-demort Cloak to hide part of his Nakedness Well then O Men you look eternally on these things and never see them Nay more convincing Proofs have presented themselves to your Eyes but none are so Blind as those that will not See. I listened most attentively to the discourse with which that Arboreal Voice entertained me and was expecting the sequel when all of a sudden it broke off with a Tone like to the Whizzing of the shortness of Breath that hinders one to speak When I perceived it obstinately resolved to be silent I adjured it by all which I thought might most affect it that it would vouchsafe to instruct one who had run the Risk of so long and dangerous a Voyage upon the account only of learning At the same time I heard Two or Three Voices which for my sake made the same request to it and one I distinguished that said to it as if in anger Well then since you complain so much of your Lungs repose your self I 'll tell him the Story of the Amorous Trees Whoever you be cried I falling upon my Knees O Wisest of all the Oaks of Dodona who condescendest to take the pains to instruct me know this That you shall not teach an ungrateful Person for I vow that if ever I return to my native Globe I shall publish the Wonders you are pleased to make me a Witness of I had no sooner made this Protestation but I heard the same voice proceed in this manner Look Little Man and you shall see about Fourteen or Fifteen steps to the Right Hand Two Twin-Trees of a middle Stature which confounding their Branches and Roots strive by all possible means to unite and become but one I turned my Eyes towards these Plants of Love and observed that the leaves of both gently stirred as it were by a voluntary Motion excited by their Agitation so delicate a murmur that hardly it grazed upon the Ear and yet one would have said that thereby they mutually asked and answered one another Having spent as much time as was necessary to observe that double Vegetable my good Friend the Oak went on in his discourse after this manner You cannot have lived to this Age and not have heard of the celebrated Friendship of Pylades and Orestes I would describe to you all the Joys of a sweet Passion and tell you the Wonders wherewith these Lovers astonished their Age did I not fear that so much Light might offend the Eyes of your Reason and therefore I shall paint those two young Suns only in their Eclipse Let this then suffice you to know That one day the brave Orestes being engaged in a Battle sought out for his dear Pylades that he might have the Pleasure of overcoming or dying in his Presence When he perceived him amidst an hundred Arms of Iron lifted up over his Head Alas what became of him In despair he threw himself through a Forest of Pikes He cried roared and foamed But how ill do I express the fearful Commotions of that Inconsolable Man he tore his hair bit his Hands rent his Wounds nay and when I have said all I can say I am obliged to confess that the means of expressing his grief died with himself When he thought to cut out a way with his Sword to get to the assistance of Pylades a Mountain of Men withstood his passage Nevertheless he broke through them and having long marched upon the Bloody Trophies of his Victory by little and little he approached to Pylades but Pylades seemed to him already so near Death that he durst hardly resist his Enemies any longer for fear he might survive the thing for which alone he lived To see his Eyes already full of the shades of Death one would have said That he endeavoured by his Looks to poyson the Murderers of his Friend At length Pylades fell down dead and amorous Orestes perceiving his own life to be upon the brink of his Lips still retained it till with a wandring look having sought and found out Pylades amongst the Dead he seemed by joining Mouth to Mouth as if he intended to infuse his Soul into the Body of his Friend The Younger of those two Heroes expired upon the dead Body of his Friend and you must know that from the Corruption of their Trunk which without doubt impregnated the Earth two young Shrubs were seen to sprout out from amongst their dry bones whose Stem and Branches mingling promiscuously together seemed to hasten to grow only that they might be twisted into a closer Contexture It was visible that they had changed their Being without forgetting what they had been for their perfumed Buds leaned one upon another and interchanged the Warmth of their Breathing as it were to make themselves blow the sooner But what shall I say of the loving Distribution that maintained their Society The Juyce wherein the nourishment resides never offered it self to their Stock but they ceremoniously divided it The one was never ill fed but the other decayed for want they both Suckt inwardly the Breasts of their Nurse as ye Men do outwardly the Teats of yours At length these happy Lovers brought forth Apples but such miraculous Apples as wrought greater Wonders than their Sires had done All that eat of the Apples of the one were instantly smitten with a Passionate Love for