p^vi ' }r^-^^^ ^*-^ £> ,^M^— ^ * , ^ z"?"^ U 



Chap. 2.] ACONITE. 219 



in man something else to kill. AMien such is the case, as \ 

 though it had discovered in the body a fit rival to contend \\-ith, • 

 that substance is the sole object of its attack ; finding another 

 poison in the viscera, to it alone it confines its onslaught; 

 and thus, a truly marvellous thing I two poisons, each of them 

 of a deadly nature, destroy one another within the body, and 

 the man survives. Even more than this, the ancients have 

 handed down to us remedies employed by the animals them- 

 selves, and have shown how that venomous creatures even effect 

 their own cure. By the contact of aconite the scorpion is 

 struck with torpor,^ is quite benumbed, assumes a pallid hue, 

 and so confesses itself vanquished. When this is the case, 

 white hellebore is its great auxiliary : the very touch of it dis- 

 pels its torpor, and the aconite is forced to yield before two 

 foes, its own enemy ^° and the common ^^ enemy of all. 



Xow, after this, if any one should be of opinion that man 

 could, by any chance or possibility, make such discoveries as 

 these, he must surely be guilty of ingratitude in thus appre- 

 ciating the beneficence of the gods ! In countries frequented , 

 by the panther, they rub meat with aconite, and if one of 

 those animals should but taste it, its eftects are fatal : indeed 

 were not these means adopted, the country would soon be over- 

 run by them. It is for this reason, too, that some persons 

 have given to hellebore the name of '' pardalianches."^- It has 

 been well ascertained, however, that the panther instantaneously 

 recovers if it can find the opportunity of eating human ordure. ^^ 

 So far as these animals are concerned, who can entertain a 

 doubt that it was chance only that first led them to this dis- 

 covery ; and that as often as this happens the discovery is only 

 a mere repetition of the accident, there being neither reason 

 nor an appreciation of experience to ensure its transmission 

 among them r 



(3.) It is chance,^* yes, it is chance that is the Deity who 1 

 has made to us these numerous revelations for our practical 



3 See B. XXV. c. 75. 



^^ The hellebore. See B. xxiii. c. 75, and B. xxv. c. 21. 



^^ The scorpion. ^'- " Pard-strangle." 



^3 See B. viii. c. 41. 



'* He seems here, by implication, to contradict himself, and, by his ex- 

 planation, to be sensible that he does so. He would appear not to hare 

 kiown exactly what his belief was in reference to first causes. 



