2 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XVIII. 



sharpen 2 and renovate their teeth against the trunks of trees, 

 and the rhinoceros against rocks ; wild boars, again, point 

 their tusks like so many poniards by the aid of both rocks and 

 tre^s ; and all animals, in fact, are aware how to prepare them- 

 selves for the infliction of injury upon others ; but still, which 

 is there among them all, with the exception of man, that dips 

 his weapons in poison ? As for ourselves, we envenom the 

 point of the arrow, 3 and we contrive to add to the destructive 

 powers of iron itself; by the aid of poisons we taint the waters 

 of the stream, and we infect the various elements of Nature ; 

 indeed, the very air even, which is the main support of life, 

 we turn into a medium for the destruction of life. 



And it is not that we are to suppose that animals are igno- 

 rant of these means of defence, for we have already had occa- 

 sion to point out 4 the preparations which they make against the 

 attacks of the serpent, and the methods they devise for effecting 

 a cure when wounded by it ; and yet, among them all, there 

 is not one that fights by the aid of the poison that belongs to 

 another, with the sole exception of man. Let us then candidly 

 confess our guilt, we who are not contented even with the 

 poisons as Nature has produced them ; for by far the greater 

 portion of them, in fact, are artificially prepared by the human 

 hand ! 



And then besides, is it not the fact, that there are many 

 men, the very existence of whom is a baneful poison, as it 

 were ? Like that of the serpent, they dart their livid tongue, 

 and the venom of their disposition corrodes every object upon 

 which it concentrates itself. Ever vilifying and maligning, 

 like the ill-omened birds of the night, they disturb the repose 

 of that darkness which is so peculiarly their own, and break 

 in upon the quiet of the night even, by their moans and wail- 

 ings, the only sounds they are ever heard to emit. Like 

 animals of inauspicious presage, they only cross our path to 



2 Of course this is only mere declamation ; it is not probable that the 

 animals have any notion at all of sharpening the weapons that nature hns 

 given; in addition to which, this mode of sharpening them against hard 

 substances would only wear away the enamel, and ultimately destroy them. 



le acts of animals in a moment of rage or frenzy have evidently been 

 mistaken here fur the dictates of instinct, or even a superior intelligence 



1 fci-e H. xxv. c. 25, and B. xxvii. c. 76. 



/ n B ; V ! iL C ' 36t 41 ' 42 ' The works of tlie ancients, Fee remarks, 

 are full of these puerilities. 



