214 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



&quot;Omnigen umque Deum monstra et latrator Anubis 

 Contra Neptunum et Venerem, contraque Minervam.&quot; 



And if we should, according to the traditions of the 

 Greeks, ascribe the first invention of arts to men, yet we 

 cannot say that Prometheus studied the invention of fire; 

 or that when he first struck the flint he expected sparks, 

 but that he fell upon it by accident, and, as the poets say, 

 stole it from Jupiter. So that as to the invention of arts, 

 we are rather beholden to the wild goat for chirurgery, to 

 the nightingale for music, to the stork for glysters, to the 

 accidental flying off of a pot s cover for artillery, and, in 

 a word, to chance, or anything else, rather than to logic. 

 Nor does the manner of invention, described by Virgil, 

 differ much from the former; viz., that practice and intent 

 thought by degrees struck out various arts. 



&quot;Ut varias usus meditando extunderet artes 

 Paulatim.&quot; 6 



For this is no other than what brutes are capable of, and 

 frequently practice; viz., an intent solicitude about some 

 one thing, and a perpetual exercise thereof, which the ne 

 cessity of their preservation imposes upon them; for Cicero 

 truly observed, that practice applied wholly to one thing, 

 often conquers both nature and art &quot;Usus uni rei deditus, 

 et naturam et artem saepe vincit. n 7 And therefore, if it 

 may be said with regard to men, that continued labor and 

 cogent necessity master everything, 



&quot;Labor omnia vincit 



Improbus, et duris urgens in rebus egestas;&quot; 8 



so it may be asked with regard to brutes, who taught them 



instinct, 



&quot;Quis expedivit Psittaco suum Xalpe ?&quot; 



Who taught the raven, in a drought, to drop pebbles into a 

 hollow tree, where she chanced to spy water, that the water 



5 ^Eneid, viii. 698. 8 Georg. i. 133. 



7 Oratio pro L. Cor. Balbo, xx. 8 Virg. Georg. i. 145. 



9 Perseus, Prol. 8. 



