THE SECOND BOOK 133 



So that it was no marvel (the manner of antiquity 

 being to consecrate inventors) that the Egyptians had 

 so few human idols in their temples, but almost all 

 brute : 



Omnigenumque Deum monstra, et latrator Anubis, 

 Contra Neptunum, et Venerem, contraque Minervam, &c. 



And if you like better the tradition of the Grecians, 



and ascribe the first inventions to men, yet you will 



rather believe that Prometheus first stroke the flints, 



and marvelled at the spark, than that when he first 



stroke the flints he expected the spark : and therefore 



we see the West Indian Prometheus had no intelligence 



svith the European, because of the rareness with them 



}f flint, that gave the first occasion. So as it should 



seem, that hitherto men are rather beholden to a wild 



;oat for surgery, or to a nightingale for music, or to 



! ;he ibis for some part of physic, or to the pot-lid that 



{ lew open for artillery, or generally to chance or any- 



j hing else than to logic for the invention of arts and 



ciences. Neither is the form of invention which Virgil 



if lescribeth much other : 



Ut varias usus ineditando extunderet artes 



Paulatim. 

 y 



, ; &quot;or if you observe the words well, it is no other method 

 [. ban that which brute beasts are capable of, and do 

 r;e &amp;lt;ut in ure ; which is a perpetual intending or practis- 

 ,; ( ig some one thing, urged and imposed by an absolute 

 j; ecessity of conservation of being. For so Cicero saith 

 , jj , ery truly, Usus uni rei deditus et naturam et artem 

 8 iepe vincit. And therefore if it be said of men, 



Labor omnia vincit 

 Improbus, et duris urgens in rebus egestas, 



is likewise said of beasts, * Quis psittaco docuit suum 

 ilpf ? Who taught the raven in a drowth to throw 

 sbbles into an hollow tree, where she spied water, that 

 le water might rise so as she might come to it ? Who 

 ,ught the bee to sail through such a vast sea of air, 



