BOOK XVIII. I. 3-5 



and add to the destructive properties of iron itself ; 

 we dye even the rivers and the elemental substances 

 of Nature, and turn the very means " of Ufe into a 

 bane. Nor is it possible for us to suppose that 

 animals do not know of these things ; for we liave viii. 

 indicated the prcparations that they make to guard '"'^ ^^ 

 against encounters with serpents and thc remedies 

 that they have dcvised to cmploy after the battle. 

 Nor does any creature save man fight with poison 

 borrowed from another. Let us therefore confess 

 our guilt, we who are not content even with natural 

 products, inasmuch as how far more numerous 

 are the varieties of them made by the human 

 hand ! Why, are not even poisons actually the 

 product of man's violence ? Their hvid tongue 

 flickers hke the serpent's, and the corruption of their 

 mind scorches the things it touches, mahgning all 

 things as they do and Uke birds of evil omen violating 

 even the darkness that is their own element and the 

 quiet of the night itself with their groaning, the only 

 sound they utter, so that Uke animals of evil omen 

 whcn they even cross our path they forbid us to act 

 or to be of scrvice to Hfe. And they know no other 

 reward for their abhorred vitahty than to hate all 

 things. But in this matter also Nature's grandeur 

 is the same : how many more good men has she 

 engendered as her harvest ! How much more fertile 

 is she in products that give aid and nourishment ! 

 We too then will continue to enrich hfe w ith the value 

 we set on these things and the delight thcy give us, 

 leaving those bramblcs of the human race to the 

 consuming fire that is theirs, and all the more 

 resohitely becnuse we achicve greater gratification 

 from indu^trv than we do from renown. The subjcct 



191 



