THE CONFERENCE. 39 



eyes of beasts and fish are not able to reach to ; their bodies 

 are too gross for such high elevations : in the air my troops 

 of hawks soar up on high, and when they are lost in the 

 sight of men, then they attend upon and converse with the 

 gods ; therefore I think my eagle is so justly styled "Jove's 

 servant in ordinary ; " and that very falcon, that I am now 

 going to see, deserves no meaner title, for she usually in her 

 flight endangers herself, like the son of Daedalus, to have 

 her wings scorched by the sun's heat, 3 she flies so near it ; 

 but her mettle makes her careless of danger ; for then she 

 heeds nothing, but makes her nimble pinions cut the fluid 

 air, and so makes her highway over the steepest mountains 

 and deepest rivers, and in her glorious career looks with 

 contempt upon those high steeples and magnificent palaces 

 which we adore and wonder at ; from which height I can 

 make her to descend by a word from my mouth (which she 

 both knows and obeys), to accept of meat from my hand, to 

 own me for her master, to go home with me, and be willing 

 the next day to afford me the like recreation. 



And more : this element of air which I profess to trade 

 in, the worth of it is such, and.it is of such necessity, that 

 no creature whatsoever, not only those numerous creatures 

 that feed on the face of the earth, but those various creatures 

 that have their .dwelling within the waters, every creature 

 that hath life in its nostrils stands in need of my element. 

 The waters cannot preserve the fish without air, witness the 

 not breaking of ice in an extreme frost : 4 the reason is, for 

 that if the inspiring and expiring organ of any animal be 

 stopped, it suddenly yields to nature and dies. Thus neces- 

 sary is air to the existence both of fish and beasts, nay, even 

 to man himself; that air or breath of life with which God 



