BOOK 1 X .] History of Nature. 1 1 7 



take Meat from a Man's Hand, suffer himself to be handled, 

 play with them that swam in the Sea, and carry on his Back 



his authority must not carry great weight, even when he professes to 

 have himself witnessed the occurrence. This Egyptian is also the autho- 

 rity for the story of Androclus and the Lion ; which he also asserts to 

 have occurred under his own notice. Yet, setting aside the negative 

 evidence derived from the silence of Pliny, who, if he had believed it, 

 would have found it an excellent illustration of his history of that beast, 

 there is one portion of it which is altogether incredible : and the doubt 

 arising from which must render suspicious whatever of a surprising 

 nature the same author anywhere reports. He says, that with the gift 

 of freedom, Androclus also was presented with the lion ; which he led 

 quietly about the city, with a slight string, collecting money at the 

 taverns. To enhance the wonder, the beast is represented to have been 

 of unusual size and ferocity ; but however well disposed such an animal 

 might be to recognize one from whom it had received an obligation, it is 

 contrary to its nature for a fierce and hitherto untamed lion to have 

 changed its character so far as to have been reconciled suddenly to the 

 noisy crowd of a city, and to have been led, only by a slight string, 

 crowned with flowers, without fearing or doing harm. 



The narratives of the dolphin are equally contrary to nature, and 

 that in several particulars, in which an intelligent observer could not be 

 mistaken : whether that observer was Apion, whom A. Gellius charac- 

 terizes as being " vitio studioque ostentationis loquacior," and " sane quam 

 praedicandis doctrinis suis venditator : " or Mecaenas himself. Of these 

 errors one concerns the form of the animal, which is described as having 

 the mouth beneath the head, and a dorsal fin armed with sharp-pointed 

 spines, capable of voluntary motion : the latter, especially, not only un- 

 like what belongs to the dolphin, but to anything that could have been 

 mistaken for it. The mode of progress in the water of the real dolphin, 

 is also known to be such as does not admit these stories to be applied to 

 it. The dolphin rises to the surface for the purpose of breathing ; and 

 then is compelled to roll itself forward in a manner which does not 

 admit of its continuing to pass along the surface, even to the extent of 

 a few yards. But what thus appears inapplicable to the structure and 

 habits of the real dolphin is not exceedingly foreign to another inha- 

 bitant of the ocean. The common Seal (Phoca Vitulina) has on some 

 occasions manifested all the affectionate attachment to man which the 

 ancients ascribed to the dolphin. A little instruction will secure this ; 

 and however it might have been concealed for interested purposes, there 

 can be little doubt that the creatures of which these stories were related 

 in ancient times, had been previously trained to the actions they 

 [, Wern. Club. 



