Chap. III.] THE ELEPHANT. 
105 
" Atressi cum 1' olifans 
Que quan chai no s' pot levar." 
As elephants were but rarely seen in Europe prior to 
the seventeenth century, there were but few opportuni- 
ties of correcting the popular fallacy by ocular demon- 
stration. Hence Shakspeare still believed that, 
" The elephant hath joints ; but none for courtesy : 
His legs are for necessity, not flexure :" 1 
and Donne sang of 
" Nature's great masterpiece, an Elephant ; 
The only harmless great thing : 
Yet Nature hath given him no knee to bend : 
Himself he up-props, on himself relies ; 
Still sleeping stands." 2 
Sir Thomas Browne, while he argues against the 
delusion, does not fail to record his suspicion, that 
"although the opinion at present be reasonably well 
suppressed, yet from the strings of tradition and fruit- 
ful recurrence of errour, it was not improbable it might 
revive in the next generation ;" 3 — an anticipation which 
has proved singularly correct ; for the heralds still con- 
tinued to explain that the elephant is the emblem of 
watchfulness, " nee jacet in somno" 4 and poets almost 
of our own times paint the scene when 
the year 1121, a.d., his Livre des 
Creatures, dedicated to Adelaide of 
Louvaine, Queen of Henry I. of 
England. In the copy of it printed 
by the Historical Society of Science 
in 1841, and edited by Mr. Weight, 
the following passage occurs : — 
" Et Ysidres nus dit ki le elefant descrit, 
* * * * * 
Es jambes par nature nen ad que une join- 
ture, 
II ne pot pas gesir quant il se volt dormir, 
Ke si cucliet estait par sei nen leverait j 
Pur geo Ii stot apuier, el lui del cucher, 
U a arbre u a" mur, jdunc dort aseur. 
E le gent de la terre, ki li volent conquere, 
Li mux enfunderunr, u le arbre enciserunt; 
Quant li elefant vendrat, ki s'i apuierat, 
La arbre u le mur carrat, e il tribucherat ; 
Issi faiterement le parnent cele gent." 
P. 100. 
1 Troilus and Gressida, act ii. sc. 
3. a.d. 1609. 
2 Progress of the Soul, a.d. 1633. 
3 Sir T. Beowne, Vulgar Errors, 
A.D. 1646. 
4 Eandal Home's Academy of 
Armory, a.d. 1671. Home only 
perpetuated the error of GurxniM, 
who wrote his Display of Heraldry 
