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, " nec 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. Wright, 

 the following passage occurs : — 



" Et Ysidres nus dit ki le elefant descrit, 

 ***** 



Es jambes par nature nen ad que une join- 

 ture, 



11 ne pot pas gesir quant il se volt dormir, 

 Ke si cuchet estait par sei nen leverait ; 

 Pur <;eo li stot apuier, el lui del cucher, 

 U a arbre u a mur, idunc dort aseur. 



E le gent de la terre, ki li volent conquere, 

 Li mur enfunderunt, u le arbre enciserunt; 

 Quant li elefant vendrat, ki s'i apuierat, 

 La arbre u Je mur carrat, e il tribucherat ; 

 Issi faiterement le parnent cele gent." 



P. 100. 



1 Troihis and Cressida, act ii. sc. 

 3. a.d. 1609. 



2 p r0 g ress 0 fthe Soul, a.d. 1633. 



3 Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, 

 a.d. 1646. 



4 Randal Home's Academy of 

 Armory, a.d. 1671. Home only 

 perpetuated the error of G-tjixlim, 

 who wrote his Display of Heraldry 



