Of the Crocodile.
PLutarch reports of the Crocodile (whose figure is here deliniated) that being tamed, and taught by man, hee doth not onely heare mans voyce, and an∣sweres * 1.1 to his call, but suffers himselfe to be handled, and opening his throate, lets his teeth be scratched and wiped with a towell. How small a part of Phy∣sicke is that, which beasts are taught by nature? Certainely nothing in com∣parison of man, who by the study and practise of a few yeares can learne at his fingers endes all the parts of Physicke: and practise them not onely for his owne, but also for the common good of all men. But why cannot beasts attaine unto the knowledge of Physicke so well as men? I thinke, because so great an Arte as Physicke is, cannot be attained unto by the dull capacities of Beasts.
But for that I have written of the Religion of Elephants, if I must speake according to the truth of the matter, wee cannot say they worship God, or * 1.2 have any sense of the divine Majesty. For how can they have any knowledge of sublime things or of God, seeing they wholy following their foode, know not how to meditate on celestiall things? Now for that they behold and turne them∣selves to the Moone by night, and to the Sunne in the morning, they doe not that as worshipping, or for that they conceive any excellency or divinitie in the Sunne; but because nature so requiring and leading them, they feele their bodyes to rejoyce in that light, and their entralls and humors to move and stirre