Page images
PDF
EPUB

hitherto omitted, are here carefully inferted; fo that this book may serve as a gloffary or expofitory index to the poetical writers.

VII. To the words, and to the different fenfes of each word, are fubjoined from the large dictionary the names of those writers by whom they have been used; fo that the reader who knows the different periods of the language, and the time of its authors, may judge of the elegance or prevalence of any word, or meaning of a word; and without recurring to other books, may know what are antiquated, what are unusual, and what are recommended by the best authority.

The words of this dictionary, as oppofed to others, are more diligently collected, more accurately spelled, more faithfully explained, and more authentically afcertained. Of an abstract it is not neceffary to fay more; and I hope, it will not be found that truth requires me to fay lefs.

[blocks in formation]

THE

I D L E R.

ID

N° XXII.*

ΜΑ

ANY naturalifts are of opinion, that the animals which we commonly confider as mute, have the power of imparting their thoughts to one another. That they can express general fenfations is very certain; every being that can utter founds, has a different voice for pleafure and for pain. The hound informs his fellows when he scents his game; the hen calls her chickens to their food by her cluck, and drives them from danger by her fcream.

Birds have the greatest variety of notes; they have indeed a variety, which feems almoft fufficient to make a fpeech adequate to the purposes of a life, which is regulated by inftinct, and can admit little change or improvement. To the cries of birds, curiofity or fuperftition has been always attentive; many have ftudied the language of the feathered tribes, and fome have boafted that they understood it.

This paper was omitted when The Idler was reprinted. E.

The

bowers. But what

The most skilful or moft confident interpreters of the fylvan dialogues have been commonly found among the philofophers of the eaft, in a country where the calmness of the air, and the mildnefs of the feafons, allow the ftudent to pass a great part of the year in groves and But what may be done in one place by peculiar opportunities, may be performed in another by peculiar diligence. A fhepherd of Bohemia has, by long abode in the forefts, enabled himself to understand the voice of birds; at least he relates with great confidence a story, of which the credibility is left to be confidered by the learned.

As I was fitting (faid he) within a hollow rock, and watching my fheep that fed in the valley, I heard two vultures interchangeably crying on the fummit of the cliff. Both voices were earnest and deliberate. My curiofity prevailed over my care of the flock; I climbed flowly and filently from crag to crag, concealed among the fhrubs, till I found a cavity where I might fit and liften without fuffering, or giving disturbance.

I foon perceived, that my labour would be well repaid; for an old vulture was fitting on a naked prominence, with her young about her, whom he was instructing in the arts of a vulture's life, and preparing, by the last lecture, for their final difmiffion to the mountains and the skies.

My children, faid the old vulture, you will the lefs want my inftructions, because you have had my practice before your eyes; you have feen me fnatch from the farm the houfhold fowl, you have feen me feize the leveret

R 3

leveret in the bush, and the kid in the pasture; you know how to fix your talons, and how to balance your flight when you are laden with your prey. But you remember the taste of more delicious food;

I have often

regaled you with the flesh of man. Tell us, faid the young vultures, where man may be found, and how he may be known; his flesh is furely the natural food of a vulture. Why have you never brought a man in your talons to the neft? He is too bulky, faid the mother; when we find a man, we can only tear away his flesh, and leave his bones upon the ground. Since man is fo big, faid the young ones, how do you kill him? You are afraid of the wolf and of the bear, by what power are vultures fuperior to man? is man more defenceless than a sheep? We have not the ftrength of man, returned the mother, and I am fometimes in doubt whether we have the fubtilty; and the vultures would feldom feaft upon his flesh, had not nature, that devoted him to our uses, infufed into him a ftrange ferocity, which I have never obferved in any other being that feeds upon the earth. Two herds of men will often meet and fhake the earth with noise, and fill the air with fire. When you hear noife and fee fire, with flashes along the ground, haften to the place with your fwifteft wing, for men are furely destroying one another; you will then find the ground fmoking with blood, and covered with carcaffes, of which many are difmembered and mangled for the convenience of the vulture. But when men have killed their prey, faid the pupil, why do they not eat it? When the wolf has killed a fheep, he fuffers not the

vulture

vulture to touch it till he has fatisfied himself. Is not man another kind of wolf? Man, faid the mother, is the only beast who kills that which he does not devour, and this quality makes him so much a benefactor to our fpecies. If men kill our prey and lay it in our way, faid the young one, what need fhall we have of labouring for ourselves? Becaufe man will, fometimes, replied the mother, remain for a long time quiet in his den. The old vultures will tell you when you are to watch his motions. When you fee men in great numbers moving close together, like a flight of storks, you may conclude that they are hunting, and that you will foon revel in human blood. But ftill, faid the young one, I would gladly know the reafon of this mutual flaughter. I could never kill what I could not eat. My child, faid the mother, this is a queftion which I cannot answer, though I am reckoned the moft fubtile bird of the mountain. When I was young, I ufed frequently to visit the ayry of an old vulture, who dwelt upon the Carpathian rocks; he had made many observations; he knew the places that afforded prey round his habitation, as far in every direction as the strongest wing can fly between the rifing and fetting of the fummer fun; he had fed year after year on the entrails of men. His opinion was, that men had only the appearance of animal life, being really vegetables with a power of motion; and that as the boughs of an oak are dafhed together by the ftorm, that swine may fatten upon the falling acorns, fo men are by fome unaccountable power driven one againft another, till they lofe their motion, that vultures

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »