The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Complete
then its surface will be left burnt up to cinder and this will be
the end of all terrestrial nature.
[Footnote: Compare No. 1339, written on the same sheet.]
1219.
Why did nature not ordain that one animal should not live by the
death of another? Nature, being inconstant and taking pleasure in
creating and making constantly new lives and forms, because she
knows that her terrestrial materials become thereby augmented, is
more ready and more swift in her creating, than time in his
destruction; and so she has ordained that many animals shall be food
for others. Nay, this not satisfying her desire, to the same end she
frequently sends forth certain poisonous and pestilential vapours
upon the vast increase and congregation of animals; and most of all
upon men, who increase vastly because other animals do not feed upon
them; and, the causes being removed, the effects would not follow.
This earth therefore seeks to lose its life, desiring only continual
reproduction; and as, by the argument you bring forward and
demonstrate, like effects always follow like causes, animals are the
image of the world.
_XX._
_Humorous Writings._
_Just as Michaelangelo's occasional poems reflect his private life
as well as the general disposition of his mind, we may find in the
writings collected in this section, the transcript of Leonardo's
fanciful nature, and we should probably not be far wrong in
assuming, that he himself had recited these fables in the company of
his friends or at the court festivals of princes and patrons._ Era
tanto piacevole nella conversazione-- _so relates Vasari_--che
tirava a se gli animi delle genti. _And Paulus Jovius says in his
short biography of the artist:_ Fuit ingenio valde comi, nitido,
liberali, vultu autem longe venustissimo, et cum elegantiae omnis
deliciarumque maxime theatralium mirificus inventor ac arbiter
esset, ad lyramque scito caneret, cunctis per omnem aetatem
principibus mire placuit. _There can be no doubt that the fables are
the original offspring of Leonardo's brain, and not borrowed from
any foreign source; indeed the schemes and plans for the composition
of fables collected in division V seem to afford an external proof
of this, if the fables themselves did not render it self-evident.
Several of them-- for instance No._ l279--_are so strikingly
characteristic of Leonardo's views of natural science that we cannot
do them justice till we are acquainted with his theories on such
subjects; and this is equally true of the 'Prophecies'_.
_I have prefixed to these quaint writings the 'Studies on the life
and habits of animals' which are singular from their peculiar
aphoristic style, and I have transcribed them in exactly the order
in which they are written in MS. H. This is one of the very rare
instances in which one subject is treated in a consecutive series of
notes, all in one MS., and Leonardo has also departed from his
ordinary habits, by occasionally not completing the text on the page
it is begun. These brief notes of a somewhat mysterious bearing have
been placed here, simply because they may possibly have been
intended to serve as hints for fables or allegories. They can
scarcely be regarded as preparatory for a natural history, rather
they would seem to be extracts. On the one hand the names of some of
the animals seem to prove that Leonardo could not here be recording
observations of his own; on the other hand the notes on their habits
and life appear to me to dwell precisely on what must have
interested him most--so far as it is possible to form any complete
estimate of his nature and tastes._
_In No._ 1293 _lines_ 1-10, _we have a sketch of a scheme for
grouping the Prophecies. I have not however availed myself of it as
a clue to their arrangement here because, in the first place, the
texts are not so numerous as to render the suggested classification
useful to the reader, and, also, because in reading the long series,
as they occur in the original, we may follow the author's mind; and
here and there it is not difficult to see how one theme suggested
another. I have however regarded Leonardo's scheme for the
classification of the Prophecies as available for that of the Fables
and Jests, and have adhered to it as far as possible._
_Among the humourous writings I might perhaps have included the_
'Rebusses', _of which there are several in the collection of
Leonardo's drawings at Windsor; it seems to me not likely that many
or all of them could be solved at the present day and the MSS. throw
no light on them. Nor should I be justified if I intended to include
in the literary works the well-known caricatures of human faces
attributed to Leonardo-- of which, however, it may be incidentally
observed, the greater number are in my opinion undoubtedly spurious.
Two only have necessarily been given owing to their presence in
text, which it was desired to reproduce: Vol. I page_ 326, _and Pl.
CXXII. It can scarcely be doubted that some satirical intention is
conveyed by the drawing on Pl. LXIV (text No. _688_).
My reason for not presenting Leonardo to the reader as a poet is the
fact that the maxims and morals in verse which have been ascribed to
him, are not to be found in the manuscripts, and Prof. Uzielli has
already proved that they cannot be by him. Hence it would seem that
only a few short verses can be attributed to him with any
certainty._
I.
STUDIES ON THE LIFE AND HABITS OF ANIMALS.
1220.
THE LOVE OF VIRTUE.
The gold-finch is a bird of which it is related that, when it is
carried into the presence of a sick person, if the sick man is going
to die, the bird turns away its head and never looks at him; but if
the sick man is to be saved the bird never loses sight of him but is
the cause of curing him of all his sickness.
Like unto this is the love of virtue. It never looks at any vile or
base thing, but rather clings always to pure and virtuous things and
takes up its abode in a noble heart; as the birds do in green woods
on flowery branches. And this Love shows itself more in adversity
than in prosperity; as light does, which shines most where the place
is darkest.
1221.
ENVY.
We read of the kite that, when it sees its young ones growing too
big in the nest, out of envy it pecks their sides, and keeps them
without food.
CHEERFULNESS.
Cheerfulness is proper to the cock, which rejoices over every little
thing, and crows with varied and lively movements.
SADNESS.
Sadness resembles the raven, which, when it sees its young ones born
white, departs in great grief, and abandons them with doleful
lamentations, and does not feed them until it sees in them some few
black feathers.
1222.
PEACE.
We read of the beaver that when it is pursued, knowing that it is
for the virtue [contained] in its medicinal testicles and not being
able to escape, it stops; and to be at peace with its pursuers, it
bites off its testicles with its sharp teeth, and leaves them to its
enemies.
RAGE.
It is said of the bear that when it goes to the haunts of bees to
take their honey, the bees having begun to sting him he leaves the
honey and rushes to revenge himself. And as he seeks to be revenged
on all those that sting him, he is revenged on none; in such wise
that his rage is turned to madness, and he flings himself on the
ground, vainly exasperating, by his hands and feet, the foes against
which he is defending himself.
1223.
GRATITUDE.
The virtue of gratitude is said to be more [developed] in the birds
called hoopoes which, knowing the benefits of life and food, they
have received from their father and their mother, when they see them
grow old, make a nest for them and brood over them and feed them,
and with their beaks pull out their old and shabby feathers; and
then, with a certain herb restore their sight so that they return to
a prosperous state.
AVARICE.
The toad feeds on earth and always remains lean; because it never
eats enough:-- it is so afraid lest it should want for earth.
1224.
INGRATITUDE.
Pigeons are a symbol of ingratitude; for when they are old enough no
longer to need to be fed, they begin to fight with their father, and
this struggle does not end until the young one drives the father out
and takes the hen and makes her his own.
CRUELTY.
The basilisk is so utterly cruel that when it cannot kill animals by
its baleful gaze, it turns upon herbs and plants, and fixing its
gaze on them withers them up.
1225.
GENEROSITY.
It is said of the eagle that it is never so hungry but that it will
leave a part of its prey for the birds that are round it, which,
being unable to provide their own food, are necessarily dependent on
the eagle, since it is thus that they obtain food.
DISCIPLINE.
When the wolf goes cunningly round some stable of cattle, and by
accident puts his foot in a trap, so that he makes a noise, he bites
his foot off to punish himself for his folly.
1226.
FLATTERERS OR SYRENS.
The syren sings so sweetly that she lulls the mariners to sleep;
then she climbs upon the ships and kills the sleeping mariners.
PRUDENCE.
The ant, by her natural foresight provides in the summer for the
winter, killing the seeds she harvests that they may not germinate,
and on them, in due time she feeds.
FOLLY.
The wild bull having a horror of a red colour, the hunters dress up
the trunk of a tree with red and the bull runs at this with great
frenzy, thus fixing his horns, and forthwith the hunters kill him
there.
1227.
JUSTICE.
We may liken the virtue of Justice to the king of the bees which
orders and arranges every thing with judgment. For some bees are
ordered to go to the flowers, others are ordered to labour, others
to fight with the wasps, others to clear away all dirt, others to
accompagny* and escort the king; and when he is old and has no wings
they carry him. And if one of them fails in his duty, he is punished
without reprieve.
TRUTH.
Although partridges steal each other's eggs, nevertheless the young
born of these eggs always return to their true mother.
1228.
FIDELITY, OR LOYALTY.
The cranes are so faithful and loyal to their king, that at night,
when he is sleeping, some of them go round the field to keep watch
at a distance; others remain near, each holding a stone in his foot,
so that if sleep should overcome them, this stone would fall and
make so much noise that they would wake up again. And there are
others which sleep together round the king; and this they do every
night, changing in turn so that their king may never find them
wanting.
FALSEHOOD.
The fox when it sees a flock of herons or magpies or birds of that
kind, suddenly flings himself on the ground with his mouth open to
look as he were dead; and these birds want to peck at his tongue,
and he bites off their heads.
1229.
LIES.
The mole has very small eyes and it always lives under ground; and
it lives as long as it is in the dark but when it comes into the
light it dies immediately, because it becomes known;--and so it is
with lies.
VALOUR.
The lion is never afraid, but rather fights with a bold spirit and
savage onslaught against a multitude of hunters, always seeking to
injure the first that injures him.
FEAR OR COWARDICE.
The hare is always frightened; and the leaves that fall from the
trees in autumn always keep him in terror and generally put him to
flight.
1230.
MAGNANIMITY.
The falcon never preys but on large birds; and it will let itself
die rather than feed on little ones, or eat stinking meat.
VAIN GLORY.
As regards this vice, we read that the peacock is more guilty of it
than any other animal. For it is always contemplating the beauty of
its tail, which it spreads in the form of a wheel, and by its cries