teeming, constant and useful. Wherefore I will not scruple to say
with the Scripture, "Let every star haste to go whither the Lord
sends it; and when He speaks let them answer with trembling, Here we
are," Ecce adsumus.


SECT. XIX. Of Animals, Beasts, Fowl, Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, and
Insects.


But let us turn our eyes towards animals, which still are more
worthy of admiration than either the skies or stars. Their species
are numberless. Some have but two feet, others four, others again a
great many. Some walk; others crawl, or creep; others fly; others
swim; others fly, walk, or swim, by turns. The wings of birds, and
the fins of fishes, are like oars, that cut the waves either of air
or water, and steer the floating body either of the bird, or fish,
whose structure is like that of a ship. But the pinions of birds
have feathers with a down, that swells in the air, and which would
grow unwieldy in the water. And, on the contrary, the fins of
fishes have sharp and dry points, which cut the water, without
imbibing it, and which do not grow heavier by being wet. A sort of
fowl that swim, such as swans, keep their wings and most of their
feathers above water, both lest they should wet them and that they
may serve them, as it were, for sails. They have the art to turn
those feathers against the wind, and, in a manner, to tack, as ships
do when the wind does not serve. Water-fowls, such as ducks, have
at their feet large skins that stretch, somewhat like rackets, to
keep them from sinking on the oozy and miry banks of rivers.