Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/317

Rh

No doubt the fear which she hath lest her little one should take harm redoubleth her courage, and maketh her more hardy and angry than before: as for the partridges, when they be laid for by the fowler, together with their covey of young birds, they suffer them to fly away as well as they can, and make shift to save themselves, but the old rowens full subtilly seem to wait the coming of the said hunters, abiding until they approach near unto them, and by keeping about their feet, train them still away after them, ready ever as it were to be caught; now when the fowler shall seem to reach unto them with his hand, they will run a little or take a short flight from him, and then they stay again, putting him in new hope of his prey and booty, which every foot he thinketh to take with his hand: thus they play mock-holiday with the fowlers, and yet with some danger to themselves for the safety of their young, until they have trained them a great way off, who sought for their lives. Our hens which we keep about our houses so ordinarily, and have daily in our eyes, how carefully do they look unto their young chickens whiles they receive some under their wings, which they spread and hold open for the nonce that they may creep in, others they suffer to mount upon their backs, gently giving them leave to climb and get up on every side, and this they do not without great joy and contentment, which they testify by a kind of clocking and special noise that they make at such a time; if when they be alone without their chickens, and have no fear but for themselves, a dog or a serpent come in their way, they fly from them; let their brood be about them when such a danger is presented, it is wonderful how ready they will be to defend the same, yea, and to fight for them, even above their power.

Do we think now that nature hath imprinted such affections and passions in these living creatures, for the great care that she hath to maintain the race and posterity (as it were) of hens, dogs, or bears; or do we not rather make this construction of it, that she shameth, pricketh, and woundeth men thereby when we reason and discourse thus within ourselves, that these things be good examples for as many as follow them, and the reproaches of those that have no sense or feeling of natural affection; by which no doubt they do blame and accuse the nature of man only, as if she alone were not affectionate without some hire