Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/638

 600 Readings in European History teaches us what is; such accumulations of indistinct no- tions, however vast and varied, do not make up one dis- tinct idea. 1 . . . But the indistinctness of thought which is so fatal a feature in the intellect of the stationary period may be traced more directly in the works even of the best authors of those times. . . . Thus, if men had any distinct idea of mechanical action, they could not have accepted for a moment the fable of the Echeneis, or Remora, a little fish which was said to be able to stop a large ship by merely sticking to it. . . . Pliny relates the tale gravely and moralizes upon it after his manner. 2 " What," he cries, " is more violent than the sea and the winds ? What greater work of art than a ship ? Yet one little fish (the Echeneis) can hold back all these when they all strain the same way. The winds may blow, the waves may rage ; but this small creature controls their fury, and stops a vessel, when chains and anchors would not hold it : and this it does not by hard labor but by merely adhering to it. Alas for human vanity, when the turreted ships which man has built, that he may fight from castle walls at sea as well as on land, are held captive and motionless by a fish a foot and a half long ! Such a fish is said to have stopped the admiral's ship at the battle of Actium, and compelled Anthony to go into another. And in our own memory one of these animals held fast the ship of Caius, the emperor, when he was sail- ing from Astura to Antium. The stopping of this ship when all the rest of the fleet went on caused surprise ; but this did not last long, for some of the men jumped into the water to look for the fish, and found it sticking to the rudder. They showed it to Caius, who was indignant that this animal should interpose its prohibition to his progress, when impelled by four hundred rowers. It was like a slug, and had no power after it was taken into the ship." 1 It must be remembered that Roger Bacon had, in the thirteenth century, protested against this attitude towards science. See History of Western Europe, p. 273 (Vol. I, p. 273), and Readings, Vol. I, pp. 460 sq. 2 Pliny's Natural History, Bk. XXXII, Chapter 5.