they are wasting the
time which they might usefully employ in studying the works of nature
and mortal affairs. But let such men remain in company with the
beasts; let dogs and other animals full of rapine be their courtiers,
and let them be accompanied with these running ever at their heels! and
let the harmless animals follow, which in the season of the snows come
to the houses begging alms as from their master.

[Sidenote: Nature]

49.

Nature is full of infinite causes which are beyond the pale of
experience.

50.

Nature in creating first gives size to the abode of the intellect (the
skull, the head), and then to the abode of the vital spirit (the chest).

[Sidenote: Law of Necessity]

51.

Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature. Necessity is the theme
and inventress of nature, her curb and her eternal law.

52.

When anything is the cause of any other thing, and brings about by its
movement any effect, {20} the movement of the effect necessarily
follows the movement of the cause.

[Sidenote: Of Lightning in the Clouds]

53.

O mighty and once living instrument of creative nature, unable to avail
thyself of thy great strength thou must needs abandon a life of
tranquillity and obey the law which God and time gave to Nature the
mother. Ah! how often the frighted shoals of dolphins and great tunny
fish were seen fleeing before thy inhuman wrath; whilst thou,
fulminating with swift beating of wings and twisted tail, raised in the
sea a sudden storm with buffeting and sinking of ships and tossing of
waves, filling the naked shores with terrified and distracted fishes.

[Sidenote: The Human Eye]

54.

Since the eye is the window of the soul, the soul is always fearful of
losing it, so much so that if a man is suddenly frightened by the
motion or an object before him, he does not with his hands protect his
heart, the source of all life; nor his head, where dwells the lord of
the senses; nor the organs of hearing, smell and taste. But as soon as
he feels fright it does not suffice him to close the lids of his eyes,
keeping them shut with all his might, but he instantly turns in the
opposite direction; and still not feeling secure he covers his eyes
with one hand, stretching out the {21} other to ward off the danger in
the direction in which he suspects it to lie. Nature again has
ordained that the eye of man shall close of itself, so that remaining
during his sleep without pr