e stock fit and natural
to itself. Thus we break up the ground and soften it, that being thus
broken it may more easily be wrought upon, and applied to what we plant
in it; for things that are hard and rigid cannot be so quickly wrought
upon nor so easily changed. Now those trees, being of very light wood,
do not mix well with the grafts, because they are very hard either to
be changed or overcome. But more, it is manifest that the stock which
receives the graft should be instead of a soil to it, and a soil should
have a breeding faculty; and therefore we choose the most fruitful
stocks to graft on, as women that are full of milk, when we would put
out a child to nurse. But everybody knows that the fir, cypress, and the
like are no great bearers. For as men very fat have few children (for,
the whole nourishment being employed in the body, there remains no
overplus to make seed), so these trees, spending all their sap in their
own stock, flourish indeed and grow great; but as for fruit, some bear
none at all, some very little, and that too slowly ripens; therefore it
is no wonder that they will not nourish another's fruit, when they are
so very sparing to their own.

QUESTION VII. ABOUT THE FISH CALLED REMORA OR ECHENEIS.

CHAEREMONIANUS, PLUTARCH, AND OTHERS.

Chaeremonianus the Trallian, when we were at a very noble fish dinner,
pointing to a little, long, sharp-headed fish, said the echeneis
(ship-stopper) was like that, for he had often seen it as he sailed in
the Sicilian sea, and wondered at its strange force; for it stopped the
ship when under full sail, till one of the seamen perceived it
sticking to the outside of the ship, and took it off. Some laughed at
Chaeremonianus for believing such an incredible and unlikely story.
Others on this occasion talked very much of antipathies, and produced a
thousand instances of such strange effects; for example, the sight of
a ram quiets an enraged elephant; a viper lies stock-still, if touched
with a beechen leaf; a wild bull grows tame, if bound with the twigs
of a fig-tree; and amber draws all light things to it, except basil and
such as are dipped in oil; and a loadstone will not draw a piece of iron
that is rubbed with onion. Now all these, as to matter of fact, are
very evident; but it is hard, if not altogether impossible, to find the
cause.

Then said I: This is a mere shift and avoiding of the question, rather
than a declaration of the cause; but if we pleas