Hoist with his own petar: and ’t shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon: O, ’tis most sweet
When in one line two crafts directly meet.”
Horapollo, ed. 1551.
Section VI.
EMBLEMS FROM FACTS IN NATURE, AND FROM THE PROPERTIES OF ANIMALS.
EMBLEM writers make the Natural, one of the divisions of their subject, and understand by it, in Whitney’s words, the expressing of the natures of creatures, for example, “the loue of the yonge Storkes to the oulde, or of such like.” We shall extend a little the application of the term, taking in some facts of nature, as well as the natural properties and qualities of animals, but reserving in a great degree the Poetry, with which certain natural things are invested, for the next general heading, “Emblems for Poetic Ideas.”