Q. Why do not swine cry when they are carried with their snouts upwards? A. Because that above all other beasts they bend more to the earth. They delight in filth, and that they seek, and therefore in the sudden change of their face, they be as it were strangers, and being amazed with so much light do keep that silence; some say the wind-pipe doth close together by reason of the straitness of it.
Q. Why do swine delight in dirt? A. As the physicians do say, they are naturally delighted with it, because they have a great liver, in which desire is, as Aristotle saith; the wideness of the snout is the cause, for he hath smelling which doth dissolve itself, and as it were strive with stench.
Q. Why do many beasts wag their tails when they see their friends, and a lion and a bull beat their sides when they are angry? A. Because they have the marrow of their backs reaching to the tail, which hath the force of motion in it, the imagination acknowledging that which is known to them as it were with the hand, as happens to men, doth force them to move their tails. This doth manifestly show some secret force to be within them, which doth acknowledge what they ought. In the anger of lions and bulls nature doth consent to the mind, and causeth it to be gently moved, as men do sometimes when they are angry, beating their hands on other parts; when the mind cannot be revenged on that which doth hurt, it presently seeks out some other source, and cures the malady with a stroke or blow.
Q. How come steel glasses to be better for the sight than any other kind? A. Because steel is hard, and doth present unto us more substantially the air that receiveth the light.
Q. How doth love show its greater force; by making the fool to become wise, or the wise to become a fool? A. In attributing wisdom to him that hath it not; for it is harder to build than to pull down; and ordinarily love and folly are but an alteration of the mind.
Q. How comes much labour and fatigue to be bad for the sight? A. Because it dries the blood too much.
Q. Why is goat’s milk reckoned best for the stomach? A. Because it is thick, not slimy; and they feed on wood and boughs rather than grass.
Q. Why do grief and vexation bring gray hairs? A. Because they dry, which bringeth on grayness.
Q. How come those to be most merry who have the thickest blood? A. Because the blood which is fat and thick makes the spirits firm and constant, wherein consists the force of all creatures.
Q. Whether is it hardest to obtain a person’s love, or to keep it when obtained? A. It is hardest to keep it, by reason of the inconstancy of man, who is quickly angry, and soon weary of a thing; hard to be gained, and slippery to keep.