FOOTNOTES:
[1] In B. ii. c. 63.
[2] Of course this is only mere declamation; it is not probable that the animals have any notion at all of sharpening the weapons that nature has given; in addition to which, this mode of sharpening them against hard substances would only wear away the enamel, and ultimately destroy them. The acts of animals in a moment of rage or frenzy have evidently been mistaken here for the dictates of instinct, or even a superior intelligence.
[3] See B. xxv. c. 25, and B. xxvii. c. 76.
[4] In B. viii. c. 36. 41, 42. The works of the ancients, Fée remarks, are full of these puerilities.
[5] This sentiment is not at all akin to the melancholy view which our author takes of mankind at the beginning of B. vii. and in other parts of this work. It is not improbable that his censures here are levelled against some who had endeavoured to impede him in the progress of his work.
[6] “Arvorum sacerdotes,” the priests of the fields.
[7] Or foster-mother. It has been suggested that the Rogations of the Roman church may have possibly originated in the Ambarvalia, or ceremonial presided over by the Arval priesthood.
[8] Made of salt and the meal or flour of spelt. Salt was the emblem of wisdom, friendship, and other virtues.
[9] This, Fée observes, is not the case with any kind of wheat; with manioc, which has an acrid principle, the process may be necessary, in order to make it fit for food.