In the past chapter we declared in general the abilities and faculties that all animals, both those of the earth and those of the water and air, have for their conservation. Now
we shall descend to show this in particular in all these species of animals. But this will not be in all (because this would be an infinite work, and one of which many grave authors have treated), but what will suffice so that by sight of the eyes we may know the perfection and vigilance of divine providence. For which it is to be noted that just as a great penman who wishes to establish in a city a school of writing, makes many differences of letters, some of running hand, others of round hand, others of scholastic letter, others of business hand, others broken, others illuminated, to show in this the sufficiency that he has, so that sovereign artificer, although the comparison is very low, declared the marvels of his providence not in one manner, nor in one single genus of animals, but in all of them, and in so many and so different manners, that no writings until now have been able to comprehend them, especially since each day in new lands new animals and new abilities and properties of them are discovered, which in these our lands have never been known.
But here it is to be noticed that this name of conservation, which we use here, comprehends more than it sounds. For beneath this name we understand first the abilities that animals have for seeking their sustenance and, second, those that they have for their defense; third, those that they have for curing their illnesses and conserving their health; fourth, those that they have for the procreation of their little young. Therefore of these four things we shall treat in particular, but in such manner that as in passing we shall also treat of some that are annexed to them. And after these we shall descend to treat in particular of the little animals, as is the ant, the bee, the spider, the mosquito, and the worm that spins silk, because in these that seem so vile, Saint Augustine, Aristotle, and Pliny say that the artifice and care of divine providence shines forth even more than in the great ones. And after these five treatises, we shall add the sixth, of other properties of animals worthy of great consideration and admiration.
And in all these things we shall show the perfection of divine providence, which not one jot nor in one point neglected or forgot anything of all that was necessary for all these genera of creatures for their conservation. And we shall also see how all that these creatures would do if they had understanding and reason, he supplies (as we said), giving them natural inclinations and instincts so that they may do what they would do if they had it. And the business passes still further ahead, because they not only attain what they could if they had reason, but even many things that exceed the faculty of it, because they are necessary for their conservation. And thus they know the herbs and medicines with which they are to cure themselves, and the changes of the times, that is: of rain, and of serenity, and of the tempests of the sea before they come. And thus in this as in other infinite things he wishes to discover to us the perfection and artifice of his providence, so that in all created things we may see it and recognize it and adore it, and understand that in all of them his presence assists. And for this he does such things that to many seem incredible. But so that those which this book shall recount may not be so, I warn the Christian reader that I shall write nothing in this matter that is not taken from grave authors, chiefly from the Hexaemeron of Saint Ambrose, from whom I drew the greater part of what I write. And it is not to be marveled that I stole so great a part from him, since he also stole all that he wrote from the Hexaemeron of Saint Basil, putting into most elegant Latin style what Basil wrote in Greek. Of which Basil Gregory the Theologian, his contemporary, writes that although in all his writings he is admirable, in this one he was so much so that it seems, by way of speaking, that he was at the
side of God when he was creating things, understanding the reason and the counsel and artifice with which he was creating them, because thus he shows it in this work that he made on the creation of the world.