So many are the things in which that immense Majesty wished to give himself to be known to men, and his providence and wisdom shine forth in so many things, that not only in the greater animals, but also in the very vile and small, it is seen very clearly, which Saint Jerome says in the Epitaph of Nepotian by these words: “Not only do we marvel at the Creator in the fabric of heaven and of earth, of the sun, of the Ocean sea, of elephants, camels, horses, panthers, bears, and lions, but also in that of other small animals, as is the ant, the mosquito, the fly, and the little worms, and in all these genera of little animals, whose bodies we know more than their names, and no less in these things than in the other great ones do we venerate the wisdom and providence of him who made them.” But to Saint Augustine the artifice of the Creator appears more admirable in these small things than in the great. And thus he says: “I am more astonished at the swiftness of the fly that flies, than at the greatness of the beast that walks, and I marvel more at the works of ants than at those of camels.” And Aristotle says, in the first book On the Parts of Animals, that there is no little animal so vile and so despised, in which we do not find something and of great admiration. Of this Pliny puts a singular example, marveling more at the fabric of the mosquito than at that of the elephant. Because in large bodies, he says, there is enough matter so that the artificer can make what he wishes, but in these so small and so nothing, how great a concert, how great a force, and how much perfection he placed in them, where he seated so many senses in the mosquito, where he placed the eyes, where he applied taste, where he inserted the sense of smelling, where he seated that so fearful buzzing, and so great, according to the proportion of its body! With how much subtlety he joined the wings to it, and extended the feet, and formed the empty belly, where it receives the blood that it drinks, where he enkindled that so great thirst for blood, chiefly for the human! With what artifice he sharpened that little sting with which it wounds, and with how much subtlety, being so thin, he made it hollow, so that by it itself it may drink the blood that with it it draws! But men marvel at the bodies of elephants, which carry towers and castles upon themselves, and at other great and fierce animals, it being true that nature in no part is more entire and more all gathered together than in the small.” Thus far are the words of Pliny, who with much reason is astonished at so many senses as a mosquito has.
But especially it causes more admiration to find eyes in it. For the anatomists are astonished at the artifice with which the Creator formed this so excellent sense, with which we know so many things. Therefore who does not marvel that that so artful and so delicate sense the Creator has formed in a head as small as that of the
mosquito and of the ant? It also has very lively the sense of smelling, which we experience each day at our cost. For a man being asleep in a large hall, part of his face covered with some linen for fear of it, it comes from the end of the hall very leisurely with its accustomed music and dulzaina, and hits upon settling upon the part of the face that is uncovered, which is not by sight, because the room is dark, but by smell alone, which is so acute.
Therefore I shall say yet another ability of this little animal, which I experienced. One settled beside the nail of the thumb of my hand, and put itself in order, as it usually does, to wound the flesh. But as that part of the finger is a little harder, it could not penetrate it with that its little sting. I on purpose was looking at what this had to come to. Therefore what did it then do? It took the little sting between the two little front hands, and with great haste began to sharpen it and thin it with the one and with the other, as one does who sharpens a knife with another. And this done, it returned to try whether, this diligence done, it could do what before it could not. They say of the unicorn that, having to fight with the elephant, it sharpens the horn on a stone, and this same this little animal does in order to wound us, sharpening that its little sting with the little hands. All this, then, declares to us how admirable the Creator is, not only in great things, but much more even in small ones.
To this purpose serves what Hugh of Saint Victor says by these words: “By many ways things can be admirable, at times because great, at others because very small. Because great, we marvel at the things that exceed the quantity of the creatures of their genus. And thus we marvel at giants among men, and at whales among fish, and at the griffin among birds, and at the elephant among animals, and at the dragon among serpents. But because small, we marvel at those that among all the other animals are of very small bodies, as is the moth that gnaws clothing, the mosquito, and the little worms, and other animals of this quantity. Look then at what you ought to marvel more, at the teeth of the boar or of the moth, at the wings of the griffin or at those of the mosquito, at the head of the horse or of the locust, at the legs of the elephant or at those of the mosquito, at the lion or at the flea, at the tiger or at the freshwater turtle. In those things you marvel at the greatness, here at the smallness. To these small ones the Creator gave eyes, which our eyes can scarcely see, and he gave them all the other members and instruments that were necessary for their conservation, with such perfection, that nothing do we see in the large animals that we do not find in the small.” What has been said is from Hugh. Supposed this foundation, we shall begin with one of the smallest animals, which is the ant, in which, being so small, we shall see things truly great.
I
Of The Ant
After that general loss and nakedness that came to us by that common sin, the principal remedy that remained to us was hope in divine mercy, as the Prophet signified it when he said: “In peace I shall sleep and rest secure, because you, Lord, singularly placed my remedy in your hope.” To strengthen this virtue we have many and very great motives (of which it is not now time to treat), but among these I do not think that I shall lie if I say that this virtue is strengthened not a little with the consideration of the admirable abilities that the Creator gave to a little animal so despised, so vile, and so useless as a little ant, which, the smaller it is, so much the more declares the power of him who placed such abilities in so small a body. Because first, it being true that the other animals commonly have no more account than with the present, because they attain little of the future and of the past, as Tully says, but this little animal, at least by its work, feels so much of what is to come, that it provides itself in summer (as we see) for the time of
winter. Which would to God the providence of men imitated, making in this life provision of good works, in order to have of what to enjoy in the other, conformably to that counsel of Solomon, who admonishes us that we should do good works with all haste and urgency, because in the other life there is not the preparation that there is in this one to do them. And because men do not do this that ants do, they afterward come to experience that prophecy of the same Solomon, which says: “He who gathers in the time of summer is a wise son, but he who lies down to sleep in this time is a son of confusion, because such a one will find himself confounded and repentant at the time of giving the account.” Thus those five foolish virgins of the Gospel found themselves confounded, because they did not provide their lamps with oil in time.
But returning to the purpose, this is the first ability of ants. The second is that, without more tool nor mason than their little mouth, they make a granary or silo beneath the earth, where they may dwell and where they may guard their sustenance. And even this granary they do not make straight, but with great turnings and returnings to one part and another, as is said of that labyrinth of Daedalus, so that, if some little enemy animal should enter by the door, it may not easily be able to find them nor despoil them of their treasures. And with the same little mouth with which they made the house, they draw the earth outside, and place it, as for an embankment, at the door of it.
When they go to the heaps to steal the wheat, the greater ones as captains climb to the height and lop the ears, and cast them where the lesser ones are, which, without more shovel nor threshing-sledge than their little mouths, clean and strip them both of the awns and of the husks where the grain is, and, thus clean and stripped, carry it to their granary, grasping it with the same mouth, and going backward, bracing themselves with the shoulders and with the feet to help carry the load. For which, as Pliny says, they have greater force, according to the quantity of their body, than all animals. For scarcely will a man be found who can walk one day carrying another man on his shoulders, and they carry a grain of wheat, which weighs more than four of them, and persevere in carrying this load, not only all the day, but also all the night. For they are such great workers that they join the day with the night, when the moon is full.
But what remedy so that the wheat, being beneath the earth, does not sprout, especially when it rains? What cut would a man of reason give in this, presupposed that the grain had to persevere in the same place? For my part I confess that I would not know how to give it; but the little ant knows it, taught by another better master. For it gnaws that point of the grain by which it has to sprout, and in this manner makes it sterile and unfruitful. That done, what remedy so that the moisture, which is mother of corruption, does not rot it, being beneath the wet earth? They also know their remedy for this, because they take care to draw their deposit out to the sun on serene days and, after it is dried, return it to their granary. And with this diligence many times repeated they conserve it the whole year. Another admirable diligence is written of them, because they are not maintained only on grain, but on many other things and, when these are large, they make them pieces, so that thus they can carry them.
Another thing is written of them admirable and it is that, when they go carrying their victuals from diverse places without knowing of one another, they have certain days that they recognize, in which they come to gather together as at a fair in order to recognize one another and to hold themselves all for members of one same republic and family, without admitting others. And thus they come with great
concourse from diverse parts to this gathering, to recognize themselves and take pleasure with their sisters and companions.
They are in great manner friends of sweet things, and have the sense of smelling so acute that wherever it may be, although it be a lance high, they smell it and seek it. For which they have another strange ability, that however whitewashed and however smooth a wall may be, they climb and go along it as along level ground.
And I will not fail to recount here another thing that I experienced, which put me in admiration. I had in the cell a little green pot with a little rose sugar, which, for fear of them, by whom I was there much troubled, I covered with a stiff paper and folded for more firmness, and tied it very well around, so that they should not find any entrance, which they know very well how to seek, however small it may be. After certain days they came to the odor of the sweet. For their smelling is so penetrating that, although the sweet thing be well covered, they smell it. They having come, then, to the odor of the sweet, and as, all the ways having been sought, they found no entrance, what did they do? They determined to give an assault, and break the wall, in order to enter within. And for this, some on one side of the little pot, and others on the contrary band, with their little mouths they made two little gates in the folded paper, which I had for a secure wall, and when I came to the preserve (it seeming to me that I had it in good custody) I found the little gates opened in it, and untying it, I see within so great a swarm of them, that afterward the preserve served for no more than for them. So that we can say that they reached me in calculation, and knew more than I, since they conquered with their craftiness my providence.
Ants also have their lodging very clean, as bees do, as ahead we shall say. For which I shall say another thing no less admirable than the past one, and it is that they alone, among all the animals of the world, bury their dead. And for this, as Aelian writes, they fabricate in that their underground place three distinct places: one in which they dwell, and another that serves them as pantry, in which they guard the provision of their sustenance, and another that serves them as cemetery where they bury the dead. Who would believe this, if it had not been seen? So that, as Pliny refers, among as many animals as God created, only man and the ant bury the dead. Therefore I shall add to this another thing very consequent and proportioned with it, which Aelian refers, which whoever wishes may cease to believe, but I believe it, both because it is consequent to the past one and because God is the one who governs them and the one who wished to declare more in these little bodies the marvels of his providence. This author recounts, then, that, once an eminent philosopher by name Cleanthes being seated in the field, he saw some little ants going about near him, and as a philosopher and friend of understanding the secrets of nature, he set himself to consider what they were doing. And he saw that some ants were bringing a dead ant, and drawing near to the mouth
of an anthill that appeared there, they were a little while waiting with their dead one until one came out and saw them, and returned inside and, going and coming some times, finally others came, one of which carried in the mouth a little piece of worm, and they gave it to those that were bringing the dead ant, and they then, the fare of their journey having been received, returned, and the others, recognizing that the dead ant was their sister and of their company, received her and carried her with them to give her her accustomed burial in their house, guarding the faith owed to brothers in life and death. This case put so much admiration in this philosopher that he began to doubt whether the animals that did such things had reason and understanding. But in truth they have understanding, not their own, but of that sovereign providence that fails in nothing, and errs in none, and in all is admirable as it is in itself.
There is not in this little animal a thing that is not preaching to us the wisdom of him who in so small a body placed so many abilities. But I do not know if among these marvels the fabric of its eyes is greater. For all anatomists confess that in the whole fabric of the human body there is nothing more choice, nor more subtle, nor more admirable than the composition of the eyes, which is a most noble and much appreciated sense. Therefore if the fabric of the eyes in the body of a man is so great a marvel, what is that power and knowledge that could fabricate two eyes with so much artifice in so tiny a head as is that of an ant? This is a thing that surpasses all admiration. With this example the great Antony consoled blind Didymus, after having heard him treat the things of God with great wit. For asked by him whether he felt pain with the lack of sight, and he confessing that he did, the Saint said to him: “Why do you receive pain in lacking eyes that ants have, having on the other hand those eyes that angels have?”
Let us now join the end with the beginning of this chapter, since a Christian has here so great a motive to ask God for the remedy of all his necessities. With how much confidence he can say: Lord, who gave so many and so admirable abilities to an ant for the conservation of its life (in which so little is involved), how will you forget man, whom you created in your image and likeness, and made capable of your glory, and redeemed with the blood of your Son, if he does not unmerit this favor by being stuck in the mire of his sins? If you have so much care for the lesser things, how much greater will you have for the greater? What is involved in the ant living or ceasing to live? And how much more is involved in the creature living, to whom you gave life with your blood? Let man remove sins from between, because these are, as Isaiah says, “those that put a wall of division between God and him,” and let him know certainly that God will have so much greater care for him than for the ant, as he is a more noble creature than it, because God is not (as they say) a gatherer of ash and scatterer of flour, especially if he considers that as much as this Lord does for the ant, it is not for it, but to give to man to know his wisdom and providence, and to strengthen with this example his confidence, just as with that of the little birds, which neither sow nor reap, he encourages us in the Gospel to place this same confidence in him.
But although in all these things divine providence is admirable, much more is it in that there is nothing so small, so vile, and so despised, in which the care of this providence does not shine forth. What thing more vile than a little louse? Therefore to this one were given its
front and rear feet, and its mouth, with which it sucks the blood of our bodies, and maintains itself from it, and seeks the seams of the garment in order to be in them more hidden and sheltered. And what astonishes more is that this one also lays its eggs like any bird, which are the nits, which with the heat of our bodies come to be animated like the eggs of the other birds with the natural heat of the mothers, and at times with artificial heat. Who does not admire seeing that that sovereign Majesty, having charge to govern this so great machine of the world, does not forget to provide with all that is necessary a thing so vile and despised?
II
Of other little animals smaller than ants
And since here we intend to treat of small little animals, there are others smaller than ants, concerning which there is a great mystery to contemplate, because on the leaves of some herbs we see some little worms going about, some green, some white, of which there are some so small that with difficulty they are seen, which we discern more by the movement with which they move than by the quantity of their bodies, and also because there are others somewhat greater of the same species, and by the members that these greater ones have, we recognize those that the lesser ones have, because first they have six feet, each three on a side. And they have a mouth by which they are maintained, because every animal that lives, while it lives, eats and maintains itself and grows, because in another manner it would not grow. And for the most part it must also have eyes to see and seek its sustenance, which the mole has no need of, because it is maintained from earth, and this it always has at the mouth. If it has more organs or parts than these, I do not know, but these alone suffice to leave a man astonished, considering the omnipotence of that Lord, who in so small a body could place these and other senses or members that we do not know. For if all this little animal is scarcely discerned, how admirable a thing it was to form in so small a quantity so much variety of members and senses, especially eyes! Certainly, to many it will seem that this discovers no less the omnipotence and wisdom of the Creator than the fabric of the heavens. For just as these, the greater they are, the more they discover the omnipotence of him who formed them, so these, the smaller they are, testify to the wisdom of him who fabricated them. There the greatness astonishes us, here the smallness; there the beauty, here the subtlety; there the splendor of the light, here the delicacy of the fabric. And thus that Lord, who in all his works is admirable, also is so here, although by contrary ways.
Now let us come to the mystery. I ask, then: for what end did that sovereign artificer create a thing so subtle and so artful as this? For it is impossible to have made this in vain. Aristotle confessed that all these lower things were deputed for the service of man, and thus we see that each one in its manner serves him, either to maintain him, or to dress him, or to shoe him, or to cure him, or to recreate him, or to teach him with its example, or also to punish him when he should deserve it. We see, then, that these little animals serve for none of this, because just as the subtlety of their artifice declares that God made it, so their smallness testifies that he made them for none of these things. Therefore for what end did the Creator set himself to fabricate a thing of so great delicacy? It cannot be denied except that he made it for
what it represents to us, which is to declare the infinite power and knowledge of him who could make in so small a little body so admirable a fabric.
But here there is another thing of much consideration, and it is that both the heavens and all the other lower things (besides preaching the glory of the Maker, and giving us news of his greatness) also serve for the use and profit of human life. But these little animals, as we said, serve for none of that, except for what has been said, which is to give us those same news, wherefore one can say that between these two orders of creatures so unequal there is the difference that there is between the letters that a proper messenger brings us and those that a muleteer brings us, who principally comes to bring bread to the plaza, or some other thing, and on the way brings us a letter, because of those first ones much more account is made than of these. Therefore thus we say that the creatures that serve the profit of man also bring us letters, and give us news of the wisdom and providence of the Creator, but together with this they come to bring bread to the plaza, which is to provide sustenance and victuals for man. But these are like a proper messenger, which serve for no other thing except to give us news of the immense power and wisdom of him who could make such works. And in this same account and for this same end we place other infinite little worms, in whose little bodies this same aforesaid artifice and subtlety shines forth, which by their smallness serve for no use of our life except for this alone. And no less do the ants serve for this same end, with those so admirable abilities that we referred, since these also serve man for no use and profit. And the greater their abilities are, and the more useless they are, so much the more do they testify to having been created for this end alone. Therefore what shall I say of a mite, which is scarcely seen in the ray of the sun? Who was powerful to place in a body so invisible power to move and open a way between hide and flesh, and a mouth to gnaw and maintain itself from it? O great God, admirable in all his works, and much more in the small and despised ones than in the great!
Now let us see where this so long discourse comes to stop. What is inferred from all that has been said? One thing certainly of inestimable profit, which is that, if that sovereign artificer created all this infinity of little animals for this end alone, which is to show us here the immensity of his omnipotence, of his wisdom, and of his providence, since it serves for no other, it follows that the Creator wished to be known by men as such as he here appears. And if as such he wished to be known, as such he also wished to be esteemed and adored and reverenced, which is the sum of all religion. Let this consideration serve to stop the mouth of some witless philosophers who denied divine providence, and consequently religion and worship of God. For for what do I have to kill myself and labor in service of a God who is to have no more account of me than a god of stone or wood? And when against these we allege these same virtues and perfections of God, which shine forth in the other creatures that serve for the necessities and provision of man, they answer us that those already have their end, which is to provide man with what is necessary, and that for this alone they were created. And this provision ordered so that he and the animals might live, he wished to have no more account with man nor with his things. Therefore what will such men respond to the fabric and to the marvels that we see in infinite little creatures of this genus, which, the smaller they are, so much the more are they admirable and so much the more preach the glory of the Maker? Let us say, then, for what end these were created, since they do not
serve for the necessities of man. Here the mad philosophers who denied providence will be struck dumb, or they will confess that God formed things so admirable above as many as are created in vain and without purpose and without end. Which is very great madness and blasphemy.
Therefore in this it appears that we owe God no less for having formed creatures so small, than for the great ones, because the great ones serve to provide for our bodies, but the small ones to teach our souls. And although both the one and the others preach the glory and providence of the Creator, the small ones testify this more, since for no other end were they created. For to the argument of the others the philosophers found what to answer, although badly, but to that of these they have nothing to be able to say, except blaspheming and saying that God created things so admirable in vain.
III
Of The Spiders
In this same account and for this same end that we said, the spiders serve, since they do not serve for the use of human life, nor are the abilities that the Creator gave them for maintaining themselves small. Their sustenance is the blood of flies and, to seize them, they make a web more subtle than as many as are woven in the kingdom of Cambrai, without any other matter than that which they draw from their own belly, which, though being so small, suffices to give thread to so great a web as they at times make. Therefore with this web the spider surrounds the hole where it is hidden like a spy or like a highway robber that awaits the occasion to assault and rob. And when the fly, innocent of such arts, settles on that web, and entangles the little feet in it, the thief comes with great haste, and binds it on all sides in order to have it more secure. And this done, it leaps upon it, and sucks its blood, on which it maintains itself.
Others there are that make their webs in the air, casting the threads upon which they have to found it on the branches of some tree, and upon these they make a most perfect net with its meshes, like that of a fisherman or hunter, and placed in the midst, they await the occasion of the hunt, and run along those threads so thin as if they ran along some cable, and thus seize the prey. Where there is much to consider the place and station in which they place themselves, which is at the point or center of that circumference, where all the lines that it has cast around come to end and join. From which it comes to be that the fly can touch none of them, without it at that point feeling it and, running along the same line, seizing it. How many things there are here to consider and in which to see the artifice of divine providence! What a net so perfect! What threads so delicate! What a circle so proportioned! What a station so well chosen for the hunt! But all this is said to me, it speaks with me, because for the rest, the Creator would have made little account of the spiders.
Others there are that make their nest beneath the earth, which they hang round about with many webs, one over another, so that the earth that could crumble down may not blind their house and bury them alive. But another thing there is in them more to note, and it is that they make a cover with which they cover the mouth of this nest, which will be of the shape of a half pellet, and they make it of a little bit of earth, dressing it with so many webs or shirts around, that it comes to fit with the mouth of it so perfectly, that it is scarcely differentiated from the other neighboring earth.
And what is of more admiration and artifice: these shirts are fastened and continued on one part with the other webs with which all the nest is dressed, so that this fastener serves as a hinge, so that the web of this hatch may be continued on one part with those within.
Therefore who could teach this little animal to furnish and tapestry its house, and put its doors on it with so great delicacy, except he who could create it? Someone will say: very minute are these things that you treat, having taken charge to treat of the Creation of the world. To that Aristotle responds in his book on animals, saying that in the smallest of them there shines forth more a likeness of understanding than in the others. So that, the lesser and more vile they are, so much the more do they declare the omnipotence and wisdom of that Lord who in so small little bodies placed such strange abilities, and so much the more do they declare the riches of his providence, since it does not fail such vile and small creatures in all that is necessary for their conservation, from which we shall understand how much greater care he will have to provide for the greater things, who has so great a care for the lesser, and so much lesser.
And it is no less to be noted the manner in which some little spiders the size of flies hunt the very flies, without having wings like them. For when they are stopped, they attack them by treachery, drawing near to them little by little from behind, but with such warning, that when the fly moves, it steals its sight with great swiftness, and as many times as it moves, so many times does it do the same, but in such manner that it does in one way two errands, because it steals its sight, and always drawing near to it, until finally it comes to be so near, that with one leap it strikes it, and seizes and eats it. This is a thing that many are looking at, not without taste and admiration at the industry and art of the hunter, and even Saint Augustine recounts this of himself in his Confessions.