80 DANGEROUS THOUGHTS

preferred the Elephant, ist because his shape is far neerer to that
of Man than any other AnimalTs is, and for that his Actions as
they have been reported by those who pretend to know them
do in many points resemble those of a Man. Nevertheless [since]
it be true that an Elephant can understand the language better
then a Drill, and that die Mens of an Elephant doth come neerer
the Mens of a man, although the shape of a Drill comes neerer
the shape of a man, I shall choose (as I Kave done) to give
preference unto the Elephant. Speech is more peculiar unto, and
copious in a Man than in any other Animall, and consequently
wee might in that respect give the 2d. place to Parrots, or that
species of them in which the formation of Articular sounds and
die imitation of Man's Speech is most conspicuous. Nor is an
Ape so considerable to mee for imitating the externall and visible
motions of the parts and Organs of a Man, as speaking Birds are
for imitating, by a sort of reason and internall sence, the motion
of the hidden and unseen instruments of speech, which are the
Muscelle of the Lungs and Larynx. But it is plain that although
Parrotts do pronounce words, that they do it but as sounds, and
not like men, as the signs of things, Actions and Notions; and
consequendy this faculty of speaking birds extending onely to
sounds and not to the Conceptions of the Mind. . . . Haveing
admitted the Parrott to a right or Competition, I will not exclude
the Bee, referring you to what Virgil and many observant Men
have seriously and experimentally, not vainly or fabulously,
spoaken of them; and among all the admirable operations of the
Bee, I preferr his pollicy, assigning that faculty for the thing
wherein hee comes neerest to Man. And pollicy or the Art of
Government seems to bee the most considerable faculty of a Man.

Having reflected on the differentiae of the human species, he
. forestalls the exploits of Malthus in the significant assertion:

A man doth differ from all other animals in use of the female,
and generation. By using the same without designe or desire of
generation, and when generation is needless or impossible. In
making such rules and lawes concerning the same, as no other
animall doth; and all this while making all the acts and instruments
thereof ridiculous, shamefulle and filthy, so as not to bee seen or