osto, and John Hugo, Archbishop of
Treves, deny that it is sufficient to saw down a tree to catch an
elephant. I incline to their opinion. Citizens, the efforts of Lucifer
are the cause of all false impressions. Under the reign of such a prince
it is natural that meteors of error and of perdition should arise. My
friends, Claudius Pulcher did not die because the fowls refused to come
out of the fowl house. The fact is, that Lucifer, having foreseen the
death of Claudius Pulcher, took care to prevent the birds feeding. That
Beelzebub gave the Emperor Vespasian the virtue of curing the lame and
giving sight to the blind, by his touch, was an act praiseworthy in
itself, but of which the motive was culpable. Gentlemen, distrust those
false doctors, who sell the root of the bryony and the white snake, and
who make washes with honey and the blood of a cock. See clearly through
that which is false. It is not quite true that Orion was the result of a
natural function of Jupiter. The truth is that it was Mercury who
produced this star in that way. It is not true that Adam had a navel.
When St. George killed the dragon he had not the daughter of a saint
standing by his side. St. Jerome had not a clock on the chimney-piece of
his study; first, because living in a cave, he had no study; secondly,
because he had no chimney-piece; thirdly, because clocks were not yet
invented. Let us put these things right. Put them right. O gentlefolks,
who listen to me, if any one tells you that a lizard will be born in
your head if you smell the herb valerian; that the rotting carcase of
the ox changes into bees, and that of the horse into hornets; that a man
weighs more when dead than when alive; that the blood of the he-goat
dissolves emeralds; that a caterpillar, a fly, and a spider, seen on the
same tree, announces famine, war, and pestilence; that the falling
sickness is to be cured by a worm found in the head of a buck--do not
believe him. These things are errors. But now listen to truths. The skin
of a sea-calf is a safeguard against thunder. The toad feeds upon earth,
which causes a stone to come into his head. The rose of Jericho blooms
on Christmas Eve. Serpents cannot endure the shadow of the ash tree. The
elephant has no joints, and sleeps resting upright against a tree. Make
a toad sit upon a cock's egg, and he will hatch a scorpion which will
become a salamander. A blind person will recover sight by putting one
hand on the left side of