------------------------------------------------------------------------ SECTION VI. _EMBLEMS FROM FACTS IN NATURE, AND FROM THE PROPERTIES OF ANIMALS._ EMBLEM writers make the _Natural_, one of the divisions of their subject, and understand by it, in Whitney’s words, the expressing of the natures of creatures, for example, “the loue of the yonge Storkes to the oulde, or of such like.” We shall extend a little the application of the term, taking in some facts of nature, as well as the natural properties and qualities of animals, but reserving in a great degree the Poetry, with which certain natural things are invested, for the next general heading, “Emblems for Poetic Ideas.” There is no need to reproduce the Device of Prometheus bound, but simply to refer to it, and to note the allusions which Shakespeare makes to the mountain where the dire penalty was inflicted, “the frosty Caucasus.” From the _Titus Andronicus_ we have already (p. 268) spoken of Tamora’s infatuated love,— “faster bound to Aaron’s charming eyes Than is Prometheus ty’d on Caucasus.” John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, endeavours, in _Richard II._ (act i. sc. 3, lines 275, 294, vol. iv. pp. 130, 131), to reconcile his son Henry Bolingbroke to the banishment which was decreed against him, and urges,— “All places that the eye of heaven visits Are to a wise man ports and happy havens. Teach thy necessity to reason thus; There is no virtue like necessity. Think not the king did banish thee, But thou the king.” Bolingbroke,however, replies,— “O, who can hold a fire in his hand By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?” The indestructibility of adamant by force or fire had for ages been a received truth. QVEM NVLLA PERICVLA, TERRENT. [Illustration: _Le Bey de Batilly, 1596._] “Whom no dangers terrify,” is a fitting motto for the Emblem that pertains to such as fear nor force nor fire. Speaking of the precious gem that figures forth their character, it is the remark of Lebeus-Batillius (Emb. 29), “Duritia ineharrabilis est, simulque ignium victrix naturâ & nunquam incalescens,”—for which we obtain a good English expression from Holland’s _Pliny_ (bk. xxxvii. c. 4): “Wonderfull and inenarrable is the _hardnesse_ of a _diamant_; besides it hath a nature to conquer the fury of fire, nay, you shall never make it hote.” The Latin stanzas in illustration close with the lines,— “_Qualis, non Adamas ullo contunditur ictu, Vique sua ferri duritium superat._” [Sidenote: _i.e._] “As by no blow the Adamant is crushed, And by its own force overcomes the hardness of iron.”