The Fox gave craft; the Dog gave flattery; Ass, patience; the Mole, a working thought; Eagle, high look; Wolf, secret cruelty; Monkey, sweet breath; the Cow, her fair eyes brought: The Ermine, whitest skin, spotted with nought. The Sheep, mild-seeming face; climbing the Bear, The Stag did give his harm-eschewing fear. The Hare, her slights; the Cat, her melancholy; Ant, industry; and Coney, skill to build; Cranes, order; Storks, to be appearing holy; Cameleons, ease to change; Duck, ease to yield; Crocodile, tears which might be falsely spill'd; Ape, great thing gave, tho' he did mowing stand, The instrument of instruments, the hand. Thus Man was made, thus Man their Lord became. At such a system he thought Milton glanced when his Satan speaks of the influences of the heavenly bodies, as Productive in herb, plant, and nobler birth Of creatures animate with gradual life Of growth, sense, reason, all summ'd up in man: for that the lines, though capable of another interpretation, ought to be interpreted as referring to a scheme of progressive life, appears by this fuller developement in the speech of Raphaël; O Adam, one Almighty is, from whom All things proceed, and up to him return, If not deprav'd from good, created all Such to perfection, one first matter all, Indued with various forms, various degrees Of substance, and in things that live, of life; But more refin'd, more spiritous, and pure, As nearer to him plac'd, or nearer tending Each in their several active spheres assign'd, Till body up to spirit work, in bounds Proportion'd to each kind. So from the root Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves More aery, last the bright consummate flower Spirits odorous breathes: flow'rs and their fruit, Man's nourishment, by gradual scale sublimed, To vital spirits aspire, to animal, To intellectual; give both life and sense Fancy and understanding; whence the soul Reason received, and reason is her being Discursive, or intuitive; discourse Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours, Differing but in degree, of kind the same.[4] [Footnote 4: Spenser in his “Hymne of Heavenly Beautie” falls into a similar train of thought, as is observed by Thyer. By view whereof it plainly may appeare That still as everything doth upward tend, And further is from earth, so still more cleare And faire it grows, till to his perfect end Of purest beautie it at last ascend; Ayre more than water, fire much more than ayre, And heaven than fire, appeares more pure and fayre. But these are somewhat of Pythagorean speculations—caught up by Lucretius and Virgil.]