2
Observe to what extent there exists in animals conformity to nature in regard to their marriages. In the first place, they do not wait for laws against celibacy or late wedlock, as did the citizens of Lycurgus Cf.Life of Lysander, xxx. (451 a-b); Life of Lycurgus, xv. 1 (48 c); Moralia, 227 f; Ariston in Stobaeus, vol. iv. p. 497 ed. Hense (or von Arnim. Stoic. Vet. Frag., i. p. 89); Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, ii. 141 (vol. ii. p. 191 ed. Stählin). and Solon, This is not true of Solon: cf. Stobaeus, vol. iv. p. 521 ed. Hense. nor fear loss of civil rights because of childlessness, nor pursue the honours of the ius trium liberorum ,See, for example, Hardy’s notes on Pliny, Epistulae, right of inheritance and the privileges of those who had less than three children. as many Romans do when they marry and beget children, not that they may have heirs, but that they may inherit. In the next place, the male does not consort with the female during all seasons, for the end and aim is not pleasure, but procreation and the begetting of offspring; therefore it is in the season of spring, which has procreative breezes cf. Lucretius, i. 10-20: reserata viget genitabilis aura favoni, and the whole passage. and a temperature suitable to intercourse, cf. Aristotle, Historia Animalium, vi. 18 (573 a 27). that the female, rendered submissive and desirable, comes to consort with the male, exulting, as she does, in the pleasing odour of her flesh and the peculiar adornment cf. Clement of Alexandria, Paedagogus, iii. 11. 1 (vol. i. p. 242 ed. Stählin). of her body, and filled with dew and clean grass cf.Moralia, 990 c ff.; but when she perceives that she is pregnant and sated, she modestly retires and takes thought for the birth and safety of her offspring. But it is impossible to recount the procedure in a manner worthy of the subject, except to say that each of the pair is as one in their affection for their offspring, in their forethought, their endurance, and their self-control. Further, though we call the bee wise and believe that it Makes the yellow honey its care,Simonides: Frag. 47 ed. Bergk; 43 ed. Diehl; 57 ed. Edmonds. Cf.Moralia, 41 f, 79 c. flattering the saccharine quality of its sweetness which tickles our palates, yet we overlook the wisdom and artifice of the other creatures which is manifested in the bearing and the nurture of offspring. As, for example, the king-fisher cf.Moralia, 983 c-d; Aelian, De Natura Animalium, ix. 17. after conception makes her nest by gathering the thorns of the sea-needle and interweaving and joining them together, and makes it round and oblong in form, like a fisherman’s creel; and, packing the thorns closely together with the most exact jointure and density, submits it to the dashing of the waves so that, being gradually beaten upon and riveted together, the hard-packed surface may become water-proof; and it does become hard to divide with iron or stone. And what is more wonderful, the mouth of the nest is so exactly fitted to the size and measure of the king-fisher that no other creature, either larger or smaller, may enter, and, so they say, that it will not admit even the most minute drops of sea-water.In Moralia, 983 c (De sollertia animalium), Plutarch adds a few details to this description.
