246 //-107 to //-108
There are different stages of life for a baby, a boy, a teen-ager, and an
old man; yet I am, for all that, the same [person] as the baby and the
boy and the teen-ager I used to be. Thus, although each man's constitution
changes [from one stage to another], the congeniality he feels towards
his constitution is the same. For nature does not commend to me a boy
or a youth or an old man, but myself. Therefore, a baby finds his own
constitution congenial, the one he then has and not the one which he
will have as a youth; the fact that he will have something greater to
change into some day does not mean that the state in which he is born
is not according to nature. 17. First of all, the animal finds itself congenial;
for there must be something to which all else can be referred. I seek
pleasure. For whose sake? Mine. Therefore, I am looking out for myself.
I flee pain. For whose sake? My own. Therefore, I am looking out for
myself. If I do everything in order to look out for myself, then looking
out for myself is prior to everything else. This concern for oneself is in
all animals; it is not acquired, it is innate. 18. Nature brings forth her
young, she does not abandon them. And since the most certain guardian-
ship is the closest, everyone is entrusted to himself. Thus, as I said in
my earlier letter, young animals, even those who have just recently
emerged from their mother's womb or egg, know immediately what is
dangerous and they avoid what is life-threatening. Animals which are at
risk from birds of prey even avoid the shadows cast by predators as they
fly over. No animal comes into life without a fear of death.
- "How," he says, "can a newborn animal understand what is salutary
or life-threatening?" First of all, the point at issue is whether it under-
stands, not how it understands. It is clear that they do understand from
the fact that they behave no differently than [they would] if they did
understand. Why is it that a hen does not flee a peacock or a goose, but
does flee a hawk, which is so much smaller and is not even known to it
yet? Why do chicks fear a cat, but not a dog? Obviously, they have a
knowledge of what is liable to harm them which is not acquired by
experience; for before they can acquire any experience they are already
cautious. 20. Next, in order that you should not think that this is an
accident, they neither fear things which they need not fear nor do they
ever forget this care and diligence; the avoidance of danger is their lifelong
companion. Moreover, they do not become more timid as they live; from
this it is obvious that they do not get this characteristic by practice but
from a natural love of their own preservation. What practice teaches is
late and various; whatever nature passes on is the same for all [members
of a species] and instantaneous. 21. If, however, you insist, I shall tell
how every animal is compelled to understand what is dangerous. It is
aware that it is made of flesh; and so it is aware of what can cut and