when studying. Besides, let it be supposed that
a man is dumb, no one would say that he is consequently
irrational. However, aside from this, we see after
all, that animals, about which we are speaking, do
produce human sounds, as the jay and some others.
Aside from this also, even if we do not understand
the sounds of the so-called irrational 74 irrational
animals, it is not at all unlikely that they converse,
and that we do not understand their conversation.
For when we hear the language of foreigners, we do
not understand but it all seems like one sound to
us. Furthermore, we hear dogs giving out one
kind of sound when they are resisting someone,
75 and another sound when they howl, and another
when they are beaten, and a different kind when they
wag their tails, and generally speaking, if one examines
into this, he will find a great difference in the
sounds of this and other animals under different circumstances;
so that in all likelihood, it may be said that the
so-called irrational animals partake also in spoken
language. If then, they are not inferior to men
in the 76 accuracy of their perceptions, nor
in reasoning in thought, nor in reasoning by speech,
as it is superfluous to say, then they are not more
untrustworthy than we are, it seems to me, in regard
to their ideas. Perhaps it would be possible to
prove this, should we direct the argument to each
of the irrational 77 animals in turn. As
for example, who would not say that the birds are
distinguished for shrewdness, and make use of articulate
speech? for they not only know the present but the
future, and this they augur to those that are able
to understand it, audibly as well as in other ways.
I have made this comparison superfluously, as I pointed
out above, as I think 78 I had sufficiently
shown before, that we cannot consider our own ideas
superior to those of the irrational animals. In
short, if the irrational animals are not more untrustworthy
than we in regard to the judgment of their ideas,
and the ideas are different according to the difference
in the animals, I shall be able to say how each object
appears to me, but in regard to what it is by nature
I shall be obliged to suspend my judgment.
THE SECOND TROPE.
Such is the first Trope of [Greek: epoche].
The second, we said 79 above, is based upon the
differences in men. For even if one assent to
the hypothesis that men are more trustworthy than the
irrational animals, we shall find that doubt arises
as soon as we consider our own differences. For
since man is said to be composed of two things, soul
and body, we differ from each other in respect to
both of these things; for example, as regards the
body, we differ both in form and personal peculiarities.
For the 80 body of a Scythian differs from the
body of an Indian in form, the difference resulting,
it is said, from the different control of the humors.
According to different control of the humors, differences