its begetter; for it is precisely black, like an eastern Ethiopian having changed his skin color from sun-burning, and it immediately reveals the heat of its origin on its body. But the diminution of its size it did not inherit through a weakness of nature; but rather the reason for its smallness is more secret, yet it must nevertheless be told by us. Body and mind, the one has gone into bulk, while the other is compressed for power. Therefore, as many beings as are bulky and grow large have received a more bodily origin; but most of the compressed ones, in their apparent smallness, have inherited a more intellectual seed. And you might see bees and beetles and gnats and the spiders themselves and the ants to be more intricate than the other animals and more skillful and not far from a more political life; for this reason Plato binds the souls that share in common feelings and are adorned with civic customs in the bodies of bees. But oxen and mules, having advanced to a bulk of body, have been deprived of the best power. For such is also for us the first seed of life; and the more powerful are more seminal, while the denser are more bodily. For nature indeed molds, but mind and soul also create; but nature does so more materially and more numerously, while they draw bodies toward themselves and compress the bulk, so that what is molded may come forth full of power. Therefore, from spring this creature begins its generation, and it grows along with its lord and increases in size, and receives its own age and prime, whenever he, too, should stand in a way at the fifth degree of Gemini, then, when he turns toward the south and goes toward the winter solstices, it ceases with him and withers away. For it does not wish to live by other causes than the solar ones, since it does not know how to be ungrateful to the leader of its birth; but just as it leaps <above> the earth when that one appears higher, so it sinks into the earth when its founder becomes, so to speak, subterranean. Now, nature did not grow wings upon this creature; for the principle of its generation was not moved toward this. But it also compels nature and lifts its body with leaps and, being earth-born, it longs for the air; for it knows this to be a swift ferry toward the sun and often it tries, being moved toward it by its natural principle. But nature resists; and the middle ground is found between natural and volitional force, or as another might say, of strength and power. And it is formed not separated by any incisions nor uneven in relation to itself, but congenitally and suitably. And the head is naturally joined to the rest of the body; but the part rising and peaking from there, just as nature made the boar, is lowered from there toward the back, and you might say the very middle is like a kind of back rising above both parts. And I compare this to the boar, not adorning the flea with that, but by this favoring the boar. It is formed, then, like a boar, it rushes like a leopard, and it looks like a lion without the fierce gaze; and what is more marvelous is that for those, nature fashioned things for ferocity—for one the scowl, for another the leap, for another something else—but for the flea, having brought everything together, it transformed them into gentleness. For it does not flee from man, nor does it damage his works, as the locust and grasshopper do; but it is attached to him alone and makes his blood its food, eating the very smallest amount. And its tooth in the bite has the role of a goad, and the swelling at once rose up like a circle and adorns the body with solar forms; then indeed the bite was both rounded off into a circle and faded away with the shape, just like the form of the rainbow. The gnat, therefore, war. as it were, threatens us and in a way goes forth in battle array under a trumpet; but this one has imitated the wren and proceeds to an agreed-upon table with us, neither buzzing nor otherwise

τὸν γεννήτορα· ἀκριβῶς γὰρ μέλας ἐστίν, ὥσπερ ἑῷος Αἰθίοψ ἐξ ἡλιοκαΐας τὴν χρόαν μεταβαλών, καὶ τὸ θερμὸν τῆς γενέσεως εὐθὺς παρεμφαίνει ἐπὶ τοῦ σώματος. τὴν δὲ τοῦ μεγέθους ἐλάττωσιν οὐ κατὰ ἀτονίαν τῆς φύσεως ἐκληρώσατο· ἀλλ' ἀπορρητότερος μὲν ὁ λόγος αὐτῷ τῆς σμικρότητος, ῥητέος δὲ ὅμως ἡμῖν. Σῶμα καὶ νοῦς, τὸ μὲν εἰς ὄγκον κεχώρηκεν, ὁ δὲ συνέσταλται πρὸς τὴν δύναμιν. ὅσα μὲν οὖν τῶν ὄντων ὀγκοῦται καὶ μεγεθύνεται σωματικω τέραν τὴν γένεσιν εἴληχε· τῶν δὲ συνεσταλμένων τὰ πλείω εἰς τὴν φαινο μένην βραχύτητα νοερωτέραν τὴν σπορὰν ἐκληρώσατο. καὶ ἴδοις ἂν μελίττας μὲν καὶ κανθάρους καὶ κώνωπας τούς τε ἀράχνας αὐτοὺς καὶ τοὺς μύρμηκας ποικιλώτερα τῶν ἄλλων ζῴων καὶ τεχνικώτερα καὶ τῆς πολιτικωτέρας ζωῆς οὐ πόρρω τυγχάνοντα· ἐντεῦθεν ὁ Πλάτων τὰς κοινοπαθεῖς τῶν ψυχῶν καὶ πολιτικοῖς ἤθεσι κεκοσμημένας μελισσῶν ἐνδεσμεῖ σώμασι. βόες δὲ καὶ ἡμίονοι, ἐς ὄγκον προεληλυθότες σώματος, τῆς κρατίστης δυνάμεως ἀπεστέρηνται. τοιοῦτον γάρ ἐστι καὶ τὸ πρῶτον ἡμῖν τῆς ζωῆς σπέρμα· καὶ σπερματικώτερα μὲν τὰ δυναμικώτερα, σωματικώτερα δὲ τὰ παχύτερα. πλάττει μὲν γὰρ καὶ φύσις, δημιουργεῖ δὲ καὶ νοῦς καὶ ψυχή· ἀλλ' ἡ μὲν φύσις ὑλικώτερον καὶ πληθυντικώτερον, ἐκεῖνα δὲ πρὸς ἑαυτὰ συνάγει τὰ σώματα καὶ σφίγγει τὸν ὄγκον, ἵνα πλῆρες τὸ πεπλασμένον προέλθῃ δυνάμεως. Ἐκ μὲν οὖν ἔαρος τουτὶ τὸ ζῷον ἄρχεται τῆς γενέσεως, συναυξάνει δὲ τῷ δεσπότῃ καὶ συμμεγεθύνεται καὶ τὴν οἰκείαν ἀπολαμβάνει ἡλικίαν τε καὶ ἀκμήν, ὁπότε δὴ κἀκεῖνος ἐπὶ τῆς πέμπτης μοίρας τῶν ∆ιδύμων σταίη τρόπον τινά, εἶτα δὴ τρεπομένῳ πρὸς νότον καὶ περὶ τὰς χειμερινὰς ἰόντι τροπὰς συναπολήγει τε καὶ μαραίνεται. οὐ γὰρ ἐθέλει ὑφ' ἑτέραις αἰτίαις ἢ ταῖς ἡλιακαῖς ζῆν, ἐπεὶ μηδ' ἀγνωμονεῖν οἶδε τῷ τῆς γενέσεως ἡγεμόνι· ἀλλ' ὥσπερ <ὑπὲρ> τῆς γῆς ἅλλεται ὑψηλοτέρου φανέντος ἐκείνου, οὕτως εἰς γῆν καταδύεται ὑπογείου, ἵν' οὕτως εἴπω, τοῦ γενάρχου καθισταμένου. Ἡ μὲν οὖν φύσις οὐ περιέφυσε τούτῳ πτερά· οὐδὲ γὰρ πρὸς τοῦτο ὁ τῆς γενέσεως ἐκινήθη λόγος. τὸ δὲ καὶ τὴν φύσιν βιάζεται καὶ τὸ σῶμα αἴρει τοῖς ἅλμασι καὶ γηγενὲς ὂν τὸν ἀέρα ποθεῖ· οἶδε γὰρ τοῦτον πορθ μεῖον εὐκίνητον πρὸς τὸν ἥλιον καὶ πολλάκις ἐπιχειρεῖ, τῷ φυσικῷ λόγῳ πρὸς τοῦτον κινούμενον. ἀλλ' ἡ φύσις ἀντιβιάζεται· τὸ δὲ μέσον εὑρίσκεται φυσικῆς τε βίας καὶ γνωμικῆς, εἴποι τις ἂν ἄλλος, ἰσχύος τε καὶ δυνάμεως. πέπλασται δὲ οὐκ ἐντομαῖς τισι διειργόμενον οὐδ' ἀνίσως ἔχον πρὸς ἑαυτό, ἀλλὰ συμφυῶς τε καὶ καταλλήλως. καὶ συμπέφυκε μὲν εὐφυῶς ἡ κεφαλὴ τῷ λοιπῷ σώματι· τὸ δὲ ἐντεῦθεν ἐπεγειρόμενόν τε καὶ κορυφού μενον, ὥσπερ δὴ τὸν σῦν ἡ φύσις ἐποίησεν, ἐκεῖθεν ταπεινοῦται πρὸς τὸ κατόπιν, καὶ εἴποις ἂν τὸ μεσαίτατον οἷόν τινα νωτιαῖον τῶν μερῶν ἀμφοτέρων ὑπερανέχον. παραβάλλω δὲ τοῦτον τῷ συί, οὐκ ἐκείνῳ τὴν ψύλλαν κοσμῶν, ἀλλ' ἐντεῦθεν τῷ συὶ χαριζόμενος. Πέπλασται μὲν οὖν κατὰ σῦν, ὁρμᾷ δὲ κατὰ πάρδαλιν, βλέπει δὲ κατὰ λέοντα ἄνευ τοῦ βλοσυροῦ βλέμματος· καὶ τό γε θαυμασιώτερον ὅτι ἐκείνοις μὲν ἡ φύσις πρὸς θηριωδίαν, τῷ μὲν τὸ ἐπισκύνιον, τῷ δὲ τὸ ἅλμα, τῷ δ' ἄλλο τι συνέπλασε, τῇ δὲ ψύλλῃ πάντα συναγηοχυῖα ἐς ἡμερότητα μετερρύθμισεν. οὐ γάρ τοι φεύγει τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τοῖς ἐκείνου ἔργοις λυμαίνεται, ὅπερ ἀκρὶς καὶ ἀττάκις ποιεῖ· ἀλλ' ἐκείνῳ μόνῳ προσπέφυκε καὶ τροφὴν τὸ αἷμα ποιεῖται σιτούμενον ὅσον βρα χύτατον. καὶ ὁ μὲν ὀδοὺς αὐτῷ κέντρου λόγον ἐπέχει τῷ δήγματι, τὸ δὲ φῦμα ὡς κύκλος εὐθὺς ἐπανέτειλε καὶ ποικίλλει τὸ σῶμα τοῖς ἡλιακοῖς εἴδεσιν· εἶτα δὴ τὸ δῆγμα ὁμοῦ τε εἰς κύκλον ἀπετορεύθη καὶ συναπῆλθε τῷ σχήματι ὥσπερ δὴ τὸ τῆς ἴριδος εἶδος. ὁ μὲν οὖν κώνωψ πόλεμον. ὥσπερ ἡμῖν ἀπειλεῖ καὶ μετὰ παρατάξεως τρόπον τινὰ ὑπὸ σάλπιγγι πρόεισι· τὸ δὲ τὸν τροχίλον μεμίμηται καὶ ὡς ἐφ' ὡμολογημένην πρὸς ἡμᾶς χωρεῖ τράπεζαν, μήτε βομβοῦν μήτ' ἄλλως