This casting is not
simply advantageous to the deer from the increased lightness which
it produces, but, seeing how heavy the horns are, is a matter of
actual necessity.
In all other animals the horns are hollow for a certain distance,
and the end alone is solid, this being the part of use in a blow. At
the same time, to prevent even the hollow part from being weak, the
horn, though it grows out of the skin, has a solid piece from the
bones fitted into its cavity. For this arrangement is not only that
which makes the horns of the greatest service in fighting, but that
which causes them to be as little of an impediment as possible in
the other actions of life.
Such then are the reasons for which horns exist; and such the
reasons why they are present in some animals, absent from others.
Let us now consider the character of the material nature whose
necessary results have been made available by rational nature for a
final cause.
In the first place, then, the larger the bulk of animals, the
greater is the proportion of corporeal and earthy matter which they
contain. Thus no very small animal is known to have horns, the
smallest horned animal that we are acquainted with being the
gazelle. But in all our speculations concerning nature, what we have
to consider is the general rule; for that is natural which applies
either universally or generally.
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