An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second,…

which we may well conjecture by that deep silence in Scripture concerning him, there being no mention made of the Elephant any where but in the book of Job: And Job was not an Israelite, nor an inhabitant of Canaan, but of Arabia; whose neighbours on the other side of the Red-sea, the Ethiopians and Troglodytes abounded with ⟨p. 350⟩Elephants. And this is the more to be marvelled at, because Ivory, which is nothing else but an Elephants tooth, was so well known and common in India. Now, if the Elephant, of whose teeth they had plenty, and which were bred in great numbers in Countries much nearer than Judea, was so little known to the Jews, who can believe that the Unicorn, which was proper to India, should be known to them? But we have another, and that a stronger argument, against this interpretation; namely, that we account the report of this Unicorn to be a mere fable, and that no such animal, as this is described and commonly believed to be, is at present in the the world, or ever was. For Clesias, a most vain man, and who, moved only with a love to lying, hath b•ought in very many, and those most monstrous figments in his books of the Indians, is the father of this story, from whom Pliny, Aelian, and all who have written of the Unicorn, received and took it up. And that Clesias lied, as in many other things, so in this also, we may hence conjecture, because this animal was never seen at Rome; in whose shows, all the rarest animals which this half part of the world, containing Asia, with Europe and Africa, ever produced, were wont to be presented to public vi•••, and those not only fetched from within the bounds of the Roman power, but from the Empire of the Parthians, and from the furthest parts of India and Ethiopia. For to omit many other wild beasts, Tigers, &c. (none of which were bred in the Roman Territories) Rome often saw Rhinocerotes, w•ich are bred only in India. So that Aristides spake but the truth in his Encomium of Rome, when he said, All things meet here, whatsoever is bred or made; and whatsoever is not seen here, is to be reckoned among those things which are not, nor ever were.

which we may well conjecture by that deep silence in Scripture concerning him, there being no mention made of the Elephant any where but in the book of Job: And Job was not an Israelite, nor an inhabitant of Canaan, but of Arabia; whose neighbours on the other side of the Red-sea, the Aethiopians and Troglodites abounded with