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. Both
departments, however, have their special charm. The scanty conceptions
to which we can attain of celestial things give us, from their
excellence, more pleasure than all our knowledge of the world in which
we live; just as a half glimpse of persons that we love is more
delightful than a leisurely view of other things, whatever their
number and dimensions. On the other hand, in certitude and in
completeness our knowledge of terrestrial things has the advantage.
Moreover, their greater nearness and affinity to us balances
somewhat the loftier interest of the heavenly things that are the
objects of the higher philosophy. Having already treated of the
celestial world, as far as our conjectures could reach, we proceed
to treat of animals, without omitting, to the best of our ability, any
member of the kingdom, however ignoble. For if some have no graces
to charm the sense, yet even these, by disclosing to intellectual
perception the artistic spirit that designed them, give immense
pleasure to all who can trace links of causation, and are inclined
to philosophy. Indeed, it would be strange if mimic representations of
them were attractive, because they disclose the mimetic skill of the
painter or sculptor, and the original realities themselves were not
more interesting, to all at any rate who have eyes to discern the
reasons that determined their formation. We therefore must not
recoil with childish aversion from the examination of the humbler
animals
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