The History of Monsters 267

...riches away from a certain town, while another naked man is seen looking back; Sambucus devised this to suggest to us that private matters should be forgotten and public ones cared for.

Sadeler depicts a ship laden with various figures in the middle of the waves, inscribed "Emerging in the Waves." He adds that this was the device of Pope Innocent IX of Bologna. If this icon represents the bark of the Apostles and Peter, the motto fits perfectly, for as the poem goes: *The vessel is tossed by waves, but never sinks.*

Gabriel Simeon portrays a man like a castaway dressed as Mercury, holding out a caduceus to another man on the shore, with the motto "This was the course." This demonstrates that a great Prince, by bringing someone into his inner circle, binds them to him with as much gratitude as a rescued shipwreck survivor. Elsewhere, two men fighting while onlookers in togas watch, featuring a boy drawing lots from two jars, was a symbol used by Sambucus to show that fortune favors the bold. Likewise, a farmer casting away his hoe, a soldier his sword, and a merchant his money, appears in another of his symbols to show that no one is truly satisfied with their lot in life. Similarly, a man sharpening iron on a whetstone while two others gaze at a corpse on the ground belongs to a symbol by Sambucus where he reveals "unwise wisdom." Just as a whetstone does not cut itself but enables the iron to do so, the senses are not wise in themselves but provide the means for a person to be wise.

Bocchius depicts an old man draped in a lion’s skin, holding a club in his right hand along with a bow and arrows. However, slender little chains hang from his tongue, the other ends of which are fastened to the ears of a vast following of people. The inscription reads: "Eloquence is Perfected by Care and Toil." This figure represents the "Eloquent Hercules." He is an old man because youth generally lacks eloquence. The chains show the connection between the ears and the tongue. Finally, the arrows represent the sharp points of reason that an orator uses to win over the people.

Lastly, two men raising their hands toward hooks that a divine hand seems to lower from Heaven relates to a symbol by Sambucus, by which he strives to show that God drags no one against their will and forces no one.

EMBLEMS

Since emblems seem to share a very close affinity with symbols, we have decided to grant them a place here in this history. In these emblems, images of parts of the human body are observed, as well as children, youths, men, the elderly, and women; we shall record all of these individually with concise brevity. Alciatus provides an example of body parts when, in his sixteenth emblem, he depicts an open hand with an eye in the palm, adding an image of pennyroyal. From this, everyone may draw two lessons: first, that sobriety should be cherished, and second, that one should avoid easy credulity. For pennyroyal resists drunkenness, and the "eyed hand" offers a certain trust in things.

Regarding images of children, we find in Reusner a picture of a boy sleeping atop a human skull with the title "Live Mindful of Death." He adds a six-line poem ending with these verses:

Live piously, and you shall die piously, and live blessed after death; for a holy death is the way to a new life.

Florentius also depicts boys squabbling over nuts and pebbles with the inscription "Always Children," adding a four-line verse to this effect:

The boys bicker if someone takes their stone or their nut, and they are always amazed by every trivial thing.

We too are children...