I do not know, moreover, how Celsus could hear of the elephants’
[fidelity to] oaths, and of their great devotedness to our God, and of
the knowledge which they possess of Him. For I know many wonderful
things which are related of the nature of this animal, and of its gentle
disposition. But I am not aware that any one has spoken of its
observance of oaths; unless indeed to its gentle disposition, and its
observance of compacts, so to speak, when once concluded between it and
man, he give the name of keeping its oath, which statement also in
itself is false. For although rarely, yet sometimes it has been recorded
that, after their apparent tameness, they have broken out against men in
the most savage manner, and have committed murder, and have been on that
account condemned to death, because no longer of any use. And seeing
that after this, in order to establish (as he thinks he does) that the
stork is more pious than any human being, he adduces the accounts which
are narrated regarding that creature’s display of filial affection[840]
in bringing food to its parents for their support, we have to say in
reply, that this is done by the storks, not from a regard to what is
proper, nor from reflection, but from a natural instinct; the nature
which formed them being desirous to show an instance among the
irrational animals which might put men to shame, in the matter of
exhibiting their gratitude to their parents. And if Celsus had known how
great the difference is between acting in this way from reason, and from
an irrational natural impulse, he would not have said that storks are
more pious than human beings. But further, Celsus, as still contending
for the piety of the irrational creation, quotes the instance of the
Arabian bird the phœnix, which after many years repairs to Egypt, and
bears thither its parent, when dead and buried in a ball of myrrh, and
deposits its body in the Temple of the Sun. Now this story is indeed
recorded, and, if it be true, it is possible that it may occur in
consequence of some provision of nature; divine providence freely
displaying to human beings, by the differences which exist among living
things, the variety of constitution which prevails in the world, and
which extends even to birds, and in harmony with which He has brought
into existence one creature, the only one of its kind, in order that by
it men may be led to admire, not the creature, but Him who created it.
Footnote 840:
ἀντιπελαργοῦντος.