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But by using animals in this austere and arbitrary style as they

are used on the shields of heraldry or the hieroglyphics of the

ancients, men have really succeeded in handing down those

tremendous truths that are called truisms. If the chivalric lion

be red and rampant, it is rigidly red and rampant; if the sacred

ibis stands anywhere on one leg, it stands on one leg for ever.

In this language, like a large animal alphabet, are written some

of the first philosophic certainties of men. As the child learns

A for Ass or B for Bull or C for Cow, so man has learnt here to

connect the simpler and stronger creatures with the simpler and

stronger truths.