The elephant's fitted frame and the wisdom in small creatures

The bear's neck is short and sunk into its shoulders, and so is the lion's, and the tiger's, and the rest of that kind, because their food does not come from grass and they have no need to bend down to the ground, since they are flesh-eaters and sustain themselves by hunting other animals. What is the purpose of the elephant's trunk? Because the animal is large—the largest of the land animals—and was brought forth to terrify whatever it meets, its body had to be massive and compacted. If a neck as large and proportionate to its feet had been added to this body, the animal would have been hard to manage, always dragged downward by its excessive weight. As it is, the head is joined to the spine by only a few vertebrae of the neck, and it has the trunk, which fulfills the function of a neck: through it the elephant brings food to its mouth and draws up its drink. Its feet, moreover, are unjointed, like solid pillars, to support the weight. For if its limbs had been set beneath it loose and flexible, its joints would have been constantly dislocated, since they could not bear the weight when the animal crouched down and rose up again. As it is, a short ankle-bone lies under the elephant's foot, and it is not jointed either at the bend or at the knee. For the slipperiness of joints could never have endured the great mass of flesh poured around the animal and quivering on every side. Hence the need for that trunk that reaches down to its feet. Do you not see in wars how they go before the battle-line like living towers, or like hills of flesh, and with their irresistible onset they break through the shield-wall of the enemy? If their lower parts were not proportionate, the animal would not have survived for any length of time. As it is, some report that the elephant lives three hundred years and more; for this reason its limbs are solidly fixed and not jointed. Its food, as we said, the trunk carries up from the ground to the height—a trunk that is serpent-like and rather supple by nature. So true is the saying that nothing superfluous and nothing lacking can be found among created things. This animal, though so great in size, God has made subject to us—so much so that it understands when taught and submits when struck—clearly teaching us that he has subjected all things to us, because we have been made according to the image of the Creator (Genesis 1:26). And not only in the large animals is it possible to behold the unsearchable wisdom of God; in the very smallest, no less, we can gather the same wonder. For just as I do not marvel more at the great peaks of the mountains, which by being near the clouds preserve their wintry character through constant exposure to the winds, than at the hollow in the ravines, which not only escapes the harsh winds of the heights but also keeps the air always warm—so also in the construction of animals I do not admire the elephant for its size more than the mouse, because the mouse is feared by the elephant; or the scorpion's very fine sting, how the Craftsman hollowed it out like a pipe, so that through it the venom is injected into those who are struck. And let no one accuse the Maker on this account, that he has introduced venomous and destructive creatures that are hostile to our life. Otherwise one might as well accuse a tutor who brings the easy-going ways of youth into order and disciplines what is undisciplined with blows and whips.