1217

Reflections on Nature.

EXAMPLE OF THE LIGHTNING IN CLOUDS.

[O mighty and once living instrument of formative nature. Incapable of availing thyself of thy vast strength thou hast to abandon a life of stillness and to obey the law which God and time gave to procreative nature.]

Ah! how many a time the shoals of terrified dolphins and the huge tunny-fish were seen to flee before thy cruel fury, to escape; whilst thy fulminations raised in the sea a sudden tempest with buffeting and submersion of ships in the great waves; and filling the uncovered shores with the terrified and desperate fishes which fled from thee, and left by the sea, remained in spots where they became the abundant prey of the people in the neighbourhood.

O time, swift robber of all created things, how many kings, how many nations hast thou undone, and how many changes of states and of various events have happened since the wondrous forms of this fish perished here in this cavernous and winding recess. Now destroyed by time thou liest patiently in this confined space with bones stripped and bare; serving as a support and prop for the superimposed mountain.

[Footnote: The character of the handwriting points to an early period of Leonardo’s life. It has become very indistinct, and is at present exceedingly difficult to decipher. Some passages remain doubtful.]

[Footnote: Compare No. 1339, written on the same sheet.]

Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.

Notebooks of Leonoardo da Vinci
XIX: Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
. . .
1197,
1198,
1199,
1200,
1201,
1202
Politics.
1203,
1204
Against Speculators.
1205,
1206
Against alchemists.
1207,
1208
Against friars.
1209
Against writers of epitomes.
1210
On spirits.
1211,
1212,
1213,
1214,
1215
Nonentity.
1216
Reflections on Nature.
1217,
1218,
1219