We hope our valuable Correspondent B. will not take objection at finding his answer to our first Query in No.3, in this place. Solicitous to oblige everyone, and tenacious of uniformity, which will not admit of two answers to any one question, we find ourselves under the necessity of placing it here.
The Magical Authors tell us, that the reason why a lion shuns a cock is, that this bird possesses a stronger solar virtue: dividing the solar virtues into heat and light, the reason is true, for he possesses much more of the last, and this is proved by the lion’s shunning more particularly a white cock.
You will observe the power of antipathy in this case, how deeply grounded in nature is the science of AUGURY, and how truly instinct acts.
The Lion ever steals upon his prey—he will not be seen before he makes his attack, and accomplishes his purpose by a spring. Hence, he has a natural antipathy to a cock, who naturally watches and announces the first dawn of light; and especially to a white cock, whose garb also tends to betray the first approach of light.
I will just observe, that this disposition for secret advance is kept in view in Scripture, as an attribute of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah—‘He shall come as a THIEF in the night.’