Aere quandoque salutem redi-
mendam.

Sometimes money must be spent to purchase safety

Et pedibus segnis, tumida & propendulus alvo,
Haec tamen insidias effugit arte fiber.
Mordicus ipse sibi medicata virilia vellit
Atque abicit, sese gnarus ob illa peti.
Huius ab exemplo disces non parcere rebus,
Et vitam ut redimas, hostibus aera dare.[1]

Though slow of foot and with swollen belly hanging down, the beaver nonetheless escapes the ambush by this trick: it tears off with its teeth its testicles, which are full of a medicinal substance, and throws them aside, knowing that it is hunted for their sake. - From this creature’s example you will learn not to spare material things, and to give money to the enemy to buy your life.

Fiber aliàs Castor appellatur. animal est
amphibion, quod in terra & aqua vivere po-
test, caudam habet piscis, caetera ferè Canis
sunt, cuius genitalia in medicina plurimum
conducunt, & licet currendo tardus sit ob
ventrem tumidum & ad terram pendentem,
effugit tamen interdum ingeniosè venato-
rum insidias, hoc modo dentibus sibimet ge-
nitalia eripiens eaque ante conspectum prose-
cutoris proiicit, gnarus illum ob ea tantum
venari & ita evadit. Cuius exemplo discimus
aliquando divitiis non esse parcendum, sed
pro salute hostibus etiam pecunias dare, ma-
ximè expedire. Pariter in Aesopicis ha-
betur fabulis, de Castore virilia sibi
amputante, & recitat Plinius lib.
8. cap. 30. probe Aelia-
nus lib. 13. cap. 47.
histor. Ani-
mal.