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Ancients and Moderns under the Empire of Circe: Machiavelli’s The Ass, Translation2 7 5not that you protect your life.We, the air only, you flee poverty,65 seeking with dangers wealth,that has blocked you from the way of doing good.And if we want to speak of strength,how much our position is superioris as evident as the sun for its brightness.70 A bull, a wild lion, an elephantand an infinity of us in the world are thosebefore which man cannot appear.And if reasoning of the soul is good,you will see we have received a greater gift75 of hearts invincible, noble, and strong.Among us valiant gestures are madewithout hope for triumph or other glory,as among those Romans who were famous.One sees in the lion much vainglory80 of the noble deed, and desire to extinguishall memory of the disgraceful deed.Some beasts still among us have been seen,who, to flee the chains of prison,acquire glory and freedom in dying;85 and this valor they preserve in their cheststhat having lost their liberty,their hearts do not bear to live as slaves.And if you examine temperance,again it will seem to you that in this game90 we have exceeded your side.On Venus 19 we spend brief and littletime, but you, without measure,follow her in every time and place.Our species does not care about other food95 than the product of the heavens without art, and youwant that which nature cannot make.Nor are you content with only one food, as we are,but, to better satisfy your greedy cravings,you journey for them all the way to kingdoms of the East.19Roman goddess of love, beauty, and fertility. Here a metonym for sexual desire.