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2 7 6 I n t e r p r e t a t i o n Volume 41 / Issue 3100 What can be gathered up from the ground is not enough,because you enter into the ocean’s bosom,to be able to sate yourselves with its spoils.My speech would never fail,if I wanted to show how much more unhappy105 you are than every earthly animal.We are greater friends to Nature;and thus to us she dispenses more virtue,making you beggars for all of her good things.If you want to see this, use your senses,110 and you will be easily persuadedof that which perhaps you think the contrary.The eagle’s eye, the dog’s ear, nose, andtaste we can still demonstrate are better than yours,if touch remains more your own;115 it is given to you not to honor you,but only so that Venus’s appetiteshould give you more trouble and annoyance.Each animal among us is born clothed:which defends him from the cold and raw weather,120 under every heaven and on any shore.Only man is born nude of every defense;and has no hide, nor thorns nor feathers nor wool,nor bristles nor scales, that make him a shield.His life begins with crying that,125 with agonizing and hoarse tone of voice,makes him miserable to look at.From then, growing, his life is short,without any doubt, compared to that whicha stag, a crow, and a goose lives.130 Nature gave you hands and the power of speech,and with those also ambition she gave you,and avarice that cancels out any good.To how many infirmities you are subjectedfirst by nature, and then fortune! How135 much good she promises you without any effect!Yours is ambition, lust, and weeping,and avarice that generate scabsin your lives that you esteem so much.