The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci

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Page 1243 of 1565.
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THE LION.

This animal, with his thundering roar, rouses his young the third
day after they are born, teaching them the use of all their dormant
senses and all the wild things which are in the wood flee away.

This may be compared to the children of Virtue who are roused by the
sound of praise and grow up in honourable studies, by which they are
more and more elevated; while all that is base flies at the sound,
shunning those who are virtuous.

Again, the lion covers over its foot tracks, so that the way it has
gone may not be known to its enemies. Thus it beseems a captain to
conceal the secrets of his mind so that the enemy may not know his
purpose.

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