Arnobius — Against the Nations 2.25
25.1. What do you say, O men attributing to yourselves more than enough from another's nobility? Is this that learned soul which you say, immortal, perfect, divine, holding the fourth place after God the prince of things and after the twin minds, and flowing from living bowls?
2. Is this that precious human endowed with most august reasonings, the so-called lesser world fashioned and formed into the likeness of the whole: better than no beast, as it appeared, blunter than wood, than rock, who does not know humans and always lives in mute solitudes, remains idle, thrives emptily, though he live countless years and never be loosed from bodily knots. But when he has reached schools and been trained by teachers' institutions, he is made prudent, learned, and puts off the ignorance he had lately had.
3. And the ass and the ox likewise by use and continual compelling learn to plow and to grind; the horse to undergo the yoke and recognize turns in the course; the camel to lower itself whether when it takes burdens or when it lays them down; the dove released to fly back to the master's seats; the dog when it has found prey to restrain and hold its bark; the parrot to restore words and the raven to bring forth names.
Latin
25.1. Quid dicitis, o viri plus quam satis est vobis ex aliena generositate tribuentes? Haecine est anima docta illa quam dicitis, immortalis perfecta divina, post deum principem rerum et post mentes geminas locum optinens quartum et afluens ex crateribus vivis?
2. Hic est ille pretiosus et rationibus homo augustissimis praeditus, mundus minor qui dicitur et totius in speciem similitudinis fabricatus atque formatus: nullo melior ut apparuit pecore, obtunsior ligno, saxo, qui nesciat homines et in mutis semper solitudinibus degat, demoretur iners, valeat inaniter , quamvis annis vivat innumeris et numquam nodis corporeis eximatur. Sed cum scholas attigerit et magistrorum fuerit institutionibus eruditus, efficitur prudens, doctus et quam nuper habuerat imperitiam ponit.
3. Et asellus et bos aeque usu atque adsiduitate cogendi discit arare ac molere, equus iugum subire et agnoscere in curriculo flexiones, camellus sese summittere sive cum sumit onera sive cum ponit, columba manumissa revolare ad dominicas sedes, canis cum invenerit praedam cohibere et continere latratum, verba psittacus et integrare et nomina corvus expromere.