Topsell's foure-footed beastes (1607)
In his Historie of foure-footed beastes (London, 1607), Edward Topsell says of elephants:
"There is no creature among al the Beasts of the world which hath so great and ample demonstration of the power and wisdome of almighty God as the Elephant: both for proportion of body and disposition of spirit; and it is admirable to behold, the industry of our auncient forefathers, and noble desire to benefit us their posterity, by serching into the qualities of every Beast, to discover what benefits or harmes may come by them to mankind: having never beene afraid either of the Wildest, but they tamed them; the fiercest, but they ruled them; and the greatest, but they also set upon them. Witnesse for this part the Elephant, being like a living Mountain in quantity & outward appearance, yet by them so handled, as no little dog became more serviceable and tractable."
The illustration shown here is an engraving by Mathäus Merian, who illustrated Joannes Jonstonus' Natural History of the Quadrupeds.