understood when he was living in his dukedom.
Duke Senior uses a simile to emphasize his point: adversity is “like the toad” (13). According to an old myth, ugly and poisonous toads have a jewel in their head. The toad thus symbolizes opposites: the ugly and the beautiful, the dangerous and the rare. Fortune or destiny is like the toad in that the good may be hidden inside the bad. Good luck may be the result of what, at first, seems to be bad luck.
Duke Senior ends his speech on life in the forest by commenting on the educational benefits of that life: one learns about life even from the trees, the brooks, and the stones (lines 15-17). Nature is the great teacher, and the lessons of Nature are far more valuable than the lessons learned in a school or church. Most importantly, Nature reveals “the good in everything” (17), even the goodness that exists in man.