Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients
which is meant the time best fitted and disposed for the production of
species, from a matter duly prepared, and made ready beforehand, and
now lying in a middle state, between its first rudiments and decline;
which, we learn from sacred history, was the case at the time of the
creation; when, by the efficacy of the divine command, matter directly
came together, without any transformation or intermediate changes,
which it affects; instantly obeyed the order, and appeared in the form
of creatures.
And thus far the fable reaches of Proteus, and his flock, at liberty
and unrestrained. For the universe, with the common structures, and
fabrics of the creatures, is the face of matter, not under constraint,
or as the flock wrought upon and tortured by human means. But if any
skilful minister of nature shall apply force to matter, and by design
torture and vex it, in order to its annihilation, it, on the contrary,
being brought under this necessity, changes and transforms itself
into a strange variety of shapes and appearances; for nothing but the
power of the Creator can annihilate, or truly destroy it; so that
at length, running through the whole circle of transformations, and
completing its period, it in some degree restores itself, if the force
be continued. And that method of binding, torturing, or detaining, will
prove the most effectual and expeditious, which makes use of manacles
and fetters; that is, lays hold and works upon matter in the extremest
degrees.
The addition in the fable that makes Proteus a prophet, who had the
knowledge of things past, present, and future, excellently agrees with
the nature of matter; as he who knows the properties, the changes, and
the processes of matter, must, of necessity, understand the effects and
sum of what it does, has done, or can do, though his knowledge extends
not to all the parts and particulars thereof.
XIV.—MEMNON, OR A YOUTH TOO FORWARD.
EXPLAINED OF THE FATAL PRECIPITANCY OF YOUTH.
The poets made Memnon the son of Aurora, and bring him to the
Trojan war in beautiful armor, and flushed with popular praise;
where, thirsting after further glory, and rashly hurrying on to the
greatest enterprises, he engages the bravest warrior of all the
Greeks, Achilles, and falls by his hand in single combat. Jupiter,
in commiseration of his death, sent birds to grace his funeral, that
perpetually chanted certain mournful and bewailing dirges. It is also
reported, that the rays of the rising sun, striking his statue, used to
give a lamenting sound.
EXPLANATION.—This fable regards the unfortunate end of those promising
youths, who, like sons of the morning, elate with empty hopes and
glittering outsides, attempt things beyond their strength; challenge
the bravest heroes; provoke them to the combat; and, proving unequal,
die in their high attempts.
The death of such youths seldom fails to meet with infinite pity; as no
mortal calamity is more moving and afflicting, than to see the flower
of virtue cropped before its time. Nay, the prime of life enjoyed to
the full, or even to a degree of envy, does not assuage or moderate
the grief occasioned by the untimely death of such hopeful youths;
but lamentations and bewailings fly, like mournful birds, about their
tombs, for a long while after; especially upon all fresh occasions, new
commotions, and the beginning of great actions, the passionate desire
of them is renewed, as by the sun’s morning rays.
XV.—TYTHONUS, OR SATIETY.
EXPLAINED OF PREDOMINANT PASSIONS.
It is elegantly fabled by Tythonus, that being exceedingly beloved by
Aurora, she petitioned Jupiter that he might prove immortal, thereby to
secure herself the everlasting enjoyment of his company; but through
female inadvertence she forgot to add, that he might never grow old; so
that, though he proved immortal, he became miserably worn and consumed
with age, insomuch that Jupiter, out of pity, at length transformed him
to a grasshopper.
EXPLANATION.—This fable seems to contain an ingenious description of
pleasure; which at first, as it were in the morning of the day, is so
welcome, that men pray to have it everlasting, but forget that satiety
and weariness of it will, like old age, overtake them, though they
think not of it; so that at length, when their appetite for pleasurable
actions is gone, their desires and affections often continue; whence
we commonly find that aged persons delight themselves with the
discourse and remembrance of the things agreeable to them in their
better days. This is very remarkable in men of a loose, and men of a
military life; the former whereof are always talking over their amours,
and the latter the exploits of their youth; like grasshoppers, that
show their vigor only by their chirping.
XVI.—JUNO’S SUITOR, OR BASENESS.
EXPLAINED OF SUBMISSION AND ABJECTION.
The poets tell us, that Jupiter, to carry on his love-intrigues,
assumed many different shapes; as of a bull, an eagle, a swan, a golden
shower, &c.; but when he attempted Juno, he turned himself into the
most ignoble and ridiculous creature,—even that of a wretched, wet,
weather-beaten, affrighted, trembling and half-starved cuckoo.
EXPLANATION.—This is a wise fable, and drawn from the very entrails of
morality. The moral is, that men should not be conceited of themselves,
and imagine that a discovery of their excellences will always render
them acceptable; for this can only succeed according to the nature
and manners of the person they court, or solicit; who, if he be a man
not of the same gifts and endowments, but altogether of a haughty
and contemptuous behavior, here represented by the person of Juno,
they must entirely drop the character that carries the least show
of worth or gracefulness; if they proceed upon any other footing,
it is downright folly; nor is it sufficient to act the deformity of
obsequiousness, unless they really change themselves, and become abject
and contemptible in their persons.
XVII.—CUPID, OR AN ATOM.
EXPLAINED OF THE CORPUSCULAR PHILOSOPHY.
The particulars related by the poets of Cupid, or Love, do not properly
agree to the same person, yet they differ only so far, that if the
confusion of persons be rejected, the correspondence may hold. They
say, that Love was the most ancient of all the gods, and existed before
every thing else, except Chaos, which is held coeval therewith. But
for Chaos, the ancients never paid divine honors, nor gave the title
of a god thereto. Love is represented absolutely without progenitor,
excepting only that he is said to have proceeded from the egg of
Nox; but that himself begot the gods, and all things else, on Chaos.
His attributes are four; viz: 1, perpetual infancy; 2, blindness; 3,
nakedness; and 4, archery.
There was also another Cupid, or Love, the youngest son of the
gods, born of Venus; and upon him the attributes of the elder are
transferred, with some degree of correspondence.
EXPLANATION.—This fable points at, and enters, the cradle of nature.
Love seems to be the appetite, or incentive, of the primitive matter;
or, to speak more distinctly, the natural motion, or moving principle,
of the original corpuscles, or atoms; this being the most ancient
and only power that made and wrought all things out of matter. It is
absolutely without parent, that is, without cause; for causes are as
parents to effects; but this power or efficacy could have no natural
cause; for, excepting God, nothing was before it; and therefore it
could have no efficient in nature. And as nothing is more inward with
nature, it can neither be a genus nor a form; and therefore, whatever
it is, it must be somewhat positive, though inexpressible. And if it
were possible to conceive its modus and process, yet it could not be
known from its cause, as being, next to God, the cause of causes, and
itself without a cause. And, perhaps, we are not to hope that the modus
of it should fall, or be comprehended, under human inquiry. Whence it
is properly feigned to be the egg of Nox, or laid in the dark.
The divine philosopher declares, that “God has made every thing
beautiful in its season; and has given over the world to our disputes
and inquiries; but that man cannot find out the work which God has
wrought, from its beginning up to its end.” Thus the summary or
collective law of nature, or the principle of love, impressed by God
upon the original particles of all things, so as to make them attack
each other and come together, by the repetition and multiplication
whereof all the variety in the universe is produced, can scarce
possibly find full admittance into the thoughts of men, though some
faint notion may be had thereof. The Greek philosophy is subtile, and
busied in discovering the material principles of things, but negligent
and languid in discovering the principles of motion, in which the
energy and efficacy of every operation consists. And here the Greek
philosophers seem perfectly blind and childish; for the opinion of the
Peripatetics, as to the stimulus of matter, by privation, is little
more than words, or rather sound than signification. And they who refer
it to God, though they do well therein, yet they do it by a start, and
not by proper degrees of assent; for doubtless there is one summary, or
capital law, in which nature meets, subordinate to God, viz: the law
mentioned in the passage above quoted from Solomon; or the work which
God has wrought from its beginning to its end.
Democritus, who further considered this subject, having first supposed
an atom, or corpuscle, of some dimension or figure, attributed thereto
an appetite, desire, or first motion simply, and another comparatively,
imagining that all things properly tended to the centre of the world;
those containing more matter falling faster to the centre, and thereby
removing, and in the shock driving away, such as held less. But this
is a slender conceit, and regards too few particulars; for neither
the revolutions of the celestial bodies, nor the contractions and
expansions of things, can be reduced to this principle. And for the
opinion of Epicurus, as to the declination and fortuitous agitation of
atoms, this only brings the matter back again to a trifle, and wraps it
up in ignorance and night.
Cupid is elegantly drawn a perpetual child; for compounds are larger
things, and have their periods of age; but the first seeds or atoms of
bodies are small, and remain in a perpetual infant state.
He is again justly represented naked; as all compounds may properly
be said to be dressed and clothed, or to assume a personage; whence
nothing remains truly naked, but the original particles of things.
The blindness of Cupid contains a deep allegory; for this same Cupid,
Love, or appetite of the world, seems to have very little foresight,
but directs his steps and motions conformably to what he finds next
him, as blind men do when they feel out their way; which renders the
divine and overruling Providence and foresight the more surprising;
as by a certain steady law, it brings such a beautiful order and
regularity of things out of what seems extremely casual, void of
design, and, as it were, really blind.
The last attribute of Cupid is archery, viz: a virtue or power
operating at a distance; for every thing that operates at a distance
may seem, as it were, to dart, or shoot with arrows. And whoever allows
of atoms and vacuity, necessarily supposes that the virtue of atoms
operates at a distance; for without this operation, no motion could be
excited, on account of the vacuum interposing, but all things would
remain sluggish and unmoved.
As to the other Cupid, he is properly said to be the youngest son
of the gods, as his power could not take place before the formation