Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients
insomuch that, if the soul may be called the form of forms, if the hand
may be called the instrument of instruments, fire may, as properly, be
called the assistant of assistants, or the helper of helps; for hence
proceed numberless operations, hence all the mechanic arts, and hence
infinite assistances are afforded to the sciences themselves.
The manner wherein Prometheus stole this fire is properly described
from the nature of the thing; he being said to have done it by applying
a rod of birch to the chariot of the Sun; for birch is used in striking
and beating, which clearly denotes the generation of fire to be from
the violent percussions and collisions of bodies; whereby the matters
struck are subtilized, rarefied, put into motion, and so prepared to
receive the heat of the celestial bodies; whence they, in a clandestine
and secret manner, collect and snatch fire, as it were by stealth, from
the chariot of the Sun.
The next is a remarkable part of the fable, which represents that
men, instead of gratitude and thanks, fell into indignation and
expostulation, accusing both Prometheus and his fire to Jupiter,—and
yet the accusation proved highly pleasing to Jupiter; so that he, for
this reason, crowned these benefits of mankind with a new bounty.
Here it may seem strange that the sin of ingratitude to a creator and
benefactor, a sin so heinous as to include almost all others, should
meet with approbation and reward. But the allegory has another view,
and denotes, that the accusation and arraignment, both of human nature
and human art among mankind, proceeds from a most noble and laudable
temper of the mind, and tends to a very good purpose; whereas the
contrary temper is odious to the gods, and unbeneficial in itself.
For they who break into extravagant praises of human nature, and the
arts in vogue, and who lay themselves out in admiring the things they
already possess, and will needs have the sciences cultivated among
them, to be thought absolutely perfect and complete, in the first
place, show little regard to the divine nature, whilst they extol their
own inventions almost as high as his perfection. In the next place,
men of this temper are unserviceable and prejudicial in life, whilst
they imagine themselves already got to the top of things, and there
rest, without further inquiry. On the contrary, they who arraign and
accuse both nature and art, and are always full of complaints against
them, not only preserve a more just and modest sense of mind, but are
also perpetually stirred up to fresh industry and new discoveries.
Is not, then, the ignorance and fatality of mankind to be extremely
pitied, whilst they remain slaves to the arrogance of a few of their
own fellows, and are dotingly fond of that scrap of Grecian knowledge,
the Peripatetic philosophy; and this to such a degree, as not only to
think all accusation or arraignment thereof useless, but even hold it
suspect and dangerous? Certainly the procedure of Empedocles, though
furious—but especially that of Democritus (who with great modesty
complained that all things were abstruse; that we know nothing; that
truth lies hid in deep pits; that falsehood is strangely joined and
twisted along with truth, &c.)—is to be preferred before the confident,
assuming, and dogmatical school of Aristotle. Mankind are, therefore,
to be admonished, that the arraignment of nature and of art is pleasing
to the gods; and that a sharp and vehement accusation of Prometheus,
though a creator, a founder, and a master, obtained new blessings and
presents from the divine bounty, and proved more sound and serviceable
than a diffusive harangue of praise and gratulation. And let men be
assured that the fond opinion that they have already acquired enough,
is a principal reason why they have acquired so little.
That the perpetual flower of youth should be the present which mankind
received as a reward for their accusation, carries this moral; that
the ancients seem not to have despaired of discovering methods, and
remedies, for retarding old age, and prolonging the period of human
life; but rather reckoned it among those things which, through sloth
and want of diligent inquiry, perish and come to nothing, after having
been once undertaken, than among such as are absolutely impossible,
or placed beyond the reach of the human power. For they signify
and intimate from the true use of fire, and the just and strenuous
accusation and conviction of the errors of art, that the divine bounty
is not wanting to men in such kind of presents, but that men indeed
are wanting to themselves, and lay such an inestimable gift upon the
back of a slow-paced ass; that is, upon the back of the heavy, dull,
lingering thing, experience; from whose sluggish and tortoise-pace
proceeds that ancient complaint of the shortness of life, and the
slow advancement of arts. And certainly it may well seem, that the
two faculties of reasoning and experience are not hitherto properly
joined and coupled together, but to be still new gifts of the gods,
separately laid, the one upon the back of a light bird, or abstract
philosophy, and the other upon an ass, or slow-paced practice and
trial. And yet good hopes might be conceived of this ass, if it were
not for his thirst and the accidents of the way. For we judge, that if
any one would constantly proceed, by a certain law and method, in the
road of experience, and not by the way thirst after such experiments as
make for profit or ostentation, nor exchange his burden, or quit the
original design for the sake of these, he might be an useful bearer of
a new and accumulated divine bounty to mankind.
That this gift of perpetual youth should pass from men to serpents,
seems added by way of ornament, and illustration to the fable; perhaps
intimating, at the same time, the shame it is for men, that they, with
their fire, and numerous arts, cannot procure to themselves those
things which nature has bestowed upon many other creatures.
The sudden reconciliation of Prometheus to mankind, after being
disappointed of their hopes, contains a prudent and useful admonition.
It points out the levity and temerity of men in new experiments,
when, not presently succeeding, or answering to expectation, they
precipitantly quit their new undertakings, hurry back to their old
ones, and grow reconciled thereto.
After the fable has described the state of man, with regard to arts
and intellectual matters, it passes on to religion; for after the
inventing and settling of arts, follows the establishment of divine
worship, which hypocrisy presently enters into and corrupts. So that by
the two sacrifices we have elegantly painted the person of a man truly
religious, and of an hypocrite. One of these sacrifices contained the
fat, or the portion of God, used for burning and incensing; thereby
denoting affection and zeal, offered up to his glory. It likewise
contained the bowels, which are expressive of charity, along with
the good and useful flesh. But the other contained nothing more than
dry bones, which nevertheless stuffed out the hide, so as to make it
resemble a fair, beautiful, and magnificent sacrifice; hereby finely
denoting the external and empty rites and barren ceremonies, wherewith
men burden and stuff out the divine worship,—things rather intended for
show and ostentation than conducing to piety. Nor are mankind simply
content with this mock-worship of God, but also impose and further it
upon him, as if he had chosen and ordained it. Certainly the prophet,
in the person of God, has a fine expostulation, as to this matter of
choice: “Is this the fasting which I have chosen, that a man should
afflict his soul for a day, and bow down his head like a bulrush?”
After thus touching the state of religion, the fable next turns to
manners, and the conditions of human life. And though it be a very
common, yet is it a just interpretation, that Pandora denotes the
pleasures and licentiousness which the cultivation and luxury of
the arts of civil life introduce, as it were, by the instrumental
efficacy of fire; whence the works of the voluptuary arts are properly
attributed to Vulcan, the God of Fire. And hence infinite miseries and
calamities have proceeded to the minds, the bodies, and the fortunes
of men, together with a late repentance; and this not in each man’s
particular, but also in kingdoms and states; for wars, and tumults, and
tyrannies, have all arisen from this same fountain, or box of Pandora.
It is worth observing, how beautifully and elegantly the fable has
drawn two reigning characters in human life, and given two examples,
or tablatures of them, under the persons of Prometheus and Epimetheus.
The followers of Epimetheus are improvident, see not far before them,
and prefer such things as are agreeable for the present; whence they
are oppressed with numerous straits, difficulties, and calamities, with
which they almost continually struggle; but in the mean time gratify
their own temper, and, for want of a better knowledge of things, feed
their minds with many vain hopes; and as with so many pleasing dreams,
delight themselves, and sweeten the miseries of life.
But the followers of Prometheus are the prudent, wary men, that look
into futurity, and cautiously guard against, prevent, and undermine
many calamities and misfortunes. But this watchful, provident temper,
is attended with a deprivation of numerous pleasures, and the loss of
various delights, whilst such men debar themselves the use even of
innocent things, and what is still worse, rack and torture themselves
with cares, fears, and disquiets; being bound fast to the pillar of
necessity, and tormented with numberless thoughts (which for their
swiftness are well compared to an eagle), that continually wound,
tear, and gnaw their liver or mind, unless, perhaps, they find some
small remission by intervals, or as it were at nights; but then
new anxieties, dreads, and fears, soon return again, as it were in
the morning. And, therefore, very few men, of either temper, have
secured to themselves the advantages of providence, and kept clear of
disquiets, troubles, and misfortunes.
Nor indeed can any man obtain this end without the assistance of
Hercules; that is, of such fortitude and constancy of mind as stands
prepared against every event, and remains indifferent to every change;
looking forward without being daunted, enjoying the good without
disdain, and enduring the bad without impatience. And it must be
observed, that even Prometheus had not the power to free himself,
but owed his deliverance to another; for no natural inbred force and
fortitude could prove equal to such a task. The power of releasing him
came from the utmost confines of the ocean, and from the sun; that is,
from Apollo, or knowledge; and again, from a due consideration of the
uncertainty, instability, and fluctuating state of human life, which
is aptly represented by sailing the ocean. Accordingly, Virgil has
prudently joined these two together, accounting him happy who knows the
causes of things, and has conquered all his fears, apprehensions, and
superstitions.[642]
It is added, with great elegance, for supporting and confirming the
human mind, that the great hero who thus delivered him sailed the ocean
in a cup, or pitcher, to prevent fear, or complaint; as if, through
the narrowness of our nature, or a too great fragility thereof, we
were absolutely incapable of that fortitude and constancy to which
Seneca finely alludes, when he says: “It is a noble thing, at once to
participate in the frailty of man and the security of a god.”
We have hitherto, that we might not break the connection of things,
designedly omitted the last crime of Prometheus—that of attempting