Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients
narcissus flowers in the meads of Sicily, and hurrying her to his
chariot, carried her with him to the subterraneal regions, where she
was treated with the highest reverence, and styled the Lady of Dis.
But Ceres, missing her only daughter, whom she extremely loved, grew
pensive and anxious beyond measure, and taking a lighted torch in her
hand, wandered the world over in quest of her daughter,—but all to no
purpose, till, suspecting she might be carried to the infernal regions,
she, with great lamentation and abundance of tears, importuned Jupiter
to restore her; and with much ado prevailed so far as to recover and
bring her away, if she had tasted nothing there. This proved a hard
condition upon the mother, for Proserpine was found to have eaten three
kernels of a pomegranate. Ceres, however, desisted not, but fell to
her entreaties and lamentations afresh, insomuch that at last it was
indulged her that Proserpine should divide the year betwixt her husband
and her mother, and live six months with the one and as many with the
other. After this, Theseus and Perithous, with uncommon audacity,
attempted to force Proserpine away from Pluto’s bed, but happening
to grow tired in their journey, and resting themselves upon a stone
in the realms below, they could never rise from it again, but remain
sitting there forever. Proserpine, therefore, still continued queen of
the lower regions, in honor of whom there was also added this grand
privilege, that though it had never been permitted any one to return
after having once descended thither, a particular exception was made,
that he who brought a golden bough as a present to Proserpine, might
on that condition descend and return. This was an only bough that
grew in a large dark grove, not from a tree of its own, but like the
mistletoe from another, and when plucked away a fresh one always shot
out in its stead.
EXPLANATION.—This fable seems to regard natural philosophy, and
searches deep into that rich and fruitful virtue and supply in
subterraneous bodies, from whence all the things upon the earth’s
surface spring, and into which they again relapse and return. By
Proserpine, the ancients denoted that ethereal spirit shut up and
detained within the earth, here represented by Pluto,—the spirit being
separated from the superior globe, according to the expression of
the poet.[648] This spirit is conceived as ravished, or snatched up
by the earth, because it can in no way be detained, when it has time
and opportunity to fly off, but is only wrought together and fixed
by sudden intermixture and comminution, in the same manner as if one
should endeavor to mix air with water, which cannot otherwise be done
than by a quick and rapid agitation, that joins them together in froth
whilst the air is thus caught up by the water. And it is elegantly
added, that Proserpine was ravished whilst she gathered narcissus
flowers, which have their name from numbedness or stupefaction; for the
spirit we speak of is in the fittest disposition to be embraced by
terrestrial matter when it begins to coagulate, or grow torpid as it
were.
It is an honor justly attributed to Proserpine, and not to any other
wife of the gods, that of being the lady or mistress of her husband,
because this spirit performs all its operations in the subterraneal
regions, whilst Pluto, or the earth, remains stupid, or as it were
ignorant of them.
The ether, or the efficacy of the heavenly bodies, denoted by Ceres,
endeavors with infinite diligence to force out this spirit, and restore
it to its pristine state. And by the torch in the hand of Ceres, or
the ether, is doubtless meant the sun, which disperses light over
the whole globe of the earth, and if the thing were possible, must
have the greatest share in recovering Proserpine, or reinstating
the subterraneal spirit. Yet Proserpine still continues and dwells
below, after the manner excellently described in the condition betwixt
Jupiter and Ceres. For first, it is certain that there are two ways
of detaining the spirit, in solid and terrestrial matter,—the one by
condensation or obstruction, which is mere violence and imprisonment;
the other by administering a proper aliment, which is spontaneous
and free. For after the included spirit begins to feed and nourish
itself, it is not in a hurry to fly off, but remains as it were fixed
in its own earth. And this is the moral of Proserpine’s tasting the
pomegranate; and were it not for this, she must long ago have been
carried up by Ceres, who with her torch wandered the world over, and
so the earth have been left without its spirit. For though the spirit
in metals and minerals may perhaps be, after a particular manner,
wrought in by the solidity of the mass, yet the spirit of vegetables
and animals has open passages to escape at, unless it be willingly
detained, in the way of sipping and tasting them.
The second article of agreement, that of Proserpine’s remaining
six months with her mother and six with her husband, is an elegant
description of the division of the year; for the spirit diffused
through the earth lives above-ground in the vegetable world during the
summer months, but in the winter returns under ground again.
The attempt of Theseus and Perithous to bring Proserpine away, denotes
that the more subtile spirits, which descend in many bodies to the
earth, may frequently be unable to drink in, unite with themselves, and
carry off the subterraneous spirit, but on the contrary be coagulated
by it, and rise no more, so as to increase the inhabitants and add to
the dominion of Proserpine.[649]
The alchemists will be apt to fall in with our interpretation of the
golden bough, whether we will or no, because they promise golden
mountains, and the restoration of natural bodies from their stone,
as from the gates of Pluto; but we are well assured that their theory
had no just foundation, and suspect they have no very encouraging or
practical proofs of its soundness. Leaving, therefore, their conceits
to themselves, we shall freely declare our own sentiments upon this
last part of the fable. We are certain, from numerous figures and
expressions of the ancients, that they judged the conservation, and
in some degree the renovation, of natural bodies to be no desperate
or impossible thing, but rather abstruse and out of the common road
than wholly impracticable. And this seems to be their opinion in the
present case, as they have placed this bough among an infinite number
of shrubs, in a spacious and thick wood. They supposed it of gold,
because gold is the emblem of duration. They feigned it adventitious,
not native, because such an effect is to be expected from art, and not
from any medicine or any simple or mere natural way of working.
XXX.—METIS, OR COUNSEL.
EXPLAINED OF PRINCES AND THEIR COUNCIL.
The ancient poets relate that Jupiter took Metis to wife, whose name
plainly denotes counsel, and that he, perceiving she was pregnant by
him, would by no means wait the time of her delivery, but directly
devoured her; whence himself also became pregnant, and was delivered in
a wonderful manner; for he from his head or brain brought forth Pallas
armed.
EXPLANATION.—This fable, which in its literal sense appears monstrously
absurd, seems to contain a state secret, and shows with what art kings
usually carry themselves towards their council, in order to preserve
their own authority and majesty not only inviolate, but so as to have
it magnified and heightened among the people. For kings commonly
link themselves, as it were, in a nuptial bond to their council, and
deliberate and communicate with them after a prudent and laudable
custom upon matters of the greatest importance, at the same time justly
conceiving this no diminution of their majesty; but when the matter
once ripens to a decree or order, which is a kind of birth, the king
then suffers the council to go on no further, lest the act should seem
to depend upon their pleasure. Now, therefore, the king usually assumes
to himself whatever was wrought, elaborated, or formed, as it were, in
the womb of the council (unless it be a matter of an invidious nature,
which he is sure to put from him), so that the decree and the execution
shall seem to flow from himself.[650] And as this decree or execution
proceeds with prudence and power, so as to imply necessity, it is
elegantly wrapped up under the figure of Pallas armed.
Nor are kings content to have this seem the effect of their own
authority, free will, and uncontrollable choice, unless they also take
the whole honor to themselves, and make the people imagine that all
good and wholesome decrees proceed entirely from their own head, that
is, their own sole prudence and judgment.
XXXI.—THE SIRENS, OR PLEASURES.
EXPLAINED OF MEN’S PASSION FOR PLEASURES.
INTRODUCTION.—The fable of the Sirens is, in a vulgar sense, justly
enough explained of the pernicious incentives to pleasure; but the
ancient mythology seems to us like a vintage ill-pressed and trod; for
though something has been drawn from it, yet all the more excellent
parts remain behind in the grapes that are untouched.
FABLE.—The Sirens are said to be the daughters of Achelous and
Terpsichore, one of the Muses. In their early days they had wings,
but lost them upon being conquered by the Muses, with whom they
rashly contended; and with the feathers of these wings the Muses made
themselves crowns, so that from this time the Muses wore wings on their
heads, except only the mother to the Sirens.
These Sirens resided in certain pleasant islands, and when, from their
watch-tower, they saw any ship approaching, they first detained the
sailors by their music, then, enticing them to shore, destroyed them.
Their singing was not of one and the same kind, but they adapted their
tunes exactly to the nature of each person, in order to captivate and
secure him. And so destructive had they been, that these islands of
the Sirens appeared, to a very great distance, white with the bones of
their unburied captives.
Two different remedies were invented to protect persons against them,
the one by Ulysses, the other by Orpheus. Ulysses commanded his
associates to stop their ears close with wax; and he, determining to
make the trial, and yet avoid the danger, ordered himself to be tied
fast to a mast of the ship, giving strict charge not to be unbound,
even though himself should entreat it; but Orpheus, without any binding
at all, escaped the danger, by loudly chanting to his harp the praises
of the gods, whereby he drowned the voices of the Sirens.
EXPLANATION.—This fable is of the moral kind, and appears no less
elegant than easy to interpret. For pleasures proceed from plenty and
affluence, attended with activity or exultation of the mind.[651]
Anciently their first incentives were quick, and seized upon men
as if they had been winged, but learning and philosophy afterwards
prevailing, had at least the power to lay the mind under some
restraint, and make it consider the issue of things, and thus deprived
pleasures of their wings.
This conquest redounded greatly to the honor and ornament of the
Muses; for after it appeared, by the example of a few, that philosophy
could introduce a contempt of pleasures, it immediately seemed to be a
sublime thing that could raise and elevate the soul, fixed in a manner
down to the earth, and thus render men’s thoughts, which reside in the
head, winged as it were, or sublime.
Only the mother of the Sirens was not thus plumed on the head, which
doubtless denotes superficial learning, invented and used for delight
and levity; an eminent example whereof we have in Petronius, who,
after receiving sentence of death, still continued his gay frothy