Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/413

 THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. THE PREFACE. THE antiquities of the first age (except those we find in sacred writ) were buried in oblivion and siJence; silence was succeeded by poetical fables : and fables again were followed by the records we now enjoy: so that the mysteries and secrets of antiquity were distinguished and separated from the records and evidences of succeeding times, bj.the veil of fiction^which interposed itself, and came be tween those things which perished and those which are extant. I suppose some are of opinion that my purpose is to write toys and trifles, and to usurp the same liberty in applying, that the poets as sumed in feigning, which I might do (confess) if I listed, and with more serious contemplation inter mix these things, to delight either myself in meditation, or others in reading. Neither am I ignorant how fickle and inconstant a thing fiction is, as being subject to be drawn and wrested any way, and how great the commodity of wit and discourse is, that is able to apply things well, yet so as never meant by the first authors. But I remember that this liberty hath been lately much abused, in that many, to purchase the reverence of antiquity to their own inventions and fancies, have for the same intent laboured to wrest many poetical fables ; neither hath this old and common vanity been used only of late, or now and then : for even Chrysippus long ago did, as an interpreter of dreams, ascribe the opinions of the Stoics to the ancient poets: and more sottishly do the chymists appropriate the fancies and delights of poets in the transformations of bodies to the experiments of their furnace. All these things, I say, I have sufficiently considered and weighed : and in them have seen and noted tho general levity and indulgence of men s wits above allegories; and yet for all this, I relinquish not my opinion. For, first, it may not be that the folly and looseness of a few should altogether detract from the re- s[i&quot;rt. tiiii: to the parables; for that were a conceit which might savour of profaneness and presump tion: for religion itself doth sometimes delight in such veils and shadows; so that whoso exempts them, seems in a manner to interdict all commerce between things divine and human. But concern ing human wisdom, I do indeed ingenuously and freely confess, that I am inclined to imagine, that under some of the ancient fictions lay couched certain mysteries and allegories, even from their first invention ; and I am persuaded, whether ravished with the reverence of antiquity, or because in some f.ibles I find such singular proportion between the similitude and the tiling signified, and such apt and clear coherence in the very structure of them, and propriety of names wherewith the persons or actors in them are ascribed and intituled, that no man can constantly deny but this sense was in the author s intent and meaning, when they first invented them, and that they purposely shadowed it in this sort : &amp;lt;or who can be so stupid and blind in the open light, as (when he hears how Fame, after the giants were destroyed, sprang up as their younger sister) not to refer it to the murmurs and seditious reports of both sides, which are wont to fly abroad for a time after the suppressing of insurrections ] Or when he hears how the giant Typhon, having cut out and brought away Jupiter s nerves, which Mercury stole from him and restored again to Jupiter, doth not presently perceive how fitly it may be applied to power ful rebellions, which take from princes their sinews of money and authority: but so that by affability of speech and wise edicts (the minds of their subjects being in time privily, and as it were by stealth reconciled) they recover their strength again 1 ? Or when he hears how, in that memorable expedition of the gods against the giants, the braying of Silenus s ass conduced much to the profligation of the giants, doth not confidently imagine that it was invented to show how the greatest enterprises of rebels an- &quot;ft. utimes dispersed with vain rumours and fears. Moreover, to what judgments can the conformity and signification of names seem obscure? See- inrr Metis, the wife of Jupiter doth plai nly signify counsel : Typhon, insurrection : Pan, universality Nemesis, revenge: and the like. Neither let it trouble any man, if sometimes he meet with histor cal narrations, or additions for ornament s sake, or confusion of times, or something transferred from ft