Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/420

292 again that is dull, bibling, and reeling. The carriages and dispositions of both which ages, to some such as Democritus was, that would observe them duly, might, peradventure, seem as ridiculous and deformed as the gambols of the satyrs, or the gestures of the Sileni.

Of those fears and terrors which Pan is said to be the author, there may be this wise construction made: namely, that nature hath bred in every living thing a kind of care and fear tending to the preservation of its own life and being, and to the repelling and shunning of all things hurtful; and yet nature knows not how to keep a mean, but always intermixes vain and empty fears with such as are discreet and profitable: so that all things, if their insides might be seen, would appear full of panic frights; but men, especially in hard, fearful, and diverse times, are wonderfully infatuated with superstition, which indeed is nothing else but a panic terror.

Concerning the audacity of Pan in challenging Cupid at wrestling: the meaning of it is, that matter wants not inclination and desire to the relapsing and dissolution of the world into the old chaos, if her malice and violence were not restrained and kept in order by the prepotent unity and agreement of things, signified by Cupid or the god of love; and therefore it was a happy turn for men, and all things else, that in that conflict Pan was found too weak and overcome.

To the same effect may be interpreted his catching of Typhon in a net; for howsoever there may sometimes happen vast and unwonted tumours, as the name of Typhon imports, either in the sea, or in the air, or in the earth, or elsewhere; yet nature doth entangle it in an intricate toil, and curb and restrain it as it were with a chain of adamant, the excesses and insolencies of these kind of bodies.

But forasmuch as it was Pan's good fortune to find out Ceres, as he was hunting, and thought little of it, which none of the other gods could do, though they did nothing else but seek her, and that very seriously, it gives us this true and grave admonition, that we expect not to receive things necessary for life and manners from philosophical abstractions, as from the greater gods, albeit they applied themselves to no other study, but from Pan; that is, from the discreet observation and experience, and the universal knowledge of the things of this world; whereby, oftentimes even by chance, and as it were going a hunting, such inventions are lighted upon.

The quarrel he made with Apollo about music, and the event thereof, contains a wholesome instruction, which may serve to restrain men's reasons and judgments with reins of sobriety, from boasting and glorying in their gifts; for there seems to be a twofold harmony or music, the one of divine providence, and the other of human reason. Now to the ears of mortals, that is, to human judgment, the administration of the world and creatures therein, and the more secret judgments of God, sound very hard and harsh; which folly, albeit it be well set out with asses' ears, yet notwithstanding these ears are secret, and do not openly appear; neither is it perceived or noted as a deformity by the vulgar.

Lastly, it is not to be wondered at, that there is nothing attributed unto Pan concerning loves, but only of his marriage with Echo; for the world or nature doth enjoy itself, and in itself all things else. Now he that loves would enjoy something, but where there is enough there is no place left to desire; therefore there can be no wanting love in Pan, or the world, nor desire to obtain any thing, seeing he is contented with himself, but only speeches, which, if plain, may be intimated by the nymph Echo, or, if more quaint, by Syrinx. It is an excellent invention that Pan, or the world, is said to make choice of Echo only, above all other speeches or voices, for his wife; for that alone is true philosophy which doth faithfully render the very words of the world; and it is written no otherwise than the world doth dictate, it being nothing else but the image or reflection of it, not adding any thing of its own, but only iterates and resounds. It belongs also to the sufficiency or perfection of the world, that he begets no issue; for the world doth generate in respect of its parts; but in respect of the whole, how can it generate, seeing without it there is no body? Notwithstanding all this, the tale of that tattling girl faltered upon Pan, may in very deed, with great reason, be added to this fable; for by her are represented those vain and idle paradoxes concerning the nature of things which have been frequent in all ages, and have filled the world with novelties; fruitless, if you respect the matter; changelings, if you respect the kind; sometimes creating pleasure, sometimes tediousness, with their overmuch prattling.

is said to have been employed by Pallas for the destroying of Medusa, who was very infestuous to the western parts of the world, and especially about the utmost coasts of Hiberia; a monster so dire and horrid, that by her only aspect she turned men into stones. This Medusa alone of all the Gorgons was mortal, the rest not subject to death. Perseus, therefore, preparing himself for this noble enterprise, had arms and gifts bestowed on him by three of the gods; Mercury gave him wings annexed to his heels, Pluto a helmet, Pallas a shield and a looking-glass. Notwithstanding, although he were thus furnished, he went not directly to Medusa, but first to the Greæ, which, by the mother's side, were sisters to the Gorgons. These Greæ from their birth were hoarheaded, resembling old women; they had but one only eye and one tooth