Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/423

 THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. fore, suspecting: that they are shot at, and oppor- ainities watched for their overthrow, do lead their lives like stags, fearful and full of suspicion. And it happens oftentimes that their servants, and those of their household, to insinuate into the prince s favour, do accuse them to their destruc tion, for against whomsoever the prince s displea sure is known, look how many servants that man hath, and you shall find them for the most part so many traitors unto him, that his end may prove to be like Action s. The other is the misery of Pentheus ; for that by the height of knowledge and nature in philo sophy, having climbed as it were into a tree, do with rash attempts, unmindful of their frailty, pry into the secrets of divine mysteries, and are justly plagued with perpetual inconstancy, and with wavering and perplexed conceits; for see ing the light of nature is one thing and of grace another, it happens so to them as if they saw two suns. And seeing the actions of life and decrees of the will to depend on the understand- iflg, it follows that they doubt, are inconstant no less in wfll than in opinion ; and so in like manner they may be said to see two Thebes ; for by Thebes, seeing there was the habitation and refuge of Pentheus, is meant the end of actions. Hence it comes to pass that they know not whither they go, but as distracted and unre solved in the scope of their intentions, are in all things carried about with sudden passions of the mind. ORPHEUS, OR PHILOSOPHY. THE tale of Orpheus, though common, had never the fortune to be fitly applied in every point. It may seem to represent the image of philoso phy : for the person of Orpheus, a man admirable and divine, and so excellently skilled in all kind of harmony, that with his sweet ravishing music he did, as it were, charm and allure all things to follow him, may carry a singular description of philosophy ; for the labours of Orpheus do so far exceed the labours of Hercules in dignity and efficacy, as the works of wisdom excel the works of fortitude. Orpheus, for the love he bare to his wife, snatch ed, as it were, from him by untimely death, re solved to go down to hell with his harp, to try if he might obtain her of the infernal power. Neither were his hopes frustrated : for having appeased them with the melodious sound of his voice and touch, prevailed at length so far, as that they granted him leave to take her away with him; but on this condition, that she should follow him, and he look not back upon her till he came to the light of the upper world ; which he, impatient of, out ot love and care, and thinking that he was in a manner past all danger, nevertheless violated, in somuch that the covenant is broken, and she forth with tumbles back again headlong into hell. Orpheus falling into a deep melancholy, became a contemner of women-kind, and bequeathed him self to a solitary life in the deserts ; where, by the same melody of his voice and harp, he first drew all manner of wild beasts unto him, who, forgetful of their savage fierceness, and casting off the precipitate provocations of lust and fury, not caring to satiate their voracity by hunting after prey, as at a theatre, in fawning and reconciled amity one towards another, standing all at the gaze about him, and attentively lend their ears to his music. Neither is this all : for so great was the power and alluring force of this harmony, that he drew the woods, and moved the very stones to come and place themselves in an orderly and decent fashion about him. These things succeed ing happily, and with great admiration for a time; at length certain Thracian women, possessed with the spirit of Bacchus, made such a horrid and strange noise with their cornets, that the sound of Orpheus s harp could no more be heard, insomuch as that harmony, which was the bond of that order, and society being dissolved, all -disorder began again, and the beasts returning to their wonted na ture, pursued one another unto death as before; neither did the trees and stones remain any longer in their places; and Orpheus himself was by these female Furies torn in pieces, and scattered all over the desert; for whose cruel death the river Helicon, sacred to the Muses, in horrible indignation hid his head underground, and raised it again in another place. The meaning of this fable seems to be thus. Orpheus s music is of two sorts, the one appeas ing the infernal powers, the other attracting beasts and trees. The first may be fitly applied to natural philosophy, the second to moral or civil discipline. The most noble work of natural philosophy is the restitution and renovation of things corrupt ible : the other, as a lesser degree of it, the pre servation of bodies in their estates, detaining them from dissolution and putrefaction : and if this gift may be in mortals, certainly it can be done by no other means than by the due and ex quisite temper of nature, as by the melody and delicate touch of an instrument ; but seeing it is of all things most difficult, it is seldom or never attained unto; and in all likelihood for no other reason, more than through curious diligence and untimely impatience : and therefore philosophy, hardly able to produce so excellent an effect in a pensive humour, and that without cause, busies herself about human objects, and by persuasion and eloquence insinuating the love of virtue, equity, and concord, in the minds of men, draws multitudes of people to a society, makes them subject to laws, obedient to government, and for getful of their unbridled affections, whilst they give ear to precepts, and submit themselves to