Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/430

 THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. bones, the stones of the earth, seeing the earth was the mother of all things, were signified by the oracle. This fable seems to reveal a secret of nature, and to correct an error familiar to men s conceits ; for through want of knowledge men think that things may take renovation and restoration from theirputrefaction and dregs, no otherwise than the phoenix from the ashes, which in no case can be admitted, seeing such kind of materials, when they have fulfilled their periods, are unapt for the be ginnings of such things : we must therefore look back to more common principles. NEMESIS, OR THE VICISSITUDE OF THINGS. NEMESIS is said to be a goddess venerable unto all, but to be feared of none but potentates and For tune s favourites. She is thought to be the daughter of Oceamis and Nox. She is portrayed with wings on her shoulders, and on her head a coronet, bear ing in her right hand a javelin of ash, and in her left a pitcher, with the similitudes of ^Ethiopians engraven on it : and lastly, she is described sitting on a hart. The parable may be thus unfolded. Her name Nemesis, doth plainly signify revenge or retribu tion, her office and administration being, like a tribune of the people, to hinder the constant and perpetual felicity of happy men, and to interpose her word, &quot;veto,&quot; I forbid the continuance of it; that is not only to chastise insolency, but to inter mix prosperity, though harmless, and in a mean, with the vicissitudes of adversity, as if it were a custom, that no mortal man should be admitted to the table of the gods but for sport. Truly when I read that chapter, wherein CaiusPlinius hath col lected his misfortunes and miseries of Augustus Caesar, whom of all men I thought the most happy, who had also a kind of art to use and enjoy his fortune, and in whose mind might be noted neither pride, nor lightness, nor niceness, nor disorder, nor melancholy, as that he had ap pointed a time to die of his own accord, I then deemed this goddess to be great and powerful, to whose altar so worthy a sacrifice as this was drawn. The parents of this goddess were Oceanus and Nox, that is, the vicissitude of things, and divine iudgment obscure and secret : for the alteration o things are aptly represented by the sea, in respec of the continual ebbing and flowing of it, and hid uen providence is well set forth by the night : fo even the nocturnal Nemesis, seeing human judg ment differs much from divine, was seriously ob served by the heathen Virgil, .flEneid, lib. 2. Cadit et Ripheiis justissimus unus, qui. That day, hy Greekish forcf, was Ripheus slain, So just and strict observer of the law, As Troy, within her walls, did not contain A better man : Yet God then good it saw. She is described with wings, because the changes of things are so sudden, as that they are seen, before foreseen; for in the records of ail ages, we find it for the most part true, that great potentates and wise men have perished by those misfortunes which they most contemned; as may be observed in Marcus Cicero, who being admo nished by Decius Brutus of Octavius Caesar s hy pocritical friendship and hollow-heartedness to wards him, returns this answer, &quot; Te autem, mi Brute, sicut debeo, amo, quod istud quicquid est nugarum me scire voluisti.&quot; I must ever acknow ledge myself, dear Brutus, beholden to thee, in ove, for that thou hast been so careful to acquaint ne with that which I esteem as a needless trifle o be doubted. Nemesis is also adorned with a coronet, to show he envious and malignant disposition of the vul gar, for when fortune s favourites and great poten- ates come to ruin, then do the common people re- oice, setting, as it were, a crown upon the head of evenge. The javelin in her right hand points at those whom she actually strikes and pierceth thorough. And before those whom she destroys not in their calamity and misfortune, she ever presents that black and dismal spectacle in her left hand ; for questionless to men sitting as it were upon the pinnacle of prosperity, the thoughts of death, and painfulness of sickness and misfortunes, peifidiousness of friends, treachery of foes, change of estate, and such like, seem as ugly to the eye of their meditations as those Ethiopians pictured in Nemesis s pitcher. Virgil, in describ ing the battle of Actium, speaks thus elegantly of Cleopatra. &quot; Regina in mediis patrio vocat agmina sistro Nee dum etiam geminos ii tergo respicit angues.&quot; The queen amidst this hurly-burly stands, And with her country timbre! calls her bands ; Not spying yet, where crawled behind her back, Two deadly snakes with venom speckled black. But not long after, which way soever she turned, troops of Ethiopians were still before her eyes. Lastly, it is wisely added that Nemesis rides upon a hart, because a hart is a most lively crea ture. And albeit, it may be, that such as are cut off by death in their youth prevent and shun the power of Nemesis; yet doubtless such, whose prosperity and power continue long, are made sub- jectunto her, and lie, as it were, trodden under her feet. ACHELOUS, OR BATTLE. IT is a fable of antiquity, that when Hercules and Achelous as rivals contended for the marriage