Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/431

 THE SI) )M OF TI1H ANf IKNTS. (1.1 of Dejanira, the matter drew them t.o r..Mil.at. w!u Triii Achelous took upon liim many divers shapes, for so was it in his power to do, and likeness of a furious wild hull, assaults Hercules and provokes him to fight. Hut, Hercules, for all this, sticking to his old human form, courageously encounters him, and so the combat goes roundly on. But this was the event, that Hercules tore away one of the bull s horns, wherewith he being mightily daunted and grieved, K&amp;gt; ransom his horn again was contented to give Hercules, in exchange thereof, the Amalthean horn, or cornucopia. This fable hath relation unto the expeditions of war, for the preparations thereof on the de fensive part, which, expressed in the person of Achelous, are very diverse and uncertain. But the invading party is most commonly of one sort, and that very single, consisting of an army by land, or perhaps of a navy by sea. But for a king that in his own territory expects an enemy, his occasions are infinite. He fortifies towns, he as sembles men out of the countries and villages, he raiseth citadels, he builds and breaks down bridges, he disposeth garrisons, and placeth troops of soldiers on passage of rivers ; on ports, on mountains, and ambushes in woods, and is busied with a multitude of other directions, insomuch that ever) day he prescribeth new forms and orders ; and then at last having accommodated all things complete for defence, he then rightly represents the form and manner of a fierce fighting bull. On the other side, the invader s greatest care is, the fear to be distressed for victuals in an enemy s country ; and therefore affects chiefly to hasten on battle : for if it should happen, that after a field fight, he prove the victor, and as it were break the horn of the enemy, then certainly this follows, that his enemy being stricken with terror, and abased in his reputation, presently bewrays his weakness, and seeking to repair his loss, retires himself to some stronghold, abandoning to the conqueror the spoil and sack of his country and cities ; which may well be termed a type of the Amalthean horn. DIONYSUS, OR PASSIONS. THEY say that Semele. Jupiter s sweetheart, having bound her paramour by an irrevocable oath to grant her one request which she would require, desired that he would accompany her in the same form wherein he accompanied Juno : which he granting, as not able to deny, it came ro pass that the miserable wench was burnt with lightning. But the infant which she bare in her womb, Jupiter the father took out, and Kept it in a gash which he cut in his thigh till the months were complete that it should be born. This burden made Jupiter somewhat to limp, thereupon the child, because it was heavy and was called Dionysus. Being born, was com- mittcil in 1 rosrrpina lor some years to lie nursed, and being grown up, it had such a maiden-face as* that a man could hardly judge whether it were bov or girl. He was dead also, and buried for a time, but afterwards revived : being but a youth, he invented and taught the planting and dressing of vines, the making also and use of wine ; for which, becoming famous and renowned, he sub jugated the world even to the uttermost bounds of India. He rode in a chariot drawn by tigers. There danced about him certain deformed hob goblins called Cobali, Acratus, and others, yea, even the muses also were some of his followers, He took to wife Ariadne, forsaken and ieft by Theseus;. The tree sacred unto him was the ivy He was held the inventor and institutor of sacri fices and ceremonies, and full of corruption and cruelty. He had power to strike men with fury or madness ; for it is reported, that at the cele bration of his orgies, two famous worthies, Pen- theus and Orpheus, were torn in pieces by cer tain frantic women, the one because he got upon a tree to behold their ceremonies in these sacrifices, the other for making melody with his harp ; and for his gods, they are in a manner the same with Jupiter s. There is such excellent morality couched in this fable, as that moral philosophy affords not better ; for under the person of Bacchus is described the nature of affection, passion, or perturbation, the mother of which, though never so hurtful, is nothing else but the object of apparent good in the eyes of appetite : and it is always conceived in an unlawful desire, rashly propounded and ob tained, before well understood and considered ; and when it begins to grow, the mother of it, which is the desire of apparent good by too much fervency, is destroyed and perisheth : ne vertheless, whilst yet it is an imperfect embryo, it is nourished and preserved in the human soul, which is as it were a father unto it, and represented by Jupiter; but especially in the inferior part thereof, as in a thigh, where also it causeth so much trouble and vexation, as that good determi nations and actions are much hindered and lamed thereby : and when it comes to be confirmed by consent and habit, and breaks out as it were into act, it remains yet a while with Proserpina as with a nurse; that is, it seeks corners and se cret places, and as it were, caves under ground, until the reins of shame and fear being laid aside in a pampered audaciousness, it either takes tho pretext of some virtue, or becomes altogether impu dent and shameless. And it is most true, that every vehement passion is of a doubtful sex, as being masculine in the first motion, but feminine in prose cution. It is an excellent fiction that of Bacchus s reviv- ng; for passion? do sometimes seem to lie in a troublesome to its father while it lay in his thigh. ! dead sleep, and as it were, utterly extinct; but
 * imniii_ist others, transforming himself into the