Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/440

 312 THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. to intimate in this place, when they report that like the grapes ill pressed ; from which, though this one only sprig was found among infinite other | some liquor were drawn, yet the best was left be- trees in a huge and thick wood, which they feign ed to be of gold, because gold is the badge of perpetuity, and to be artificially as it were insert ed, because this effect is to be rather hoped for from art, than from any medicine, or simple or na tural means. METIS, OR COUNSEL. THE ancient poets report that Jupiter took Me tis to wife, whose name doth plainly signify coun sel, and that she by him conceived. Which when he found, not tarrying the time of her deli devours both her and that which she went withal, by which means Jupiter himself became with t child, and was delivered of a wondrous birth ; for out of his head or brain came forth Pallas armed. The sense of this fable, which at first appre hension may seem monstrous and absurd, tains in it a secret of state, to wit, with what po licy kings are wont to carry themselves towards their counsellors, whereby they may not only pre serve their authority and majesty free and entire, but also that it may be the more extolled and dig nified of the people: for kings being as it were tied and coupled in a nuptial bond to their counsellors, do truly conceive that communicating with them about the affairs of greatest importance, do yet de tract nothing from their own majesty. But when any matter comes to be censured or decreed, which is a birth, there do they confine and restrain the liberty of their counsellors ; lest that which is done should seem to be hatched by their wisdom and judgment. So as at last kings, except it be in such matters as are distasteful and maligned, which they always will be sure to put off from themselves, do assume the honour and praise of all matters that are ruminated in council, and as it were, formed in the womb, whereby the resolu tion and execution, which, because it proceeds from power and implies necessity, is elegantly shadowed under the figure of Pallas armed, shall seem to proceed wholly from themselves. Nei ther sumceth it, that it is done by the authority of the king, by his mere will and free applause, ex cept withal, this be added and appropriated as to issue out of his own head or brain, intimating, that out of his own judgment, wisdom, and ordi nance, it was only invented and derived. THE SIRENS, OR PLEASURES. THE fable of the Sirens seems rightly to have l.een applied to the pernicious allurements of plea sure, but in a very vulgar and gross manner. And, therefore, to me it appears, that the wisdom. of the ancients ha&amp;lt;e, with a farther raach or in- hind. These Sirens are said to be the daughters of Achelous and Terpsichore one of the muses, who in their first being were winged, but after rashly entering into contention with the muses, were by them vanquished and deprived of their wings: of whose plucked out feathers the muses made themselves coronets, so as ever since that time all the muses have attired themselves with plumed heads, except Terpsichore only, that was mother to the Sirens. The habitation of the Si rens was in certain pleasant islands, from whence as soon as out of their watch-tower they disco vered any ships approaching, with their sweet tunes they would first entice and stay them, and having them in their power would destroy them. Neither was their song plain and single, but con sisting of such variety of melodious tunes, so fitting and delighting the ears that heard them, as that it ravished and betrayed all passengers: and so great were the mischiefs they did, that these isles of the Sirens, even as far off as man can ken them, appeared all over white with the bones of unburied carcasses. For the remedying of this misery a double means was at last found out, the one by Ulysses, the other by Orpheus. Ulysses, to make experiment of his device, caused all the ears of his company to be stopped with wax, and made himself to be bound to the mainmast, with special commandment to his mariners not to be loosed, albeit himself should require them so to But Orpheus neglected and disdained to be so bound, with a shrill and sweet voice singing praises of the gods to his harp, suppressed the songs of the Sirens, and so freed himself from their danger. This fable hath relation to men s manners, and contains in it a manifest and most excellent para- ile : for pleasures do for the most proceed out of the abundance and superfluity of all things, and also out of the delights and jovial contentments of the mind : the which are wont suddenly, as it re with winged enticements to ravish and rap mortal men. t so to pass But learning and education brings that it restrains and bridles man s nind, making it so to consider the ends and events, of things, as that it clips the wings of plea sure. And this was greatly to the honour and enown of the muses ; for after that, by some ex ample, it was made manifest that by the power of )hilosophy vain pleasures might grow contempt- ble; it presently grew to great esteem, as a thing hat could raise and elevate the mind aloft, that logkations of the men, which do ever reside in the lead, to be sethereal, and as it were winged. But hat the mother of the Sirens was left to her eet, and without wings, that no doubt is no other wise meant than of light and superficial learning, light, strained deeper mattei out of them, not un- j appropriated and defined only to pleasures,
 * eemed to be base and fixed to the earth, ms?ke the