274 PREFACE TO THE 



re Kal avroreXf) TroAu/A^Tiv Epwra, 

 ocnra T ec^ucrev aTrarra, ra 8* lupiOev aXXov OLTT aAAo. 1 



Nothing is said here, or elsewhere I believe, of his 

 having mingled with Uranos in the engendering of the 

 universe ; and I am inclined to think that when Bacon 

 says, &quot; Ipse cum Coelo mistus, et deos et res universos 

 progenuit,&quot; we ought to substitute Chao for Coelo. 2 

 For the passage in Aristophanes goes on to say that in 

 wide Tartarus Eros and Chaos mingled in love and 

 produced first the race of birds and then gods and 

 men. 



Of Phanes nothing of this kind is mentioned, except 

 his intercourse with Night ; 3 so that Bacon s statement 

 does not seem to be in any way justified. 



It would be endless to cite passages in which the 

 attributes of Eros are described, nor is it necessary 

 to do so. 



The form in which Bacon connects the myth of the 

 primeval Eros with philosophy is far less artificial and 

 unreal than most of the interpretations which he has 

 given in the Wisdom of the Ancients. Chaos repre 

 sents uninformed matter ; Eros matter actually exist 

 ing, and possessed of the law or principle by which it 

 is energised ; the first principle, in short, which is the 

 cause of all phenomena. The parents of Eros are un 

 known ; that is to say, it is in vain to seek to carry our 



1 Argonaut. 423. In the third Ijne Trv&fiEvaf is admitted to be corrupt. 

 I would venture to suggest TroAtaf, making tf aAa&amp;lt;T07?f the genitive case after 



yevemv. . n 



2 This conjecture is confirmed by the corresponding passage n 

 Sap. Vet., where for cum calo mistus we have ex chao. J. S. 



8 Lobeck, i. 501. It is to this intercourse that the line quoted by Proclus 



refers : 



yap 7ra56f afaiteTO Kovpiov ui flof. 



