48 FABLE OF CUPID. 



can be given, upon the first matter, and I think in accord 

 ance with the parable. 



We come now to Cupid himself, the primitive matter 

 and its properties, involved in so great darkness ; and let 

 us see what light the parable can throw upon it. And 

 here I am aware that opinions of this sort the most in 

 credible have entered men s mind. Certainly was this 

 danger incurred here by the philosophy of Democritus 

 itself upon atoms, which from its seeming acuteness and 

 profundity, and for its remoteness from common notions 

 was childishly entertained by the vulgar, but unsettled 

 and nearly overthrown by the arguments of other philo 

 sophies which came nearer the vulgar comprehension : and 

 yet he was the admiration of his age, and was styled 

 Pentathlus for his multifarious erudition, and was deemed 

 by universal consent the greatest of natural philosophers, 

 and obtained the name of a wise man. Nor could even 

 the opposition of Aristotle (who like the Ottomans could 

 not feel firm upon his throne until he had murdered his 

 brother philosophers ; and who was solicitous, as appears 

 from his own words, that posterity should not doubt his 

 dogmas) effect by his violence, nor the majesty of Plato 

 effect by reverence the demolition of this philosophy of 

 Democritus. But whilst the dicta of Aristotle and Plato 

 were celebrated with applause and professorial ostentation 

 in the schools, the philosophy of Democritus was in great 

 repute amongst the wiser sort, and those who more closely 

 gave themselves to the depths and silence of contemplation. 

 It kept its ground and was approved in the era of Roman 

 letters ; for Cicero every where makes mention of him with 

 perfect approbation ; and soon after we read the panegyric 

 of the poet, who appears to echo after the manner of the 

 poets the sentiment of his times, whose wisdom shows that, 

 in a land of dulness and beneath a Boeotian sky, the greatest 

 and the most illustrious men can spring up. (Juv. Sat. 

 10. v. 48.) 



Neither Aristotle therefore nor Plato, but Genseric, 

 Attila, and the barbarians were the ruin of this philosophy. 

 For then, after that human learning had suffered ship 

 wreck, those records of the Aristotelian and Platonic phi 

 losophy as being lighter and more inflated matter, were 

 preserved and came down to our times, whilst the more 

 solid sank and went into oblivion. I cannot but consider, 

 on the other hand, the philosophy of Democritus worthy 

 of being rescued from neglect, especially since it agrees in 



