THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. 3 



&quot; Republic^ Platonis, non tanquam in faece Romuli.&quot; 

 Cato (saith he) judgeth profoundly, but in the mean 

 time damnifies the state, for he speaks as in the com 

 monwealth of Plato and not as in the dregs of 

 Romulus. 



TYPHON, OR A REBEL. 



Juno, being vexed (say the poets) that Jupiter 

 had begotten Pallas by himself without her, earnestly 

 pressed all the other gods and goddesses, that she 

 might also bring forth of herself alone without him; 

 and having by violence and importunity obtained a 

 grant thereof, she smote the earth, and forthwith 

 sprang up Typhon, a huge and horrid monster. 

 This strange birth she commits to a serpent, as a 

 foster-father, to nourish it ; who no sooner came to 

 ripeness of years but he provokes Jupiter to battle. 

 In the conflict, the giant getting the upper hand, 

 takes Jupiter upon his shoulders, carries him into a re 

 mote and obscure country, and (cutting out the sinews 

 of his hands and feet) brought them away, and so left 

 him miserably mangled and maimed ; but Mercury 

 recovering these nerves from Typhon by stealth, re 

 stored them again to Jupiter. Jupiter being again 

 by this means corroborated, assaults the monster 

 afresh, and at the first strikes him with a thunder 

 bolt, from whose blood serpents were engendered. 

 This monster at length fainting and flying, Jupiter 

 casts on him the mount ^Etna, and with the weight 

 thereof crushed him. 



This fable seems to point at the variable fortune 



