THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. 13 



ported, or at least not much ; a thing to be wondered 

 at, especially being among a troop of gods so pro 

 fusely amorous. This only is said of him, that he 

 loved the nymph Echo, whom he took to wife; and 

 one pretty wench more called Syrinx, towards whom 

 Cupid, in an angry and revengeful humour, because 

 so audaciously he had challenged him at wrestling, 

 inflamed his desire. Moreover, he had no issue, 

 which is a marvel also, seeing the gods, especially 

 those of the male kind, were very generative, only he 

 was the reputed father of a little girl called lambe, 

 that with many pretty tales was wont to make 

 strangers merry: but some think that he did indeed 

 beget her by his wife lambe. 



This, if any be, is a noble tale, as being laid out 

 and big bellied with the secrets and mysteries of na 

 ture. Pan, as his name imports, represents and lays 

 open the all of things or nature. Concerning his 

 original there are two only opinions that go for cur 

 rent ; for either he came of Mercury, that is, the 

 Word of God, which the holy Scriptures without all 

 controversy affirm, and such of the philosophers as 

 had any smack of divinity assented unto, or else 

 from the confused seeds of things. For they that 

 would have one simple beginning, refer it unto God ; 

 or if a materiate beginning, they would have it 

 various in power ; so that we may end the contro 

 versy with this distribution, that the world took 

 beginning, either from Mercury, or from the seeds 

 of all things. 



