30 THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. 



running forward and backward with perpetual 

 unrest. 



&quot; Eumenidum veluti demens vidit agmina Pentheus. 



&quot; Et solem geminum, duplices se ostendere Thebas.&quot; 



Pentheus amazed, doth troops of Furies spy ; 

 And sun and Thebes seem double to his eye. 



The first of the fables pertains to the secrets of 

 princes, the second to divine mysteries. For those 

 that are near about princes, and come to the know 

 ledge of more secrets than they would have them, do 

 certainly incur great hatred : and therefore, suspect 

 ing that they are shot at, and opportunities watched 

 for their overthrow, do lead their lives like stags, 

 fearful and full of suspicion. And it happens often 

 times that their servants, and those of their house 

 hold, to insinuate into the princes favour, do accuse 

 them to their destruction, for against whomsoever 

 the prince s displeasure is known, look how many 

 servants that man hath, and you shall find them for 

 the most part so many traitors unto him, that his end 

 may prove to be like Action s. 



The other is the misery of Pentheus ; for that 

 by the height of knowledge and nature in philoso 

 phy, having climbed as it were into a tree, do with 

 rash attempts, unmindful of their frailty, pry into the 

 secrets of divine mysteries, and are justly plagued 

 with perpetual inconstancy, and with wavering and 

 perplexed conceits ; for seeing the light of nature is 

 one thing and of grace another ; it happens so to 

 them as if they saw two suns. And seeing the 

 actions of life and decrees of the will to depend on 



