THE WISDOM bF THE ANCIENTS. 43 



in a form most ignoble and base, an object full of 

 contempt and scorn, resembling indeed a miserable 

 cuckoo, weather-beaten with rain and tempest, 

 numbed, quaking, and half dead with cold. 



This fable is wise, and seems to be taken out of 

 the bowels of morality ; the sense of it being this, 

 that men boast not too much of themselves, think 

 ing by ostentation of their own worth to insinuate 

 themselves into estimation and favour with men. 

 The success of such intentions being for the most 

 part measured by the nature and disposition of those 

 to whom men sue for grace : who, if of themselves 

 they be endowed with no gifts and ornaments of na 

 ture, but are only of haughty and malignant spirits, 

 intimated by the person of Juno, then are suitors to 

 know that it is good policy to omit all kind of ap 

 pearance that may any way shew their own least 

 praise or worth ; and that they much deceive them 

 selves in taking any other course. Neither is it 

 enough to shew deformity in obsequiousness, unless 

 they also appear even abject and base in their very 

 persons. 



CUPID, OR AN ATOM. 



That which the poets say of Cupid, or Love, 

 cannot properly be attributed to one and the self 

 same person, and yet the difference is such, that, by 

 rejecting the confusion of persons, the similitude 

 may be received. 



They say that Love is the ancientest of all the 

 gods, and of all things else except chaos, which they 



