THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. 75 



that we discerned nothing, that truth was drowned in 

 the depths of obscurity, and that false things were 

 wonderfully joined and intermixed with true, as for 

 the new academy, that exceeded all measure, than of 

 the confident and pronunciative school of Aristotle. 

 Let men therefore be admonished, that by acknow 

 ledging the imperfection of nature and art, they are 

 grateful to the gods, and shall thereby obtain new 

 benefits and greater favours at their bountiful hands; 

 and the accusation of Prometheus their author and 

 master, though bitter and vehement, will conduce 

 more to their profit, than to be effuse in the congra 

 tulation of his invention ; for, in a word, the opinion 

 of having enough, is to be accounted one of the 

 greatest causes of having too little. 



Now, as touching the kind of gift which men are 

 said to have received in reward of their accusation, 

 to wit, an ever-fading flower of youth, it is to shew, 

 that the ancients seemed not to despair of attaining 

 the skill, by means and medicines, to put off old age, 

 and to prolong life, but this to be numbered rather 

 among such things, having been once happily attained 

 unto, are now, through men s negligence and care 

 lessness, utterly perished and lost, than among such 

 as have been always denied and never granted ; for 

 they signify and shew, that by affording the true use 

 of fire, and by a good and stern accusation and con 

 viction of the errors of art, the divine bounty is not 

 wanting unto men in the obtaining of such gifts ; 

 but men are wanting to themselves in laying this 

 gift of the gods upon the back of a silly slow-paced 



