90 THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. 



again, but sat there for ever. Proserpina therefore 

 remained queen of hell, in whose honour there was 

 this great privilege granted ; that, although it 

 were enacted, that none that went down to hell 

 should have the power ever to return from thence ; yet 

 was this singular exception annexed to this law, 

 that if any presented Proserpina with a golden 

 bough, it should be lawful for him to go and come 

 at his pleasure. Now there was but one only such 

 a bough in a spacious and shady grove, which was 

 not a plant neither of itself, but budded from a tree 

 of another kind, like a rope of gum which being 

 plucked off, another would instantly spring out. 



This fable seems to pertain to nature, and to dive 

 into that rich and plentiful efficacy and variety of sub- 

 alternal creatures, from whom whatsoever we have 

 is derived, and to them doth again return. 



By Proserpina, the ancients meant that ethereal 

 spirit, which being separated from the upper globe, 

 is shut up and detained under the earth, represented 

 by Pluto, which the poet well expressed thus : 



&quot; Sive recens tellus, seductaque nuper ab alto 

 &quot; JEthere, cognati retinebat semina cceli.&quot; 



Whether the youngling Tellus (that of late 

 Was from the high-rear d aether separate) 

 Did yet contain her teeming womb within 

 The living seeds of heaven, her nearest kin. 



This spirit is feigned to be rapted by the earth, 

 because nothing can withhold it, when it hath time 

 and leisure to escape. It is therefore caught and 

 stayed by a sudden contraction, no otherwise than if 



