126 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



to a dissolution of the world, and falling back to its first 

 chaos again, unless this depravity and inclination were re 

 strained and subdued by a more powerful concord and 

 agreement of things, properly expressed by love or Cupid; 

 it is therefore well for mankind, and the state of all things, 

 that Pan was thrown and conquered in the struggle. 



His catching and detaining Typhon in the net receives 

 a similar explanation; for whatever vast and unusual swells, 

 which the word Typhon signifies, may sometimes be raised 

 in nature, as in the sea, the clouds, the earth, or the like; 

 yet nature catches, entangles, and holds all such outrages 

 and insurrections in her inextricable net, wove as it were 

 of adamant. 



That part of the fable which attributes the discovery of 

 lost Ceres to Pan, while he was hunting, a happiness denied 

 the other gods, though they diligently and expressly sought 

 her, contains an exceeding just and prudent admonition; 

 viz., that we are not to expect the discovery of things useful 

 in common life, as that of corn, denoted by Ceres, from 

 abstract philosophies, as if these were the gods of the first 

 order no, not though we used our utmost endeavors this 

 way but only from Pan, that is, a sagacious experience 

 and general knowledge of nature, which is often found, even 

 by accident, to stumble upon such discoveries, while the 

 pursuit was directed another way. 



The event of his contending with Apollo in music, 

 affords us a useful instruction, that may help to humble 

 the human reason and judgment, which is too apt to boast 

 and glory in itself. There seem to be two kinds of harmony; 

 the one of Divine Providence, the other of human reason: 

 but the government of the world, the administration of its 

 affairs, and the more secret divine judgments, sound harsh 

 and dissonant to human ears or human judgment; and 

 though this ignorance be justly rewarded with ass s ears, 

 yet they are put on and worn, not openly, but with great 

 secrecy; nor is the deformity of the thing seen or observed 

 by the vulgar. 



