120 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



found out. But others teach only one principle of nature 

 Thales, water; Anaximenes, air; Heraclitus, fire 6 and de 

 nned this principle, which is one in act, to be various and 

 dispensable in powers, and involving the seeds of all natural 

 essences. They who introduced as Aristotle and Plato 6 

 primordial matter, every way disarranged, shapeless, and 

 indifferent to any form, approached nearer to a resemblance 

 of the figure of the parable. For they conceived matter as 

 a courtesan, and the forms as suitors; so that the whole dis 

 pute comes to these two points : viz. , either that nature pro 

 ceeds from Mercury, or from Penelope and all her suitors. * 



The third origin of Pan seems borrowed by the Greeks 

 from the Hebrew mysteries, either by means of the Egyp 

 tians, or otherwise; for it relates to the state of the world, 

 not in its first creation, but as made subject to death and 

 corruption after the fall: and in this state it was and re 

 mains the offspring of Grod and Sin, or Jupiter and Ke- 

 proach. And, therefore, these three several accounts of 

 Pan s birth may seem true, if duly distinguished in respect 

 of things and times. For this Pan, or the universal nature 

 of things, which we view and contemplate, had its origin 

 from the Divine Word, and confused matter, first created by 

 God himself, with the subsequent introduction of sin, and 

 consequently corruption. 



The Destinies are justly made Pan s sisters; for the rise, 

 preservation, and dissolution of things; their depressions, 

 exaltations, processes, triumphs, and whatever else can be 

 ascribed to individual natures, are called fates and destinies, 



5 This difference between the three philosophies is nothing else, as Hippoc 

 rates has observed (De Dicta, lib. i.) than a mere dispute about words. For if 

 there be but one single element or substance identical in all its parts, as the 

 primary mover of things, it follows, as this substance is equally indifferent to the 

 forms of each of the three elements, that one name may attach to it quite as 

 philosophically as the other. In strict language, such a substance could not be 

 defined by any of these terms; as fire, air, or water, appear only as its acci 

 dental qualities, and it is not allowable to define anything whose essential prop 

 erties remain undiscovered. Ed. 



6 Plato s Timseus. 



7 Bacon directs his interpretation here to the confused mixture of things, 

 as sung by Virgil, Eel. vi. 31. 



