ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 241 



kind of square battalion, and that each element contained 

 species of beings corresponding to each, other, and possess 

 ing, as it were, parallel properties. 13 And again, men make 

 themselves, as it were, the mirror and rule of nature. It is 

 incredible what a number of idols have been introduced 

 into philosophy by the reduction of natural operations to 

 a correspondence with human actions; that is, by imagining 

 nature acts as man does, which is not much better than the 

 heresy of the anthropomorphites, that sprung up in the cells 

 and solitude of ignorant monks; 14 or the opinion of Epi 

 curus, who attributed a human figure to the gods. Velleius 

 the Epicurean need not, therefore, have asked why God 

 should have adorned the heavens with stars and lights, as 

 master of the works ? For if the grand architect had acted 

 a human part, he would have ranged the stars into some 

 beautiful and elegant order, as we see in the vaulted roofs 

 of palaces ; whereas we scarce find among such an infinite 

 multitude of stars any figure either square, triangular, or 

 rectilinear; so great a difference is there between the spirit 

 of man, and the spirit of the universe. 



The idols of the den have their origin from the peculiar 

 nature, both of mind and body, in each person ; as also from 

 education, custom, and the accidents of particular persons. 

 It is a beautiful emblem, that of Plato s den; 16 for, to drop 

 the exquisite subtilty of the parable, if any one should be 

 educated from his infancy in a dark cave till he were of full 

 age, and should then of a sudden be brought into broad 

 daylight, and behold this apparatus of the heavens and of 

 things, no doubt but many strange and absurd fancies would 

 arise in his mind; and though men live indeed in the view 

 of the heavens, yet our minds are confined in the caverns of 

 our bodies ; whence of necessity we receive infinite images 

 of errors and falsehoods, if the mind does but seldom, and 

 only for a short continuance, leave its den, and not con- 



13 This hypothesis gave rise to the romance of Lamekis. 



14 Epiphanius, adv. Hser. p. 811, in which the heresy of Audius is explained. 

 16 Kepub. vii. 



SCIENCE Yol. 2111 



