PROLEGOMENON. 51 



imagination. It means the health and strength of man's 

 own youth ; it means his life-power in contact with Nature, 

 and stands a record of his force revealed by the immortal 

 soundness of his unprofaned, unfallen organism. The God 

 of the woods to the ignorant and uninitiated is a monster, 

 savage in his attributes, hideous in his form and mien, the 

 object of fear and detestation. This is superficial and pro- 

 fane; for " PAN is a symbol of the world. In his upper part 

 he resembles a man, in his lower part a beast, because the 

 supreme and celestial part of the world is beautiful, radiant, 

 and glorious, as is the face of this god, whose horns re- 

 semble the rays of the sun and horns of the moon; the 

 redness of his face is like the splendor of the sky; and the 

 spotted skin that he wears is an image of the starry firma- 

 ment. In his lower parts he is shagged and deformed, 

 which represents the shrubs and wild beasts and the trees 

 of the earth below; his goat's feet signify the solidity of 

 the earth ; and his pipe of seven reeds that celestial har- 

 mony which is made by the seven planets. He has a sheep, 

 hook, crooked at the top, in his hand, which signifies the 

 turning of the year into itself. 



"The nymphs dance to the music of the pipe, which in- 

 strument he first invented ; and, as oft as he blows it, the 

 dugs of the sheep are filled with milk, for he is the god of 

 shepherds and hunters, the President of the Mountains 

 and of the Country Life, and the guardian of flocks that 

 graze upon the mountains." 



Withal, it is evident from this wondrous story that the 

 great god Pan is a most excellent fellow. He lives in grottos, 

 the shade of rocks, and sylvan solitudes, presiding as deity 

 over forests, pastures, flocks, shepherds, and huntsmen, 

 especially happy in the glories of the chase, frequenting 

 tops of mountains, indulging in the ecstasies of drinking 

 the blood of wolves and bears, with the unspeakable rap- 

 tures of eating wild honey and dancing to the music of the 

 syrinx with the nymphs of the woods. Given to snoring 

 sullenly and drowsily when the sun is in the zenith, he is 



