114 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [bOOK It 



vaiiced to ride, it triumphs over reason, and exerts its cruelty, 

 fierceness, and strength against all that oppose it. 



It is also huriorously imagined, that ridiculous demons 

 should dance and frisk about this chariot; for every passion 

 produces indecent, disorderly, interchangeable, and deformed 

 motious in the eyes, countenance, and gesture, — so that the 

 jierson uuder the impulse whether of anger, insult, love, etc., 

 though to himself he may seem grand, lofty, or obliging, 

 yet in the eyes of others appears mean, contemptible, or 

 ridiculous. 



The Muses also are found in the train of Bacchus; for 

 there is scarce any passion without its art, science, or doc- 

 trine to court and flatter it ; but in this respect the in- 

 dulgence of men of genius has greatly detracted from the 

 mnjesty of the Muses, who ought to be the leaders and 

 conductors of human life, and not the handmaids of the 

 passions. 



The allegory of Bacchus falling in love with a cast mis- 

 tress is extremely noble ; for it is certain that the affections 

 .'dways court and covet what has been rejected upon expe- 

 rience. And all those Avho, by serving and indulging their 

 ];assions immensely raise the value of enjoyment, should 

 know, that whatever they covet and pursue, whether riches, 

 ])leasure, glory, learning, or anything else, they only pursue 

 those things that have been forsaken, and cast off with con- 

 tempt by great numbers in all ages, after possession and 

 experience. 



Nor is it without a mystery that the ivy was sacred to 

 Bacchus ; and this for two reasons, — First, because ivy is an 

 evergreen, or flourishes in the winter; and, secondly, be- 

 cause it winds and creeps about so many things, as trees, 

 walls, and buildings, and raises itself above them. As to the 

 first, every passion grows fresh, strong, and vigorous by 

 o])position and jn-ohibition, as it were by a kind of contrast 

 or antiperistasis,'' like the ivy in the winter. And for tho 



'' The word avri-tpi(TTa(TiQ, used by the Greeks to express the forces 

 of activity and resistance, which are continually producing all the varie- 

 gated tissue of phenomena which mark the history of the moral and 

 physical Avorld, and are necessaiy to their preservation. Without reac- 

 tion, action could not take piace, as force can be only displayed in 

 overcomiag resistance, and we can have no idea of its existence except 

 from itfc effect -pon the antagonistic l;>rQ§ H atteniots to subdue. In 



