416 WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. 



the gods against the giants, when the braying of Silenus s ass greatly contributed 

 in putting the giants to flight, does not clearly conceive that this directly points at 

 the monstrous enterprises of rebellious subjects, which are frequently frustrated 

 and disappointed by vain fears and empty rumours? 



Again, the conformity and purport of the names is frequently manifest and 

 self-evident. Thus Metis, the wife of Jupiter, plainly signifies counsel ; Typhon, 

 swelling ; Fan, universality ; Nemesis, revenge, &c. Nor is it a wonder, if some 

 times a piece of history or other things are introduced, by way of ornament ; or if 

 the times of the action are confounded ; or if part of one fable be tacked to 

 another ; or if the allegory be new turned ; for all this must necessarily happen, as 

 the fables were the inventions of men who lived in different ages and had different 

 views ; some of them being ancient, others more modern ; some having an eye to 

 natural philosophy, and others to morality or civil policy. 



It may pass for a farther indication of a concealed and secret meaning, that 

 some of these fables are so absurd and idle in their narration as to show and pro- 

 claim an allegory, even afar off. A fable that carries probability with it may be 

 supposed invented for pleasure, or in imitation of history ; but those that could 

 never be conceived or related in this way must surely have a different use. For 

 example, what a monstrous fiction is this, that Jupiter should take Metis to wife, 

 and as soon as he found her pregnant cat her up, whereby he also conceived, and 

 out of his head brought forth Pallas armed. Certainly no mortal could, but for 

 the sake of the moral it couches, invent such an absurd dream as this, so much out 

 of the road of thought ! 



But the argument of most weight with me is this, that many of these fables by 

 no means appear to have been invented by the persons who relate and divulge 

 them, whether Homer, Hesiod, or others ; for if I were assured they first flowed 

 from those later times and authors that transmit them to us, I should never expect 

 anything singularly great or noble from such an origin. Hut whoever attentively 

 considers the thing, will find that thete fables are delivered down and related by 

 those writers, not as matters then first invented and proposed, but as things 

 received and embraced in earlier ages. Besides, as they are differently related by 

 writersnearlyofthesameages.it is easily perceived that the relators drew from 

 the common stock of ancient tradition, and varied but in point of embellishment, 

 which is their own. And this principally raises my esteem of these fables, which I 

 receive, not as the product of the age, or invention of the poets, but as sacred 

 relics, gentle whispers, and the breath of better times, that from the traditions of 

 more ancient nations came, at length, into the flutes and trumpets of the Greeks. 

 But if any one shall, notwithstanding this, contend that allegories are always 

 adventitious, or imposed upon the ancient fables, and no way native or genuinely 

 contained in them, we might here leave him undisturbed in that gravity of judg - 

 ment he affects (though we cannot help accounting it somewhat dull and phleg 

 matic), and if it were worth the trouble, proceed to another kind of argument. 



Men have proposed to answer two different and contrary ends by the use of 

 parable ; for parables serve as well to instruct or illustrate as to wrap up and 

 envelop, so that though, for the present, we drop the concealed use, and suppcv . 

 the ancient fables to be vague, undeterminate things, formed for amusement, still 

 the other use must remain, and can never be given up. And every man, of any 

 learning, must readily allow that this method of instructing is grave, sober, or 

 exceedingly useful, and sometimes necessary in the sciences, as it opens an ea^y 

 and familiar passage to the human understanding, in all new discoveries that 

 are abstruse and out of the road of vulgar opinions. Hence, in the first ages, 

 when such inventions and conclusions of the human reason as are now trite and 

 common were new and little known, all things abounded with fables, parables, 

 similes, comparisons, and allusions, which were not intended to conceal, but to 

 inform and teach, whilst the minds of men continued rude and unpractised in 

 matters of subtilty and speculation, or even impatient, and in a manner uncapable 

 of receiving such things as did not directly fall under and strike the senses. For 

 as hieroglyphics were in use before writing, so ware parables in use before argu- 



