WISDOM OF THE ANC/r.KTS. 421 



and seasons, and for dividing the world into different regions ; the 

 meteors afford him prognostications of the weather ; the winds sail 

 our ships, drive our mills, and move our machines ; and the vege 

 tables and animals of all kinds either afford us matter for houses and 

 habitations, clothing, food, physic, or tend to ease, or delight, to sup 

 port, or refresh us : so that everything in nature seems not made for 

 itself, but for man. 



And it is not without reason added, that the mass of matter 

 whereof man was formed, should bo mixed up with particles taken 

 from different animals, ami wrought in with the clay, because it i^ 

 ceitain, that of nil things in the universe, man is the most compounded 

 and rccompounded body ; so that the ancients not improperly styled 

 him a Microcosm, or little world within himself. Ftxr although the 

 chemists have absurdly, and too literally, wrested and perverted the 

 elegance of the term microcosm, whilst they pretend to find all kind 

 of mineral and vegetable matters, or something corresponding to 

 them, in man, yet it remains firm and unshaken, that the human body 

 is of all substances the most mixed and organical ; whence it has sur 

 prising powers and faculties : for the powers of simple bodies arc but 

 lew, though certain and quick ; as being little broken, or weakened, 

 and not counterbalanced by mixture : but excellence and quantity of 

 energy reside in mixture and composition. 



Man, however, in his first origin, seems to be a defenceless naked 

 creature, slow in assisting himself, and standing in need of numerous 

 things. Prometheus, therefore, hastened to the invention of fire, which 

 supplies and administers to nearly all human uses and necessities, 

 insomuch that, if the soul may be called the form of forms, if the 

 J.and may be called the instrument of instruments, fire may, as pro- 

 uerly, be called the assistant of assistants, or the helper of helps ; for 

 lu:ncc proceed numberless operations, hence all the mechanic arts, and 

 hence infinite assistances arc afforded to the sciences themselves. 



The manner wherein Prometheus stole this lire is properly descril&amp;gt;cd 

 ft cm the nature of the thing ; he being said to have done it by apply 

 ing a rod of birch to the chariot of the Sun : for birch is used in 

 Lt. \king and beating, which clearly denotes the generation of fire to be 

 front the violent percussions and collisions of bodies ; whereby the 

 r.iaucrs struck arc subtilized, rarefied, put into motion, and so prepared 

 to tcceivc the heat of the celestial bodies; whence they, in a clandes 

 tine and secret manner, collect and snatch fire, as it were by stealth, 

 from the chariot of the Sun. 



The next is a remarkable part of the fable, which represents that 

 men, instead of gratitude and thanks, fell into indignation and expos 

 tulation, accusing both Prometheus and his fire to Jupiter, and yet 

 the accusation proved highly pleasing to Jupiter ; so that he, for this 

 reason, crowned these benefits of mankind with a new bounty. Here 

 it may seem strange that the sin of ingratitude to a creator and bene 

 factor, a sin so heinous as to include almost all others, should meet 

 with approbation and reward. Hut the allegory has another view, and 

 denotes, that the accusation and arraignment, both of human nature 



