WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. 423 



slow advancement of arts. And certainly it m:.y well seem, that the 

 i we faculties of reasoning and experience are not hitheito properly 

 j &amp;gt;ined and coupled together, but to be still new ;-ifis of the gods, sepa 

 rately laid, the one upon the back of a light bird, or abstract philo. 

 sophy, and the other upon an a.ss, or slow. paced practice and trial. 

 And yet good hopes might be conceived of this ass. if it were not for 

 his thirst and the accidents of the way. For we judge, that if any one 

 would constantly proceed, by a certain law and method, in the road o( 

 experience, and not bv the way thirst after s ich experiments as make 

 for profit or ostentation, nor exchange his burden, or rjuit the orii .ina 

 design for the sake of these, he might be an useful l&amp;gt;ean-r of a new and 

 accumulated divine bounty to mankind. 



That this gift of perpetual youth should pass from men to serpents, 

 seems added by way of ornament, and illustration to the fable ; per 

 haps intimating, at the same time, the shame it is for men, that they 

 with their lire, and numerous arts, cannot procure to themselves thcvc 

 things which nature has bestowed upon many other creatures. 



The sudden reconciliation of Prometheus to mankind, after being 

 disappointed of their hopes, contains a prudent and useful admonition. 

 It points out the levity and temerity of men in new cxj&amp;gt;crimcnts, when, 

 not presently succeeding, or answering to expectation, they prccipi- 

 tantly quit their new undertakings, hurry back to their old ones, anil 

 grow reconciled thereto. 



After the fable has described the state or man, with regard to arts 

 and intellectual matters, it passes on to religion; for after the inventing 

 and settling of arts, follows the establishment of divine woiship, which 

 hypocrisy presently enters into and corrupts. So that by the two 

 sacriticcs we have elegantly painted the person of a man truly religious, 

 and of an hypocrite. One of these sacriticcs contained the fat, or the 

 portion of God, used for burning and incensing ; thereby denoting 

 nfTrction and zeal, offered up to his glory. It likewise contained the 

 bowels, which are expressive of charity, along with the good and use 

 ful flesh. But the other contained nothing more than dry bones, 

 which nevertheless stuffed out the hide, so as to make it resemble a 

 fair, beautiful, and magnificent sacrifice ; hereby finely denoting the 

 external and empty rites and barren ceremonies, wherewith men bur 

 den and stufTout the divine worship, things rather intended for show 

 and ostentation than conducing to piety : Nor arc mankind simply 

 content with this mock-worship of God, but also impose and father it 

 upon him, as if he had chosen and ordained it. Certainly the prophet, 

 in the person of God, has a fine expostulation, as to this matter of 

 choice : &quot; Is this the fasting which 1 have chosen, that a man should 

 afflict his soul for a day, and bow down his head like a bulrush?&quot; 



After thus touching the state of religion, the fable next turns to 

 manners, and the conditions of human life. And though it be a very 

 common, yet is it a just interpretation, that 1 andora denotes the plea 

 sures and licentiousness which the cultivation and luxury of the arts of 

 civil life introduce, as it were, by the instrumental efficacy of fire ; 

 whence the work of the voluptuary arts arc properly attributed to 



