WISDO.U OF THE ANCIENTS. 425 



It is added, with great elegance, for supporting and confirming the 

 human mind, that the great hero who thus delivered him sailed the 

 ocean in a cup, or pitcher, to prevent fear, or complaint ; as if, through 

 the narrowness of our nature, or a too great fragility thereof, we were 

 absolutely incapable of that fortitude and constancy to which Seneca 

 finely alludes, when he says, &quot; It is a noble thing, at once to participate 

 in the fiailty of man and the security of a god.&quot; 



\Ve have hitherto, that we might not break the connection of things, 

 designedly omitted the last crime of Prometheus that of attempting 

 the chastity of Minerva which heinous offence it doubtless was, that 

 caused the punishment of having his liver gnawed by the vulture. The 

 meaning seems to be this, that when men are pulled up with arts and 

 knowledge, they otten try to subdue even the divine wisdom and bring 

 it Mnder the dominion of sense and reason, whence inevitably follows 

 a perpetual and restless rending and tearing of the mind. A sober and 

 humble distinction must, therefore, be made betwixt divine and human 

 things, and betwixt the oracles of sense and faith, unless mankind had 

 rather choose an heretical religion, and a fictitious and romantic philo 

 sophy.* 



The last particular in the fable is the Games of the Torch, insti 

 tuted to Prometheus, which again relates to arts and sciences, as well 

 as the invention of fire, for the commemoration and celebration 

 whereof these games were held. And here we have an extremely pru 

 dent admonition, directing us to expect the perfection of the sciences 

 from succession, and not from the swiftness and abilities of any single 

 person ; for he who is fleetest and strongest in the course may perhaps 

 be less fit to keep his torch a-light, since there is danger of its going 

 out from too rapid as well as from too slow a motion. l&amp;gt;ut this kind 

 of contest, with the torch, seems to ha\c been long dropped and 

 neglected ; the sciences appearing to have flourished principally in 

 their first authors, as Aristotle, (inlcn, Kuclid, Ptolemy, &c. ; whilst 

 their successors have done very little, or scarce made any attempts. 

 l&amp;gt;ut it were highly to be wished that tl-esc games might be renewed, 

 to the honour of Prometheus, or human nature, and that they might 

 excite content, emulation, and laudable endeavours, and the design 

 meet with such success as not to hang tottering, tremulous, and 

 h:\zrmlcd, upon the torch of any single person. Mankind, therefore, 

 r-hould be admonished to rouse themselves, and try and exert their own 

 r.trength and chance, and not place all their dependence upon a few 

 ir.cn, whose abilities and capacities, perhaps, are not greater than 

 tlvir own. 



Those are the particulars which appear to us shadowed out by 

 this trite and vulgar fable, though without denying that there may 

 be contained in it several intimations that have a surprising corres 

 pondence with the Christian mysteries. In particular, the voyage of 

 Hercules, made in a pitcher, to release Prometheus, bears an allusion 



See, Dt A H^mcHtlt Scitntiarum, see. xxviii. nnd supj&amp;gt;lem. xv. 



