ir/SDOAf OF THE AXCIENTS. 43 



VII. THE FABLE OF PROTEUS. 



EXPLAINED OF MATTKR AND ITS CHANGES. 



PROTEUS, according to the poets, was Neptune s herdsman ; an old 

 man, and a most extraordinary prophet, who understood things past 

 and present, as well as future ; so that besides the business of divina 

 tion, he was the rcvealer ami interpreter of .ill antiquity, and secrets of 

 every kind. I le lived in a vast cave, where his custom was to tell over his 

 herd of sea-calves at noon, and then to sleep. Whoever consulted him, 

 had no other way of obtaining an answer, but by binding him with 

 manacles and fetters ; when he, endeavouring to free himself, would 

 change into all kinds of shapes and miraculous forms ; as of fire, 

 water, wild beasts, &c. ; till at length he resumed his own shape 

 again. 



EXPLANATION. This fable seems to point at the secrets of nature, 

 and the states of n a .ter. For the person of Proteus denotes matter, 

 the oldest of all things, after God himself;* that resides, as in a cave, 

 under the vast concavity of the heavens. He is represented as the 

 servant of Neptune, because the various operations and modifications 

 of matter are principally wrought in a fluid state. The herd, or flock 

 of Proteus, seems to be no other than the several kinds of animals, 

 plants, and minerals, in which matter appears to diffuse and spend 

 itself; so that after having formed these several species, and as it were 

 finished its task, it seems to sleep and repose, without otherwise 

 attempting to produce any new ones. And this is the moral of ProtcusY 

 counting his herd, then going to sleep. 



This is said to be done at noon, not in the morning or evening ; by 

 which is meant the time lx*st fitted and disposed for the production of 

 species, from a matter duly prepared, and made ready beforehand, and 

 now lying in a middle state, between its first rudiments and decline ; 

 which, we learn from sacred history, was the case at the time of the 

 election ; when by the efficacy of the divine command, matter directl) 

 came together, without any transformation or intermediate changes, 

 which it affects ; instantly obeyed the order, and apca-ef! in the form 

 of creatures. 



And thus far the fable reaches of Proteus, am his flock, at :iberU 

 and uiiiestraiiicil. For the universe, with the common structures and 

 fabrics of the creatuics, is the face of mattrr, not under constraint, or 

 a, the flork wrought upon and tortuied by human means. Hut if any 

 skilful minister of nature shall apply force to matter, and by design 

 torture and \cx it, in order to its annihilation, it, on the contrary, 

 being brought under this necessity, changes and transforms itself into 

 a st7cinge variety of shapes ami ap|&amp;gt;earances ; for nothing but the 



l rotcu&amp;gt; propci ly signifies primary, oMest, or first. 



