432 WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. 



power of the Creator can annihilate, or truly destroy it ; so that at 

 length, running through the whole circle of transformations, and com 

 pleting its period, it in some degree restores itself, if the force be con 

 tinued. And that method of binding, torturing, or detaining, will 

 prove the most effectual and expeditious, which makes use of manacles 

 and fetters ; that is, lays hold and works upon matter in the extremest 

 degrees. 



The addition in the fable that makes a Proteus a prophet, who had 

 the knowledge of things past, present, and future, excellently agrees 

 with the nature of matter ; as he who knows the properties, the 

 changes, and the processes of matter, must of necessity understand 

 the effects and sum of what it does, has done, or can do, though his 

 knowledge extends not to all the parts and particulars thereof. 



VIII. THE FABLE OF CUPID. 



EXPLAINED OF THE CORPUSCULAR PHILOSOPHY. 



THE particulars related by the poets of Cupid, or Love, do not pro 

 perly agree to the same person ; yet they differ only so far, that if the 

 confusion of persons be rejected, the correspondence may hold. They 

 say that Love was the most ancient of all the gods, and existed before 

 everything else, except Chaos, which is held coeval therewith. But for 

 Chaos, the ancients never paid divine honours, nor gave the title of a 

 god thereto. Love is represented absolutely without progenitor, 

 excepting only that he is said to hav^ proceeded from the egg of Nox ; 

 but that himself begot the gods, and all things else on Chaos. His 

 attributes are four : viz., i. perpetual infancy ; 2. blindness ; 3. naked 

 ness ; and 4. archery. 



There was also another Cupid, or Love, the youngest son of the 

 gods, born of Venus, and upon him the attributes of the elder arc 

 transferred, with some degree of correspondence. 



EXPLANATION. This fable points at, and enters, the cradle of 

 nature. Love seems to be the appetite, or incentive, of the primitive 

 matter ; or, to speak more distinctly, the natural motion, or moving 

 principle, of the original corpuscles, or atoms ; this being the most 

 ancient and only power that made and wrought all things out of matter. 

 It is absolutely without parent, that is, without cause ; for causes are 

 us parents to effects ; but this power or efficacy could have no natural 

 cause; for, excepting God, nothing was befoie it; and therefore it 

 could have no efficient in nature. And as nothing is more inward with 

 nature, it can neither be a genus nor a form ; and therefore, whatever 

 it is, it must be somewhat positive, though inexpressible. And it&quot; it 

 were possible to conceive its modus and process, yet it could not 



