44& WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS* 



alone, and none but this, was held inviolable and obligatory : and tha 

 punishmeut of falsifying it, was that dreaded one of being excluded, 

 for a certain number of years, the table of the gods. 



EXPLANATION. This fable seems invented to show the nature of 

 the compacts and confederacies of princes : which, though ever so 

 solemnly and religiously sworn to, prove but little the more binding 

 for it : so that oaths in this case seem used, rather for decorum, repu 

 tation, and ceremony, than for fidelity, security, and effectuating. And 

 though these oaths wefe strengthened with the bonds of affinity, 

 which are the links and ties of nature, and again, by mutual services 

 and good offices, yet we see all this will generally give way to ambition, 

 convenience, and the thirst of power : the rather, because it is easy for 

 princes under various specious pretences, to defend, disguise, and 

 conceal their ambitious desires arid insincerity ; having no judge to 

 call them to account. There is, however, one true and proper con 

 firmation of their faith, though no celestial divinity; but that great 

 divinity of princes, Necessity ; or, the danger of the state ; and the 

 securing of advantage. 



This necessity is elegantly represented by Styx, the fatal river, 

 that can never be crossed back. And this deity it was, which Iphi- 

 crates the Athenian invoked in making a league : and because he 

 roundly and openly avows what most others studiously conceal, it may 

 be proper to give his own words. Observing that the Lacedaemonians 

 were inventing and proposing a variety of securities, sanctions, and 

 bonds of alliance, he interrupted them thus : &quot; There may indeed, my 

 friends, be one bond and means of security between us : and that is, 

 for you to demonstrate you have delivered into our hands, such things 

 as that if you had the greatest desire to hurt us you could not be able.&quot; 

 Therefore, if the power of offending be taken away, or if by a breach 

 of compact there be danger of destruction or diminution to the state 

 or tribute, then it is that covenants will be ratified, and confirmed, 

 as it were by the Stygian oath, whilst there remains an impending 

 danger of being prohibited and excluded the banquet of the gods ; 

 by which expression the ancients denoted the rights and prerogatives, 

 the affluence and the felicities, of empire and dominion. 



XXI. THE FABLE OF JUPITER AND METIS. 



EXPLAINED OF PRINCES AND THEIR COUNCIL. 



THE ancient poets relate that Jupiter took Metis to wife, whose 

 name plainly denotes counsel, and that he, perceiving she was pregnant 

 by him, would by no means wait the time of her delivery, but directly 

 devoured her : whence he himself also became pregnant, and was 

 delivered in a wonderful manner; for he from his head or brain brought 

 forth Pallas armed. 



