456 WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. 



The succeeding part of the fable is plain, concerning the use of 

 mechanic arts, whereto human life stands greatly indebted, as receiving 

 from this treasury numerous particulars for the service of religion, the 

 ornament of civil society, and the whole provision and apparatus of 

 life ; but then the same magazine supplies instruments of lust, cruelty, 

 and death. For, not to mention the arts of luxury and debauchery, 

 ive plainly see how far the business of exquisite poisons, guns, engines 

 of war, and such kind of destructive inventions, exceeds the cruelty 

 and barbarity of the Minotaur himself. 



The addition of the labyrinth contains a beautiful allegory, repre 

 senting the nature of mechanic arts in general ; for all ingenious and 

 accurate mechanical inventions may be conceived as a labyrinth, 

 which, by reason of their subtilty, intricacy, crossing and interfering 

 with one another, and the apparent resemblances they have among 

 themselves, scarce any power of the judgment can unravel and dis 

 tinguish ; so that they are only to be understood and traced by the 

 clue of experience. 



It is no less prudently added that he who invented the windings of 

 the labyrinth, should also show the use and management of the clue; 

 for mechanical arts have an ambiguous or double use, and serve as 

 well to produce as to prevent mischief and destruction : so that their 

 virtue almost destroys or unwinds itself. 



Unlawful arts, and indeed frequently arts themselves, are perse 

 cuted by Minos, that is, by laws which prohibit and forbid their use 

 among the people ; but notwithstanding this, they are hid, concealed, 

 retained, and everywhere find reception and skulking-places ; a thing 

 well observed by Tacitus of the astrologers and fortune-tellers of his 

 time. &quot; These,&quot; says he. &quot; are a kind of men that will always be 

 prohibited, and yet will always be retained in our city.&quot; 



But lastly, all unlawful and vain arts, of what kind soever lose 

 their reputation in tract of time ; grow contemptible and perish, 

 through their over confidence, like Icarus ; being commonly unable to 

 perform what they boasted. And to say the truth, such arts are better 

 suppressed by their own vain pretensions, than checked or restrained 

 by the bridle of laws. 



XXIX. THE FABLE OF DIONYSUS. 



EXPLAINED OF THE PASSIONS. 



THE fable runs, that Semele, Jupiter s mistress, having bound him 

 by an inviolable oath to grant her an unknown request, desired he 

 would embrace her in the same form and manner he used to embrace 

 Juno ; and the promise being irrevocable, she was burnt to death 

 with lightning in the performance. The embryo, however, was sewed 

 up, and carried in Jupiter s thigh till the complete time of its birth j 



