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Neither is it without Elegancy, that the cause of Endymion is mentioned in the Fable, because it is a Thing ufual with fuch as are the Favourites of Princes to have certain pleasant retiring Places, whither to invite them for Recreation both of Body and Mind, and that without hurt or prejudice to their Fortunes alfo. And indeed these kind of Favourites are Men commonly well to pass; for Princes, although peradventure they promote them not ever to Places of Honour, yet do they advance them fufficiently by their Favour and Countenance: Neither do they affect them thus, cnly to ferve their own turn; but are wont to enrich them now and then with great Dignities, and Bounties.

IX. The Sifter of the Giants, or Fame.

Tis a Poetical Relation that the Giants, begotten of the Earth, made War upon Jupiter and the other Gods;

and, by the force of Lightning, they

were refifted and overthrown. Whereat the Earth being excitated to Wrath, in Revenge of her Children brought forth Fame, the youngest fifter of the Giants.

Illam terra parens ira irritata Deorum,

Extremam (ut perhibent) Cao Enceladoque fororem Progenuit

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VIRG. EN. IV. 178.

Provoked by wrathful Gods, the Mother Earth Gives Fame, the Giants' youngest Sister, Birth.

The meaning of the Fable feems to be thus: By the Earth is fignified the Nature of the Vulgar, always fwoln and malignant, and still broaching new Scandals against Superiors, and having gotten fit Opportunity, ftirs up Rebels and Seditious Perfons, that with impious Outrage do molest Princes, and endeavour to fubvert their Eftates; but being fuppreft, the same natural Disposition of the People ftill leaning to the viler fort, (being impatient of Peace and Tranquillity,) spread Rumours, raise malicious Slanders, repining Whisperings, infamous Libels, and others of that kind, to the detraction of them that are in Authority: So as Rebellious Actions, and Seditious Reports, differ nothing in Kind and Blood, but as it were in Sex only; the one fort being Masculine, the other Feminine.

x. Acteon and Pentheus, or a Curious Man.

HE Curiofity of Men, in prying into Secrets, and coveting with an undifcreet Defire to attain the knowledge of Things forbidden, is fet forth by the Ancients in two other Examples: The one of Acteon, the other of Pentheus.

Acteon having unawares, and as it were by

chance beheld Diana naked, was turned into a Stag, and devoured by his own Dogs.

And Pentheus climbing up into a Tree, with a defire to be a fpectator of the hidden Sacrifices of Bacchus, was ftricken with such a kind of Frenzy, as that whatsoever he looked upon, he thought it always double, fuppofing (among other Things) he faw two Suns, and two Thebes; infomuch that running towards Thebes, fpying another Thebes, inftantly turned back again, and fo kept ftill running forward and backward with perpetual Unrest. Eumenidum veluti demens vidit agmina Pentheus, Et Solem geminum, duplices fe oftendere Thebas.' Pentheus amazed, doth troops of Furies spy; And Sun, and Thebes, feem double to his Eye.

The first of the Fables pertains to the fecrets of Princes, the second to Divine Mysteries. For those that are near about Princes, and come to the knowledge of more Secrets than they would have them, do certainly incur great Hatred. And therefore, (fufpecting that they are Shot at and Opportunities watched for their Overthrow) do lead their Lives like Stags, fearful and full of fufpicion. And it happens oftentimes that their Servants, and those of their Household, (to infinuate into the Prince's Favour) do accuse them to their Destruction; for against whomsoever the Prince's Displeasure is known, look how many Servants that Man hath, and you shall find them for the moft part so many Traitors unto him, that his End may prove to be like Actæon's.

1 1 Virg. Æn. iv. 469.

The other is the Mifery of Pentheus: For they that by the height of Knowledge and Nature in Philosophy, having climbed, as it were into a Tree, do with rash Attempts (unmindful of their Frailty) pry into the Secrets of Divine Mysteries, and are justly plagued with perpetual Inconftancy, and with wavering and perplexed Conceits: For feeing the light of Nature is one thing, and of Grace another; it happens fo to them as if they saw two Suns. And feeing the Actions of Life and decrees of Will do depend on the Understanding, it follows that they doubt, and are inconstant no less in Will than in Opinion; and fo in like manner they may be faid to fee two Thebes: For by Thebes (feeing there was the Habitation and refuge of Pentheus) is meant the end of Actions. Hence it comes to pass that they know not whither they go, but, as diftracted and unrefolved in the Scope of their Intentions, are in all Things carried about with fudden Paffions of the Mind.

XI. Orpheus, or Philosophy.

HE Tale of Orpheus, though common, had never the fortune to be fitly applied in every Point. It may feem to reprefent the Image of Philofophy :

For the Perfon of Orpheus (a Man Admirable and Divine, and fo excellently skilled in all kinds of Harmony, that with his sweet ravishing Musick

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he did as it were charm and allure all Things to follow him) may carry a fingular Description of Philofophy: For the Labours of Orpheus do so far exceed the Labours of Hercules in Dignity and Efficacy, as the Works of Wisdom, excel the Works of Fortitude.

Orpheus for the Love he bare to his Wife, snatched, as it were, from him by untimely Death, refolved to go down to Hell with his Harp, to try if he might obtain her of the Infernal Powers. Neither were his hopes fruftrated: For having appeased them with the melodious found of his Voice and Touch, prevailed at length fo far, as that they granted him leave to take her away with him; but on this Condition, that she should follow him, and he not to look back upon her, till he came to the Light of the upper World; which he (impatient of, out of Love and Care, and thinking that he was in a manner past all Danger) nevertheless violated, infomuch that the Covenant is broken, and fhe forthwith tumbles back again headlong into Hell. From that time Orpheus falling into a deep Melancholy became a Contemner of Womankind, and bequeathed himself, to a folitary Life in the Deserts; where, by the fame Melody of his Voice and Harp, he first drew all manner of wild Beasts unto him, who forgetful of their Savage fierceness, and cafting off the precipitate Provocations of Luft and Fury, not caring to fatiate their Voracity by hunting after Prey, as at a Theatre, in fawning and reconciled Amity one towards another, ftand all at the Gaze about him, and at

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