soever came first to the mark with his torch burning got the prize.

This fable demonstrates and presseth many true and grave speculations, wherein some things have been heretofore well noted, others not so much as touched.

Prometheus doth clearly and elegantly signify Providence for in the universality of nature, the fabric and constitution of man only was by the ancients picked out and chosen, and attributed unto Providence as a peculiar work. The reason of it seems to be, not only in that the nature of man is capable of a mind and understanding, which is the seat of providence, and therefore it would seem strange and incredible, that the reason and mind should so proceed and flow from dumb and deaf principles, as that it should necessarily be concluded, the soul of man to be endued with providence, not without the example, intention, and stamp of a greater providence. But this also is chiefly propounded, that man is as it were the centre of the world in respect of final causes; so that if man were not in nature, all things would seem to stray and wander without purpose, and like scattered branches, as they say, without inclination to their end; for all things attend on man; and he makes use of, and gathers fruit from all creatures; for the revolutions and periods of stars make both for the distinctions of times and the distribution of the world's light. Meteors also are referred to presages of tempests; and winds are ordained as well for navigation, as for

turning of mills and other engines; and plants, and animals of what kind soever, are useful either for men's houses and places of shelter, or for raiment, or for food, or medicine, or for ease of labour, or in a word, for delight and solace; so that all things seem to work, not for themselves, but for man.

Neither is it added without consideration that certain particles were taken from divers living creatures, and mixed and tempered with that clayic mass, because it is most true, that of all things comprehended within the compass of the universe, man is a thing most mixed and compounded, insomuch, that he was well termed by the ancients a little world; for although the chemists do, with too much curiosity, take and wrest the elegancy of this word Microcosm to the letter, contending to find in man all minerals, all vegetables, and the rest, or any thing that holds proportion with them; yet this proposition remains sound and whole, that the body of man, of all material beings, is found to be most compounded and most organical, whereby it is endued and furnished with most admirable virtues and faculties and as for simple bodies, their powers are not many, though certain and violent, as existing without being weakened, diminished, or stinted by mixture; for the multiplicity and excellency of operation have their residence in mixture and composition, and yet, nevertheless, man in his originals seems to be a thing unarmed and naked, and unable to help itself, as needing the aid of many things; therefore Prometheus made haste to find out fire,

which suppeditates and yields comfort and help in a manner to all human wants and necessities; so that if the soul be the form of forms, and if the hand be the instrument of instruments, fire deserves well to be called the succour of succours, or the help of helps, which infinite ways affords aid and assistance to all labours and mechanical arts, and to the sciences themselves.

The manner of stealing this fire is aptly described, even from the nature of things: it was, they say, by a bundle of twigs held to touch the chariot of the sun; for twigs are used in giving blows or stripes, to signify clearly, that fire is engendered by the violent percussion and mutual collision of bodies, by which their material substances are attenuated and set in motion, and prepared to receive the heat of influence of the heavenly bodies; and so in a clandestine manner, and as it were by stealth, may be said to take and snatch fire from the chariot of the sun.

There follows next a remarkable part of the parable, that men instead of gratulation and thanksgiving were angry, and expostulated the matter with Prometheus, insomuch, that they accused both him and his invention unto Jupiter, which was so acceptable unto him, that he augmented their former commodities with a new bounty. Seems it not strange, that ingratitude towards the author of a benefit, a vice that in a manner contains all other vices, should find such approbation and reward? No, it seems to be otherwise; for the meaning of the

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allegory is this, that men's outcries upon the defects of nature and art, proceed from an excellent disposition of the mind, and turn to their good; whereas the silencing of them is hateful to the gods, and redounds not so much to their profit; for they that infinitely extol human nature, or the knowledge they possess, breaking out into a prodigal admiration of that they have and enjoy, adoring also those sciences they profess, would have them be accounted perfect; they do first of all shew little reverence to the divine nature, by equalizing, in a manner, their own defects with God's perfection. Again; they are wonderful injurious to men, by imagining they have attained the highest step of knowledge, resting themselves contented, seek no further. On the contrary, such as bring nature and art to the bar with accusations and bills of complaint against them, are indeed of more true and moderate judgments; for they are ever in action, seeking always to find out new inventions. Which makes me much to wonder at the foolish and inconsiderate dispositions of some men, who, making themselves bond slaves to the arrogancy of a few, have the philosophy of the Peripatetics, containing only a portion of Grecian wisdom, and that but a small one neither, in so great esteem, that they hold it not only an unprofitable, but a suspicious and almost heinous thing, to lay any imputation of imperfection upon it. I approve rather of Empedocles' opinion, who like a madman, and of Democritus' judgment, who with great moderation complained how that all things were involved in a mist, that we knew nothing,

that we discerned nothing, that truth was drowned in the depths of obscurity, and that false things were wonderfully joined and intermixed with true, as for the new academy, that exceeded all measure, than of the confident and pronunciative school of Aristotle. Let men therefore be admonished, that by acknowledging the imperfection of nature and art, they are grateful to the gods, and shall thereby obtain new benefits and greater favours at their bountiful hands; and the accusation of Prometheus their author and master, though bitter and vehement, will conduce more to their profit, than to be effuse in the congratulation of his invention; for, in a word, the opinion of having enough, is to be accounted one of the greatest causes of having too little.

Now, as touching the kind of gift which men are said to have received in reward of their accusation, to wit, an ever-fading flower of youth, it is to shew, that the ancients seemed not to despair of attaining the skill, by means and medicines, to put off old age, and to prolong life, but this to be numbered rather among such things, having been once happily attained unto, are now, through men's negligence and carelessness, utterly perished and lost, than among such as have been always denied and never granted; for they signify and shew, that by affording the true use of fire, and by a good and stern accusation and conviction of the errors of art, the divine bounty is not wanting unto men in the obtaining of such gifts; but men are wanting to themselves in laying this gift of the gods upon the back of a silly slow-paced