they are afflicted with innumerable Cogitations, (which, because they are very swift, may be fitly compared to an Eagle,) and thofe griping, and, as it were, gnawing and devouring the Liver, unless fometimes, as it were by Night, it may be they get a little Recreation and ease of Mind; but so, as that they are again fuddenly affaulted with fresh Anxieties and Fears.

Therefore this Benefit happens to but a very few of either Condition, that they fhould retain the Commodities of Providence, and free themfelves from the Miseries of Care and Perturbation; neither indeed can any attain unto it, but by the assistance of Hercules, that is, Fortitude, and Constancy of Mind, which is prepared for every Event and armed in all Fortunes, foreseeing without Fear, enjoying without loathing, and suffering without Impatience. It is worth the noting also, that this Virtue was not natural to Prometheus, but adventitial, and from the Indulgence of another; for no in-bred and natural Fortitude is able to encounter with these Miseries. Moreover, this Virtue was received and brought unto him from the remotest part of the Ocean, and from the Sun, that is, from Wisdom, as from the Sun; and from the Meditation of Inconftancy, or of the Waters of Human Life, as from the failing upon the Ocean; which two Virgil hath well conjoined in these Verses;

Felix qui potuit rerum cognofcere caufas:
Quique metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum
Subjecit pedibus, ftrepitumque Acherontis avari.

2 Georg. ii. 490.

Happy is he that knows the causes of things: And that with dauntless courage treads upon All Fear and Fates, relentless Threatenings, And greedy Throat of roaring Acheron.

Moreover, it is elegantly added for the Confolation and Confirmation of Men's Minds, that this noble Hero croffed the Ocean in a Cup or Pan, left peradventure, they might too much fear that the ftraits and frailty of their Nature will not be capable of this Fortitude and Conftancy. Of which very thing Seneca well conceived, when he faid, Magnum eft habere fimul fragilitatem hominis, et fecuritatem Dei. It is a great matter for Human Frailty and Divine Security to be at one and the self-fame time, in one and the self-fame Subject.

But now we are to step back a little to that, which by Premeditation we paffed over, left a Breach fhould be made in those things that were fo linked together. That therefore which I could touch here, is that laft Crime imputed to Prometheus, about feeking to bereave Minerva of her Virginity For queftionless, it was this heinous Offence that brought that Punishment of devouring his Liver upon him; which is nothing elfe but to show, that when men are puffed up with too much Learning and Science, they go about oftentimes to make even Divine Oracles fubject to Senfe and Reason; whence moft certainly follows a continual Distraction, and restless griping of the Mind; we must therefore with a sober, and humble Judgement, diftinguish between Humanity and

Divinity, and between the Oracles of Sense and the Mysteries of Faith, unless a Heretical Religion, and a commentitious Philofophy be pleafing unto us.3

Lastly, it remains that we say something of the Games of Prometheus, performed with burning Torches, which again hath reference to Arts and Sciences, as that Fire, in whofe Memory, and Celebration, these Games were inftituted, and it contains in it a most wise Admonition, that the perfection of Sciences is to be expected from Succeffion, not from the Nimbleness and Promptness of one only Author; for they that are nimbleft in Course, and strongest in Contention, yet haply have not the luck to keep Fire still in their Torch; seeing it may be as well extinguished by running too fast, as by going too flow. And this running and contending with Lamps, feems long fince to be intermitted, seeing all Sciences seem even now to flourish moft in their first Authors, Ariftotle, Galen, Euclid and Ptolemy; Succeffion having neither effected, nor almost attempted any great Matter. It were therefore to be wished that these Games, in honour of Prometheus or Human Nature were again reftored, and that Matters should receive Success by Combat and Emulation, and not hang upon any one Man's sparkling and shaking Torch. Men therefore are to be admonished to

3 Vide De Augm. Scient. fec. xxviii.

4 Mr. Devey refers to Plato de Legibus, b. vi, and obferves that Lucretius has the fame metaphor :

"Et quafi curfores vitaï lampada tradunt."

roufe up their Spirits, and try their Strengths and Turns, and not to refer all to the Opinions and Brains of a few.

And thus have I delivered that which I thought good to obferve out of this fo well known and common Fable; and yet I will not deny but that there may be fome things in it which have an admirable Confent with the Mysteries of Christian Religion, and especially that failing of Hercules in a Cup, (to fet Prometheus at liberty,) feems to represent an Image of the Divine Word coming in Flesh, as in a frail Veffel, to redeem Man from the Slavery of Hell. But I have interdicted my Pen all Liberty in this kind, left I should use strange Fire at the Altar of the Lord.

XXVII. Scylla and Icarus, or the Middle Way.

M

EDIOCRITY, or the Middle-way, is moft commended in Moral Actions; in Contemplative Sciences not fo celebrated, though no lefs profitable and commodious; but in Political Employments to be used with great heed and Judgement. The Ancients, by the way prescribed to Icarus, noted the Mediocrity of Manners; and, by the Way, between Scylla and Charybdis (fo famous for Difficulty and Danger,) the Mediocrity of intellectual Operations.

Icarus being to cross the Sea by flight, was commanded by his Father that he should fly nei

ther too high nor too low; for his Wings being joined with Wax, if he should mount too high it was to be feared left the Wax should melt by the heat of the Sun; and if too low, left misty Vapours of the Sea would make it less tenacious; but he in a youthful Jollity foaring too high, fell down headlong and perished in the Water.

The Parable is eafy and vulgar; for the way of Virtue lies in a direct Path between Excess and Defect. Neither is it a wonder that Icarus perished by Excess, seeing that Excess, for the most part, is the peculiar Fault of Youth, as Defect is of Age, and yet, of two evil and hurtful ways, Youth commonly makes choice of the better, Defect being always accounted worft; for whereas Excess contains fome Sparks of Magnanimity, and, like a Bird, claims kindred of the Heavens, Defect only, like a base Worm, crawls upon the Earth. Excellently therefore said Heraclitus, Lumen ficcum, optima Anima; a dry Light is the best Soul; for if the Soul contract moisture from the Earth, it becomes degenerate altogether. Again, on the other fide there must be Moderation used, that this Light be fubtilized by this laudable Siccity, and not destroyed by too much Fervency. And this much every Man for the Moft part knows.

Now they that would fail between Scylla and Charybdis must be furnished, as well with the Skill, as profperous Success in Navigation: For if their Ships fall into Scylla they are split on the Rocks : If into Charybdis they are swallowed up of a Gulf. The Moral of this Parable (which we will but briefly touch, although it contain Matter of infinite