The earliest antiquity lies buried in silence and oblivion, excepting
the remains we have of it in sacred writ. This silence was succeeded by
poetical fables, and these, at length, by the writings we now enjoy; so
that the concealed and secret learning of the ancients seems separated
from the history and knowledge of the following ages by a veil, or
partition-wall of fables, interposing between the things that are lost
and those that remain.[615]
Many may imagine that I am here entering upon a work of fancy, or
amusement, and design to use a poetical liberty, in explaining poetical
fables. It is true, fables, in general, are composed of ductile
matter, that may be drawn into great variety by a witty talent or an
inventive genius, and be delivered of plausible meanings which they
never contained. But this procedure has already been carried to excess;
and great numbers, to procure the sanction of antiquity to their own
notions and inventions, have miserably wrested and abused the fables of
the ancients.
Nor is this only a late or unfrequent practice, but of ancient date
and common even to this day. Thus Chrysippus, like an interpreter of
dreams, attributed the opinions of the Stoics to the poets of old;
and the chemists, at present, more childishly apply the poetical
transformations to their experiments of the furnace. And though I
have well weighed and considered all this, and thoroughly seen into
the levity which the mind indulges for allegories and allusions,
yet I cannot but retain a high value for the ancient mythology.
And, certainly, it were very injudicious to suffer the fondness and
licentiousness of a few to detract from the honor of all ego and
parable in general. This would be rash, and almost profane; for, since
religion delights in such shadows and disguises, to abolish them were,
in a manner, to prohibit all intercourse betwixt things divine and
human.
Upon deliberate consideration, my judgment is, that a concealed
instruction and allegory was originally intended in many of the ancient
fables. This opinion may, in some respect, be owing to the veneration
I have for antiquity, but more to observing that some fables discover
a great and evident similitude, relation, and connection with the
thing they signify, as well in the structure of the fable as in the
propriety of the names whereby the persons or actors are characterized;
insomuch, that no one could positively deny a sense and meaning to
be from the first intended, and purposely shadowed out in them. For
who can hear that Fame, after the giants were destroyed, sprung up as
their posthumous sister, and not apply it to the clamor of parties
and the seditious rumors which commonly fly about for a time upon the
quelling of insurrections? Or who can read how the giant Typhon cut out
and carried away Jupiter’s sinews—which Mercury afterwards stole, and
again restored to Jupiter—and not presently observe that this allegory
denotes strong and powerful rebellions, which cut away from kings
their sinews, both of money and authority; and that the way to have
them restored is by lenity, affability, and prudent edicts, which soon
reconcile, and, as it were, steal upon the affections of the subject?
Or who, upon hearing that memorable expedition of the gods against
the giants, when the braying of Silenus’s ass greatly contributed in
putting the giants to flight, does not clearly conceive that this
directly points at the monstrous enterprises of rebellious subjects,
which are frequently frustrated and disappointed by vain fears and
empty rumors?
Again, the conformity and purport of the names is frequently manifest
and self-evident. Thus Metis, the wife of Jupiter, plainly signifies
counsel; Typhon, swelling; Pan, universality; Nemesis, revenge, &c.
Nor is it a wonder, if sometimes a piece of history or other things
are introduced, by way of ornament; or, if the times of the action are
confounded; or, if part of one fable be tacked to another; or, if the
allegory be new turned; for all this must necessarily happen, as the
fables were the inventions of men who lived in different ages, and had
different views; some of them being ancient, others more modern; some
having an eye to natural philosophy, and others to morality or civil
policy.
It may pass for a further indication of a concealed and secret meaning,
that some of these fables are so absurd and idle in their narration,
as to show and proclaim an allegory, even afar off. A fable that
carries probability with it may be supposed invented for pleasure, or
in imitation of history; but those that could never be conceived or
related in this way must surely have a different use. For example,
what a monstrous fiction is this, that Jupiter should take Metis to
wife, and as soon as he found her pregnant eat her up, whereby he also
conceived, and out of his head brought forth Pallas armed. Certainly no
mortal could, but for the sake of the moral it couches, invent such an
absurd dream as this, so much out of the road of thought!
But the argument of most weight with me is this, that many of these
fables by no means appear to have been invented by the persons who
relate and divulge them, whether Homer, Hesiod, or others; for if I
were assured they first flowed from those later times and authors that
transmit them to us, I should never expect any thing singularly great
or noble from such an origin. But whoever attentively considers the
thing, will find that these fables are delivered down and related by
those writers, not as matters then first invented and proposed, but
as things received and embraced in earlier ages. Besides, as they are
differently related by writers nearly of the same ages, it is easily
perceived that the relators drew from the common stock of ancient
tradition, and varied but in point of embellishment, which is their
own. And this principally raises my esteem of these fables, which I
receive, not as the product of the age, or invention of the poets, but
as sacred relics, gentle whispers, and the breath of better times,
that from the traditions of more ancient nations came, at length,
into the flutes and trumpets of the Greeks. But if any one shall,
notwithstanding this, contend that allegories are always adventitious,
or imposed upon the ancient fables, and no way native or genuinely
contained in them, we might here leave him undisturbed in that gravity
of judgment he affects (though we cannot help accounting it somewhat
dull and phlegmatic), and, if it were worth the trouble, proceed to
another kind of argument.
Men have proposed to answer two different and contrary ends by the
use of parable; for parables serve as well to instruct or illustrate
as to wrap up and envelop; so that though, for the present, we drop
the concealed use, and suppose the ancient fables to be vague,
undeterminate things, formed for amusement, still, the other use must
remain, and can never be given up. And every man, of any learning,
must readily allow that this method of instructing is grave, sober,
or exceedingly useful, and sometimes necessary in the sciences, as
it opens an easy and familiar passage to the human understanding,
in all new discoveries that are abstruse and out of the road of
vulgar opinions. Hence, in the first ages, when such inventions and
conclusions of the human reason as are now trite and common were
new and little known, all things abounded with fables, parables,
similes, comparisons, and allusions, which were not intended to
conceal, but to inform and teach, whilst the minds of men continued
rude and unpractised in matters of subtilty and speculation, or even
impatient, and in a manner incapable of receiving such things as did
not fall directly under and strike the senses. For as hieroglyphics
were in use before writing, so were parables in use before arguments.
And even to this day, if any man would let new light in upon the
human understanding, and conquer prejudice, without raising contests,
animosities, opposition, or disturbance, he must still go in the same
path, and have recourse to the like method of allegory, metaphor, and
allusion.
To conclude, the knowledge of the early ages was either great or happy;
great, if they by design made this use of trope and figure; happy,
if, whilst they had other views, they afforded matter and occasion to
such noble contemplations. Let either be the case, our pains, perhaps,
will not be misemployed, whether we illustrate antiquity or things
themselves.
The like, indeed, has been attempted by others; but, to speak
ingenuously, their great and voluminous labors have almost destroyed
the energy, the efficacy, and grace of the thing; whilst, being
unskilled in nature, and their learning no more than that of
commonplace, they have applied the sense of the parables to certain
general and vulgar matters, without reaching to their real purport,
genuine interpretation, and full depth. For myself, therefore, I expect
to appear new in these common things, because, leaving untouched such
as are sufficiently plain and open, I shall drive only at those that
are either deep or rich.