Narcissus is said to have been extremely beautiful and comely, but
intolerably proud and disdainful; so that, pleased with himself, and
scorning the world, he led a solitary life in the woods; hunting only
with a few followers, who were his professed admirers, amongst whom the
nymph Echo was his constant attendant. In this method of life, it was
once his fate to approach a clear fountain, where he laid himself down
to rest, in the noonday heat; when, beholding his image in the water,
he fell into such a rapture and admiration of himself, that he could by
no means be got away, but remained continually fixed and gazing, till
at length he was turned into a flower, of his own name, which appears
early in the spring, and is consecrated to the infernal deities, Pluto,
Proserpine, and the Furies.
EXPLANATION.—This fable seems to paint the behavior and fortune of
those, who, for their beauty, or other endowments, wherewith nature
(without any industry of their own) has graced and adorned them,
are extravagantly fond of themselves: for men of such a disposition
generally affect retirement, and absence from public affairs; as a
life of business must necessarily subject them to many neglects and
contempts, which might disturb and ruffle their minds: whence such
persons commonly lead a solitary, private, and shadowy life: see little
company, and those only such as highly admire and reverence them; or,
like an echo, assent to all they say.
And they who are depraved, and rendered still fonder of themselves by
this custom, grow strangely indolent, inactive, and perfectly stupid.
The Narcissus, a spring flower, is an elegant emblem of this temper,
which at first flourishes, and is talked of, but, when ripe, frustrates
the expectation conceived of it.
And that this flower should be sacred to the infernal powers, carries
out the allusion still further; because men of this humor are perfectly
useless in all respects: for whatever yields no fruit, but passes, and
is no more, like the way of a ship in the sea, was by the ancients
consecrated to the infernal shades and powers.