The ancients have, with great exactness, delineated universal nature
under the person of Pan. They leave his origin doubtful; some asserting
him the son of Mercury, and others the common offspring of all
Penelope’s suitors. The latter supposition doubtless occasioned some
later rivals to entitle this ancient fable Penelope; a thing frequently
practised when the earlier relations are applied to more modern
characters and persons, though sometimes with great absurdity and
ignorance, as in the present case; for Pan was one of the ancientest
gods, and long before the time of Ulysses; besides, Penelope was
venerated by antiquity for her matronal chastity. A third sort will
have him the issue of Jupiter and Hybris, that is, Reproach. But
whatever his origin was, the Destinies are allowed his sisters.
He is described by antiquity, with pyramidal horns reaching up to
heaven, a rough and shaggy body, a very long beard, of a biform figure,
human above, half brute below, ending in goat’s feet. His arms, or
ensigns of power, are, a pipe in his left hand, composed of seven
reeds; in his right a crook; and he wore for his mantle a leopard’s
skin.
His attributes and titles were the god of hunters, shepherds, and all
the rural inhabitants; president of the mountains; and, after Mercury,
the next messenger of the gods. He was also held the leader and ruler
of the Nymphs, who continually danced and frisked about him, attended
with the Satyrs and their elders, the Sileni. He had also the power
of striking terrors, especially such as were vain and superstitious;
whence they came to be called panic terrors.[618]
Few actions are recorded of him; only a principal one is, that he
challenged Cupid at wrestling, and was worsted. He also catched the
giant Typhon in a net, and held him fast. They relate further of him,
that when Ceres, growing disconsolate for the rape of Proserpine, hid
herself, and all the gods took the utmost pains to find her, by going
out different ways for that purpose, Pan only had the good fortune
to meet her, as he was hunting, and discovered her to the rest. He
likewise had the assurance to rival Apollo in music, and in the
judgment of Midas was preferred; but the judge had, though with great
privacy and secrecy, a pair of ass’s ears fastened on him for his
sentence.[619]
There is very little said of his amours; which may seem strange among
such a multitude of gods, so profusely amorous. He is only reported to
have been very fond of Echo, who was also esteemed his wife; and one
nymph more, called Syrinx, with the love of whom Cupid inflamed him for
his insolent challenge; so he is reported once to have solicited the
moon to accompany him apart into the deep woods.
Lastly, Pan had no descendant, which also is a wonder, when the male
gods were so extremely prolific; only he was the reputed father of
a servant-girl called Iambe, who used to divert strangers with her
ridiculous prattling stories.
This fable is perhaps the noblest of all antiquity, and pregnant
with the mysteries and secrets of nature. Pan, as the name imports,
represents the universe, about whose origin there are two opinions,
viz: that it either sprung from Mercury, that is, the divine word,
according to the Scriptures and philosophical divines, or from the
confused seeds of things. For they who allow only one beginning of
all things, either ascribe it to God, or, if they suppose a material
beginning, acknowledge it to be various in its powers; so that the
whole dispute comes to these points, viz: either that nature proceeds
from Mercury, or from Penelope and all her suitors.[620]
The third origin of Pan seems borrowed by the Greeks from the Hebrew
mysteries, either by means of the Egyptians, or otherwise; for it
relates to the state of the world, not in its first creation, but
as made subject to death and corruption after the fall; and in this
state it was and remains, the offspring of God and Sin, or Jupiter and
Reproach. And therefore these three several accounts of Pan’s birth
may seem true, if duly distinguished in respect of things and times.
For this Pan, or the universal nature of things, which we view and
contemplate, had its origin from the divine word and confused matter,
first created by God himself, with the subsequent introduction of sin,
and, consequently, corruption.
The Destinies, or the natures and fates of things, are justly made
Pan’s sisters, as the chain of natural causes links together the rise,
duration, and corruption; the exaltation, degeneration, and workings;
the processes, the effects, and changes, of all that can any way happen
to things.
Horns are given him, broad at the roots, but narrow and sharp at the
top, because the nature of all things seems pyramidal; for individuals
are infinite, but being collected into a variety of species, they
rise up into kinds, and these again ascend, and are contracted into
generals, till at length nature may seem collected to a point. And no
wonder if Pan’s horns reach to the heavens, since the sublimities of
nature, or abstract ideas, reach in a manner to things divine; for
there is a short and ready passage from metaphysics to natural theology.
Pan’s body, or the body of nature, is, with great propriety and
elegance, painted shaggy and hairy, as representing the rays of things;
for rays are as the hair or fleece of nature, and more or less worn by
all bodies. This evidently appears in vision, and in all effects and
operations at a distance; for whatever operates thus, may be properly
said to emit rays.[621] But particularly the beard of Pan is exceeding
long, because the rays of the celestial bodies penetrate, and act to a
prodigious distance, and have descended into the interior of the earth,
so far as to change its surface; and the sun himself, when clouded on
its upper part, appears to the eye bearded.
Again, the body of nature is justly described biform, because of the
difference between its superior and inferior parts, as the former, for
their beauty, regularity of motion, and influence over the earth, may
be properly represented by the human figure, and the latter, because of
their disorder, irregularity, and subjection to the celestial bodies,
are by the brutal. This biform figure also represents the participation
of one species with another; for there appear to be no simple natures,
but all participate or consist of two: thus, man has somewhat of the
brute, the brute somewhat of the plant, the plant somewhat of the
mineral; so that all natural bodies have really two faces, or consist
of a superior and an inferior species.
There lies a curious allegory in the making of Pan goat-footed, on
account of the motion of ascent which the terrestrial bodies have
towards the air and heavens; for the goat is a clambering creature,
that delights in climbing up rocks and precipices; and in the same
manner the matters destined to this lower globe strongly affect to rise
upwards, as appears from the clouds and meteors.
Pan’s arms, or the ensigns he bears in his hands, are of two kinds—the
one an emblem of harmony, the other of empire. His pipe, composed of
seven reeds, plainly denotes the consent and harmony, or the concords
and discords of things, produced by the motion of the seven planets.
His crook, also, contains a fine representation of the ways of nature,
which are partly straight and partly crooked; thus the staff, having
an extraordinary bend towards the top, denotes that the works of
Divine Providence are generally brought about by remote means, or in
a circuit, as if somewhat else were intended rather than the effect
produced, as in the sending of Joseph into Egypt, &c. So likewise in
human government, they who sit at the helm, manage and wind the people
more successfully by pretext and oblique courses, than they could by
such as are direct and straight; so that, in effect, all sceptres are
crooked at the top.
Pan’s mantle, or clothing, is with great ingenuity made of a leopard’s
skin, because of the spots it has; for in like manner the heavens are
sprinkled with stars, the sea with islands, the earth with flowers, and
almost each particular thing is variegated, or wears a mottled coat.
The office of Pan could not be more livelily expressed than by making
him the god of hunters; for every natural action, every motion and
process, is no other than a chase. Thus arts and sciences hunt out
their works, and human schemes and counsels their several ends; and all
living creatures either hunt out their aliment, pursue their prey, or
seek their pleasures, and this in a skilful and sagacious manner.[622]
He is also styled the god of the rural inhabitants, because men in this
situation live more according to nature than they do in cities and
courts, where nature is so corrupted with effeminate arts, that the
saying of the poet may be verified:—
—pars minima est ipsa puella sui.[623]
He is likewise particularly styled President of the Mountains, because
in mountains and lofty places the nature of things lies more open and
exposed to the eye and the understanding.
In his being called the messenger of the gods, next after Mercury, lies
a divine allegory, as next after the Word of God, the image of the
world is the herald of the Divine power and wisdom, according to the
expression of the Psalmist: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and
the firmament showeth his handiwork.”[624]
Pan is delighted with the company of the Nymphs, that is, the souls of
all living creatures are the delight of the world; and he is properly
called their governor, because each of them follows its own nature, as
a leader, and all dance about their own respective rings, with infinite
variety and never-ceasing motion. And with these continually join the
Satyrs and Sileni, that is, youth and age; for all things have a kind
of young, cheerful, and dancing time; and again their time of slowness,
tottering, and creeping. And whoever, in a true light, considers the
motions and endeavors of both these ages, like another Democritus, will
perhaps find them as odd and strange as the gesticulations and antic
motions of the Satyrs and Sileni.
The power he had of striking terrors contains a very sensible doctrine;
for nature has implanted fear in all living creatures, as well to
keep them from risking their lives, as to guard against injuries and
violence; and yet this nature or passion keeps not its bounds, but with
just and profitable fears always mixes such as are vain and senseless;
so that all things, if we could see their insides, would appear full
of panic terrors. Thus mankind, particularly the vulgar, labor under a
high degree of superstition, which is nothing more than a panic-dread,
that principally reigns in unsettled and troublesome times.
The presumption of Pan in challenging Cupid to the conflict denotes
that matter has an appetite and tendency to a dissolution of the world,
and falling back to its first chaos again, unless this depravity and
inclination were restrained and subdued by a more powerful concord
and agreement of things, properly expressed by Love, or Cupid: it is
therefore well for mankind, and the state of all things, that Pan was
thrown and conquered in the struggle.
His catching and detaining Typhon in the net receives a similar
explanation; for whatever vast and unusual swells, which the word
typhon signifies, may sometimes be raised in nature, as in the sea,
the clouds, the earth, or the like, yet nature catches, entangles, and
holds all such outrages and insurrections in her inextricable net,
wove, as it were, of adamant.
That part of the fable which attributes the discovery of lost Ceres to
Pan whilst he was hunting—a happiness denied the other gods, though
they diligently and expressly sought her—contains an exceeding just
and prudent admonition; viz: that we are not to expect the discovery
of things useful in common life, as that of corn, denoted by Ceres,
from abstract philosophies, as if these were the gods of the first
order,—no, not though we used our utmost endeavors this way,—but only
from Pan; that is, a sagacious experience and general knowledge of
nature, which is often found, even by accident, to stumble upon such
discoveries whilst the pursuit was directed another way.
The event of his contending with Apollo in music affords us a useful
instruction, that may help to humble the human reason and judgment,
which is too apt to boast and glory in itself. There seem to be two
kinds of harmony,—the one of Divine providence, the other of human
reason; but the government of the world, the administration of its
affairs, and the more secret Divine judgments, sound harsh and
dissonant to human ears or human judgment; and though this ignorance
be justly rewarded with asses’ ears, yet they are put on and worn, not
openly, but with great secrecy; nor is the deformity of the thing seen
or observed by the vulgar.
We must not find it strange if no amours are related of Pan besides his
marriage with Echo; for nature enjoys itself, and in itself all other
things. He that loves, desires enjoyment, but in profusion there is no
room for desire; and therefore Pan, remaining content with himself,
has no passion unless it be for discourse, which is well shadowed
out by Echo, or talk, or, when it is more accurate, by Syrinx, or
writing.[625] But Echo makes a most excellent wife for Pan, as being no
other than genuine philosophy, which faithfully repeats his words, or
only transcribes exactly as nature dictates; thus representing the true
image and reflection of the world without adding a tittle.
It tends, also, to the support and perfection of Pan, or nature, to be
without offspring; for the world generates in its parts, and not in
the way of a whole, as wanting a body external to itself wherewith to
generate.
Lastly, for the supposed or spurious prattling daughter of Pan, it is
an excellent addition to the fable, and aptly represents the talkative
philosophies that have at all times been stirring, and filled the
world with idle tales; being ever barren, empty, and servile, though
sometimes indeed diverting and entertaining, and sometimes again
troublesome and importunate.