EXPLAINED OF CURIOSITY, OR PRYING INTO THE SECRETS OF PRINCES AND
DIVINE MYSTERIES.
The ancients afford us two examples for suppressing the impertinent
curiosity of mankind, in diving into secrets, and imprudently longing
and endeavoring to discover them. The one of these is in the person
of Acteon, and the other in that of Pentheus. Acteon, undesignedly
chancing to see Diana naked, was turned into a stag, and torn to pieces
by his own hounds. And Pentheus, desiring to pry into the hidden
mysteries of Bacchus’s sacrifice, and climbing a tree for that purpose,
was struck with a frenzy. This frenzy of Pentheus caused him to see
things double, particularly the sun, and his own city, Thebes, so that
running homewards, and immediately espying another Thebes, he runs
towards that; and thus continues incessantly, tending first to the one,
and then to the other, without coming at either.
EXPLANATION.—The first of these fables may relate to the secrets of
princes, and the second to divine mysteries. For they who are not
intimate with a prince, yet, against his will, have a knowledge of
his secrets, inevitably incur his displeasure; and therefore, being
aware that they are singled out, and all opportunities watched against
them, they lead the life of a stag, full of fears and suspicions. It
likewise frequently happens that their servants and domestics accuse
them, and plot their overthrow, in order to procure favor with the
prince; for whenever the king manifests his displeasure, the person it
falls upon must expect his servants to betray him, and worry him down,
as Acteon was worried by his own dogs.
The punishment of Pentheus is of another kind; for they who, unmindful
of their mortal state, rashly aspire to divine mysteries, by climbing
the heights of nature and philosophy, here represented by climbing a
tree,—their fate is perpetual inconstancy, perplexity, and instability
of judgment. For as there is one light of nature, and another
light that is divine, they see, as it were, two suns. And as the
actions of life, and the determinations of the will, depend upon the
understanding, they are distracted as much in opinion as in will; and
therefore judge very inconsistently, or contradictorily; and see, as
it were, Thebes double; for Thebes being the refuge and habitation of
Pentheus, here denotes the ends of actions; whence they know not what
course to take, but remaining undetermined and unresolved in their
views and designs, they are merely driven about by every sudden gust
and impulse of the mind.