Atalanta, who was exceedingly fleet, contended with Hippomenes in
the course, on condition that, if Hippomenes won, he should espouse
her, or forfeit his life if he lost. The match was very unequal, for
Atalanta had conquered numbers, to their destruction. Hippomenes,
therefore, had recourse to stratagem. He procured three golden apples,
and purposely carried them with him; they started; Atalanta outstripped
him soon; then Hippomenes bowled one of his apples before her, across
the course, in order not only to make her stoop, but to draw her out
of the path. She, prompted by female curiosity, and the beauty of the
golden fruit, starts from the course to take up the apple. Hippomenes,
in the mean time, holds on his way, and steps before her; but she, by
her natural swiftness, soon fetches up her lost ground, and leaves him
again behind. Hippomenes, however, by rightly timing his second and
third throw, at length won the race, not by his swiftness, but his
cunning.
EXPLANATION.—This fable seems to contain a noble allegory of the
contest betwixt art and nature. For art, here denoted by Atalanta, is
much swifter, or more expeditious in its operations than nature, when
all obstacles and impediments are removed, and sooner arrives at its
end. This appears almost in every instance. Thus, fruit comes slowly
from the kernel, but soon by inoculation or incision; clay, left to
itself, is a long time in acquiring a stony hardness, but is presently
burnt by fire into brick. So again, in human life, nature is a long
while in alleviating and abolishing the remembrance of pain, and
assuaging the troubles of the mind; but moral philosophy, which is the
art of living, performs it presently. Yet this prerogative and singular
efficacy of art is stopped and retarded to the infinite detriment of
human life, by certain golden apples; for there is no one science or
art that constantly holds on its true and proper course to the end,
but they are all continually stopping short, forsaking the track, and
turning aside to profit and convenience, exactly like Atalanta.[638]
Whence it is no wonder that art gets not the victory over nature,
nor, according to the condition of the contest, brings her under
subjection; but, on the contrary, remains subject to her, as a wife to
a husband.[639]