The ancients relate that man was the work of Prometheus, and formed of
clay; only the artificer mixed in with the mass, particles taken from
different animals. And being desirous to improve his workmanship, and
endow, as well as create, the human race, he stole up to heaven with
a bundle of birch-rods, and kindling them at the chariot of the Sun,
thence brought down fire to the earth for the service of men.
They add that, for this meritorious act, Prometheus was repayed with
ingratitude by mankind, so that, forming a conspiracy, they arraigned
both him and his invention before Jupiter. But the matter was otherwise
received than they imagined; for the accusation proved extremely
grateful to Jupiter and the gods, insomuch that, delighted with the
action, they not only indulged mankind the use of fire, but moreover
conferred upon them a most acceptable and desirable present, viz:
perpetual youth.
But men, foolishly overjoyed hereat, laid this present of the gods
upon an ass, who, in returning back with it, being extremely thirsty,
strayed to a fountain. The serpent, who was guardian thereof, would
not suffer him to drink, but upon condition of receiving the burden he
carried, whatever it should be. The silly ass complied, and thus the
perpetual renewal of youth was, for a drop of water, transferred from
men to the race of serpents.
Prometheus, not desisting from his unwarrantable practices, though now
reconciled to mankind, after they were thus tricked of their present,
but still continuing inveterate against Jupiter, had the boldness to
attempt deceit, even in a sacrifice, and is said to have once offered
up two bulls to Jupiter, but so as in the hide of one of them to wrap
all the flesh and fat of both, and stuffing out the other hide only
with the bones; then, in a religious and devout manner, gave Jupiter
his choice of the two. Jupiter, detesting this sly fraud and hypocrisy,
but having thus an opportunity of punishing the offender, purposely
chose the mock bull.
And now giving way to revenge, but finding he could not chastise the
insolence of Prometheus without afflicting the human race (in the
production whereof Prometheus had strangely and insufferably prided
himself), he commanded Vulcan to form a beautiful and graceful woman,
to whom every god presented a certain gift, whence she was called
Pandora.[640] They put into her hands an elegant box, containing all
sorts of miseries and misfortunes; but Hope was placed at the bottom
of it. With this box she first goes to Prometheus, to try if she
could prevail upon him to receive and open it; but he being upon his
guard, warily refused the offer. Upon this refusal, she comes to his
brother Epimetheus, a man of a very different temper, who rashly and
inconsiderately opens the box. When finding all kinds of miseries and
misfortunes issued out of it, he grew wise too late, and with great
hurry and struggle endeavored to clap the cover on again; but with all
his endeavor could scarce keep in Hope, which lay at the bottom.
Lastly, Jupiter arraigned Prometheus of many heinous crimes; as that he
formerly stole fire from heaven; that he contemptuously and deceitfully
mocked him by a sacrifice of bones; that he despised his present,[641]
adding withal a new crime, that he attempted to ravish Pallas; for all
which, he was sentenced to be bound in chains, and doomed to perpetual
torments. Accordingly, by Jupiter’s command, he was brought to Mount
Caucasus, and there fastened to a pillar, so firmly that he could no
way stir. A vulture or eagle stood by him, which in the daytime gnawed
and consumed his liver; but in the night the wasted parts were supplied
again; whence matter for his pain was never wanting.
They relate, however, that his punishment had an end; for Hercules
sailing the ocean, in a cup, or pitcher, presented him by the Sun,
came at length to Caucasus, shot the eagle with his arrows, and set
Prometheus free. In certain nations, also, there were instituted
particular games of the torch, to the honor of Prometheus, in which
they who ran for the prize carried lighted torches; and as any one of
these torches happened to go out, the bearer withdrew himself, and gave
way to the next; and that person was allowed to win the prize, who
first brought in his lighted torch to the goal.
EXPLANATION.—This fable contains and enforces many just and serious
considerations; some whereof have been long since well observed,
but some again remain perfectly untouched. Prometheus clearly and
expressly signifies Providence; for of all the things in nature, the
formation and endowment of man was singled out by the ancients, and
esteemed the peculiar work of Providence. The reason hereof seems,
1. That the nature of man includes a mind and understanding, which
is the seat of Providence. 2. That it is harsh and incredible to
suppose reason and mind should be raised, and drawn out of senseless
and irrational principles; whence it becomes almost inevitable, that
providence is implanted in the human mind in conformity with, and by
the direction and the design of the greater overruling Providence.
But, 3. The principal cause is this: that man seems to be the thing in
which the whole world centres, with respect to final causes; so that
if he were away, all other things would stray and fluctuate, without
end or intention, or become perfectly disjointed, and out of frame;
for all things are made subservient to man, and he receives use and
benefit from them all. Thus the revolutions, places, and periods, of
the celestial bodies, serve him for distinguishing times and seasons,
and for dividing the world into different regions; the meteors afford
him prognostications of the weather; the winds sail our ships, drive
our mills, and move our machines; and the vegetables and animals of all
kinds either afford us matter for houses and habitations, clothing,
food, physic; or tend to ease, or delight, to support, or refresh us so
that everything in nature seems not made for itself, but for man.
And it is not without reason added, that the mass of matter whereof
man was formed, should be mixed up with particles taken from different
animals, and wrought in with the clay, because it is certain, that of
all things in the universe, man is the most compounded and recompounded
body; so that the ancients, not improperly, styled him a Microcosm,
or little world within himself. For although the chemists have
absurdly, and too literally, wrested and perverted the elegance of the
term microcosm, whilst they pretend to find all kind of mineral and
vegetable matters, or something corresponding to them, in man, yet it
remains firm and unshaken, that the human body is, of all substances,
the most mixed and organical; whence it has surprising powers and
faculties; for the powers of simple bodies are but few, though certain
and quick; as being little broken, or weakened, and not counterbalanced
by mixture; but excellence and quantity of energy reside in mixture and
composition.
Man, however, in his first origin, seems to be a defenceless, naked
creature, slow in assisting himself, and standing in need of numerous
things. Prometheus, therefore, hastened to the invention of fire, which
supplies and administers to nearly all human uses and necessities,
insomuch that, if the soul may be called the form of forms, if the hand
may be called the instrument of instruments, fire may, as properly, be
called the assistant of assistants, or the helper of helps; for hence
proceed numberless operations, hence all the mechanic arts, and hence
infinite assistances are afforded to the sciences themselves.
The manner wherein Prometheus stole this fire is properly described
from the nature of the thing; he being said to have done it by applying
a rod of birch to the chariot of the Sun; for birch is used in striking
and beating, which clearly denotes the generation of fire to be from
the violent percussions and collisions of bodies; whereby the matters
struck are subtilized, rarefied, put into motion, and so prepared to
receive the heat of the celestial bodies; whence they, in a clandestine
and secret manner, collect and snatch fire, as it were by stealth, from
the chariot of the Sun.
The next is a remarkable part of the fable, which represents that
men, instead of gratitude and thanks, fell into indignation and
expostulation, accusing both Prometheus and his fire to Jupiter,—and
yet the accusation proved highly pleasing to Jupiter; so that he, for
this reason, crowned these benefits of mankind with a new bounty.
Here it may seem strange that the sin of ingratitude to a creator and
benefactor, a sin so heinous as to include almost all others, should
meet with approbation and reward. But the allegory has another view,
and denotes, that the accusation and arraignment, both of human nature
and human art among mankind, proceeds from a most noble and laudable
temper of the mind, and tends to a very good purpose; whereas the
contrary temper is odious to the gods, and unbeneficial in itself.
For they who break into extravagant praises of human nature, and the
arts in vogue, and who lay themselves out in admiring the things they
already possess, and will needs have the sciences cultivated among
them, to be thought absolutely perfect and complete, in the first
place, show little regard to the divine nature, whilst they extol their
own inventions almost as high as his perfection. In the next place,
men of this temper are unserviceable and prejudicial in life, whilst
they imagine themselves already got to the top of things, and there
rest, without further inquiry. On the contrary, they who arraign and
accuse both nature and art, and are always full of complaints against
them, not only preserve a more just and modest sense of mind, but are
also perpetually stirred up to fresh industry and new discoveries.
Is not, then, the ignorance and fatality of mankind to be extremely
pitied, whilst they remain slaves to the arrogance of a few of their
own fellows, and are dotingly fond of that scrap of Grecian knowledge,
the Peripatetic philosophy; and this to such a degree, as not only to
think all accusation or arraignment thereof useless, but even hold it
suspect and dangerous? Certainly the procedure of Empedocles, though
furious—but especially that of Democritus (who with great modesty
complained that all things were abstruse; that we know nothing; that
truth lies hid in deep pits; that falsehood is strangely joined and
twisted along with truth, &c.)—is to be preferred before the confident,
assuming, and dogmatical school of Aristotle. Mankind are, therefore,
to be admonished, that the arraignment of nature and of art is pleasing
to the gods; and that a sharp and vehement accusation of Prometheus,
though a creator, a founder, and a master, obtained new blessings and
presents from the divine bounty, and proved more sound and serviceable
than a diffusive harangue of praise and gratulation. And let men be
assured that the fond opinion that they have already acquired enough,
is a principal reason why they have acquired so little.
That the perpetual flower of youth should be the present which mankind
received as a reward for their accusation, carries this moral; that
the ancients seem not to have despaired of discovering methods, and
remedies, for retarding old age, and prolonging the period of human
life; but rather reckoned it among those things which, through sloth
and want of diligent inquiry, perish and come to nothing, after having
been once undertaken, than among such as are absolutely impossible,
or placed beyond the reach of the human power. For they signify
and intimate from the true use of fire, and the just and strenuous
accusation and conviction of the errors of art, that the divine bounty
is not wanting to men in such kind of presents, but that men indeed
are wanting to themselves, and lay such an inestimable gift upon the
back of a slow-paced ass; that is, upon the back of the heavy, dull,
lingering thing, experience; from whose sluggish and tortoise-pace
proceeds that ancient complaint of the shortness of life, and the
slow advancement of arts. And certainly it may well seem, that the
two faculties of reasoning and experience are not hitherto properly
joined and coupled together, but to be still new gifts of the gods,
separately laid, the one upon the back of a light bird, or abstract
philosophy, and the other upon an ass, or slow-paced practice and
trial. And yet good hopes might be conceived of this ass, if it were
not for his thirst and the accidents of the way. For we judge, that if
any one would constantly proceed, by a certain law and method, in the
road of experience, and not by the way thirst after such experiments as
make for profit or ostentation, nor exchange his burden, or quit the
original design for the sake of these, he might be an useful bearer of
a new and accumulated divine bounty to mankind.
That this gift of perpetual youth should pass from men to serpents,
seems added by way of ornament, and illustration to the fable; perhaps
intimating, at the same time, the shame it is for men, that they, with
their fire, and numerous arts, cannot procure to themselves those
things which nature has bestowed upon many other creatures.
The sudden reconciliation of Prometheus to mankind, after being
disappointed of their hopes, contains a prudent and useful admonition.
It points out the levity and temerity of men in new experiments,
when, not presently succeeding, or answering to expectation, they
precipitantly quit their new undertakings, hurry back to their old
ones, and grow reconciled thereto.
After the fable has described the state of man, with regard to arts
and intellectual matters, it passes on to religion; for after the
inventing and settling of arts, follows the establishment of divine
worship, which hypocrisy presently enters into and corrupts. So that by
the two sacrifices we have elegantly painted the person of a man truly
religious, and of an hypocrite. One of these sacrifices contained the
fat, or the portion of God, used for burning and incensing; thereby
denoting affection and zeal, offered up to his glory. It likewise
contained the bowels, which are expressive of charity, along with
the good and useful flesh. But the other contained nothing more than
dry bones, which nevertheless stuffed out the hide, so as to make it
resemble a fair, beautiful, and magnificent sacrifice; hereby finely
denoting the external and empty rites and barren ceremonies, wherewith
men burden and stuff out the divine worship,—things rather intended for
show and ostentation than conducing to piety. Nor are mankind simply
content with this mock-worship of God, but also impose and further it
upon him, as if he had chosen and ordained it. Certainly the prophet,
in the person of God, has a fine expostulation, as to this matter of
choice: “Is this the fasting which I have chosen, that a man should
afflict his soul for a day, and bow down his head like a bulrush?”
After thus touching the state of religion, the fable next turns to
manners, and the conditions of human life. And though it be a very
common, yet is it a just interpretation, that Pandora denotes the
pleasures and licentiousness which the cultivation and luxury of
the arts of civil life introduce, as it were, by the instrumental
efficacy of fire; whence the works of the voluptuary arts are properly
attributed to Vulcan, the God of Fire. And hence infinite miseries and
calamities have proceeded to the minds, the bodies, and the fortunes
of men, together with a late repentance; and this not in each man’s
particular, but also in kingdoms and states; for wars, and tumults, and
tyrannies, have all arisen from this same fountain, or box of Pandora.
It is worth observing, how beautifully and elegantly the fable has
drawn two reigning characters in human life, and given two examples,
or tablatures of them, under the persons of Prometheus and Epimetheus.
The followers of Epimetheus are improvident, see not far before them,
and prefer such things as are agreeable for the present; whence they
are oppressed with numerous straits, difficulties, and calamities, with
which they almost continually struggle; but in the mean time gratify
their own temper, and, for want of a better knowledge of things, feed
their minds with many vain hopes; and as with so many pleasing dreams,
delight themselves, and sweeten the miseries of life.
But the followers of Prometheus are the prudent, wary men, that look
into futurity, and cautiously guard against, prevent, and undermine
many calamities and misfortunes. But this watchful, provident temper,
is attended with a deprivation of numerous pleasures, and the loss of
various delights, whilst such men debar themselves the use even of
innocent things, and what is still worse, rack and torture themselves
with cares, fears, and disquiets; being bound fast to the pillar of
necessity, and tormented with numberless thoughts (which for their
swiftness are well compared to an eagle), that continually wound,
tear, and gnaw their liver or mind, unless, perhaps, they find some
small remission by intervals, or as it were at nights; but then
new anxieties, dreads, and fears, soon return again, as it were in
the morning. And, therefore, very few men, of either temper, have
secured to themselves the advantages of providence, and kept clear of
disquiets, troubles, and misfortunes.
Nor indeed can any man obtain this end without the assistance of
Hercules; that is, of such fortitude and constancy of mind as stands
prepared against every event, and remains indifferent to every change;
looking forward without being daunted, enjoying the good without
disdain, and enduring the bad without impatience. And it must be
observed, that even Prometheus had not the power to free himself,
but owed his deliverance to another; for no natural inbred force and
fortitude could prove equal to such a task. The power of releasing him
came from the utmost confines of the ocean, and from the sun; that is,
from Apollo, or knowledge; and again, from a due consideration of the
uncertainty, instability, and fluctuating state of human life, which
is aptly represented by sailing the ocean. Accordingly, Virgil has
prudently joined these two together, accounting him happy who knows the
causes of things, and has conquered all his fears, apprehensions, and
superstitions.[642]
It is added, with great elegance, for supporting and confirming the
human mind, that the great hero who thus delivered him sailed the ocean
in a cup, or pitcher, to prevent fear, or complaint; as if, through
the narrowness of our nature, or a too great fragility thereof, we
were absolutely incapable of that fortitude and constancy to which
Seneca finely alludes, when he says: “It is a noble thing, at once to
participate in the frailty of man and the security of a god.”
We have hitherto, that we might not break the connection of things,
designedly omitted the last crime of Prometheus—that of attempting
the chastity of Minerva—which heinous offence it doubtless was, that
caused the punishment of having his liver gnawed by the vulture. The
meaning seems to be this,—that when men are puffed up with arts and
knowledge, they often try to subdue even the divine wisdom and bring
it under the dominion of sense and reason, whence inevitably follows a
perpetual and restless rending and tearing of the mind. A sober and
humble distinction must, therefore, be made betwixt divine and human
things, and betwixt the oracles of sense and faith, unless mankind had
rather choose an heretical religion, and a fictitious and romantic
philosophy.[643]
The last particular in the fable is the Games of the Torch, instituted
to Prometheus, which again relates to arts and sciences, as well as the
invention of fire, for the commemoration and celebration whereof these
games were held. And here we have an extremely prudent admonition,
directing us to expect the perfection of the sciences from succession,
and not from the swiftness and abilities of any single person; for
he who is fleetest and strongest in the course may perhaps be less
fit to keep his torch alight, since there is danger of its going
out from too rapid as well as from too slow a motion.[644] But this
kind of contest, with the torch, seems to have been long dropped and
neglected; the sciences appearing to have flourished principally in
their first authors, as Aristotle, Galen, Euclid, Ptolemy, &c.; whilst
their successors have done very little, or scarce made any attempts.
But it were highly to be wished that these games might be renewed,
to the honor of Prometheus, or human nature, and that they might
excite contest, emulation, and laudable endeavors, and the design meet
with such success as not to hang tottering, tremulous, and hazarded,
upon the torch of any single person. Mankind, therefore, should be
admonished to rouse themselves, and try and exert their own strength
and chance, and not place all their dependence upon a few men, whose
abilities and capacities, perhaps, are not greater than their own.
These are the particulars which appear to us shadowed out by this trite
and vulgar fable, though without denying that there may be contained
in it several intimations that have a surprising correspondence with
the Christian mysteries. In particular, the voyage of Hercules, made
in a pitcher, to release Prometheus, bears an allusion to the word of
God, coming in the frail vessel of the flesh to redeem mankind. But we
indulge ourselves no such liberties as these, for fear of using strange
fire at the altar of the Lord.