They tell us, Pluto having, upon that memorable division of empire
among the gods, received the infernal regions for his share, despaired
of winning any one of the goddesses in marriage by an obsequious
courtship, and therefore through necessity resolved upon a rape.
Having watched his opportunity, he suddenly seized upon Proserpine,
a most beautiful virgin, the daughter of Ceres, as she was gathering
narcissus flowers in the meads of Sicily, and hurrying her to his
chariot, carried her with him to the subterraneal regions, where she
was treated with the highest reverence, and styled the Lady of Dis.
But Ceres, missing her only daughter, whom she extremely loved, grew
pensive and anxious beyond measure, and taking a lighted torch in her
hand, wandered the world over in quest of her daughter,—but all to no
purpose, till, suspecting she might be carried to the infernal regions,
she, with great lamentation and abundance of tears, importuned Jupiter
to restore her; and with much ado prevailed so far as to recover and
bring her away, if she had tasted nothing there. This proved a hard
condition upon the mother, for Proserpine was found to have eaten three
kernels of a pomegranate. Ceres, however, desisted not, but fell to
her entreaties and lamentations afresh, insomuch that at last it was
indulged her that Proserpine should divide the year betwixt her husband
and her mother, and live six months with the one and as many with the
other. After this, Theseus and Perithous, with uncommon audacity,
attempted to force Proserpine away from Pluto’s bed, but happening
to grow tired in their journey, and resting themselves upon a stone
in the realms below, they could never rise from it again, but remain
sitting there forever. Proserpine, therefore, still continued queen of
the lower regions, in honor of whom there was also added this grand
privilege, that though it had never been permitted any one to return
after having once descended thither, a particular exception was made,
that he who brought a golden bough as a present to Proserpine, might
on that condition descend and return. This was an only bough that
grew in a large dark grove, not from a tree of its own, but like the
mistletoe from another, and when plucked away a fresh one always shot
out in its stead.
EXPLANATION.—This fable seems to regard natural philosophy, and
searches deep into that rich and fruitful virtue and supply in
subterraneous bodies, from whence all the things upon the earth’s
surface spring, and into which they again relapse and return. By
Proserpine, the ancients denoted that ethereal spirit shut up and
detained within the earth, here represented by Pluto,—the spirit being
separated from the superior globe, according to the expression of
the poet.[648] This spirit is conceived as ravished, or snatched up
by the earth, because it can in no way be detained, when it has time
and opportunity to fly off, but is only wrought together and fixed
by sudden intermixture and comminution, in the same manner as if one
should endeavor to mix air with water, which cannot otherwise be done
than by a quick and rapid agitation, that joins them together in froth
whilst the air is thus caught up by the water. And it is elegantly
added, that Proserpine was ravished whilst she gathered narcissus
flowers, which have their name from numbedness or stupefaction; for the
spirit we speak of is in the fittest disposition to be embraced by
terrestrial matter when it begins to coagulate, or grow torpid as it
were.
It is an honor justly attributed to Proserpine, and not to any other
wife of the gods, that of being the lady or mistress of her husband,
because this spirit performs all its operations in the subterraneal
regions, whilst Pluto, or the earth, remains stupid, or as it were
ignorant of them.
The ether, or the efficacy of the heavenly bodies, denoted by Ceres,
endeavors with infinite diligence to force out this spirit, and restore
it to its pristine state. And by the torch in the hand of Ceres, or
the ether, is doubtless meant the sun, which disperses light over
the whole globe of the earth, and if the thing were possible, must
have the greatest share in recovering Proserpine, or reinstating
the subterraneal spirit. Yet Proserpine still continues and dwells
below, after the manner excellently described in the condition betwixt
Jupiter and Ceres. For first, it is certain that there are two ways
of detaining the spirit, in solid and terrestrial matter,—the one by
condensation or obstruction, which is mere violence and imprisonment;
the other by administering a proper aliment, which is spontaneous
and free. For after the included spirit begins to feed and nourish
itself, it is not in a hurry to fly off, but remains as it were fixed
in its own earth. And this is the moral of Proserpine’s tasting the
pomegranate; and were it not for this, she must long ago have been
carried up by Ceres, who with her torch wandered the world over, and
so the earth have been left without its spirit. For though the spirit
in metals and minerals may perhaps be, after a particular manner,
wrought in by the solidity of the mass, yet the spirit of vegetables
and animals has open passages to escape at, unless it be willingly
detained, in the way of sipping and tasting them.
The second article of agreement, that of Proserpine’s remaining
six months with her mother and six with her husband, is an elegant
description of the division of the year; for the spirit diffused
through the earth lives above-ground in the vegetable world during the
summer months, but in the winter returns under ground again.
The attempt of Theseus and Perithous to bring Proserpine away, denotes
that the more subtile spirits, which descend in many bodies to the
earth, may frequently be unable to drink in, unite with themselves, and
carry off the subterraneous spirit, but on the contrary be coagulated
by it, and rise no more, so as to increase the inhabitants and add to
the dominion of Proserpine.[649]
The alchemists will be apt to fall in with our interpretation of the
golden bough, whether we will or no, because they promise golden
mountains, and the restoration of natural bodies from their stone,
as from the gates of Pluto; but we are well assured that their theory
had no just foundation, and suspect they have no very encouraging or
practical proofs of its soundness. Leaving, therefore, their conceits
to themselves, we shall freely declare our own sentiments upon this
last part of the fable. We are certain, from numerous figures and
expressions of the ancients, that they judged the conservation, and
in some degree the renovation, of natural bodies to be no desperate
or impossible thing, but rather abstruse and out of the common road
than wholly impracticable. And this seems to be their opinion in the
present case, as they have placed this bough among an infinite number
of shrubs, in a spacious and thick wood. They supposed it of gold,
because gold is the emblem of duration. They feigned it adventitious,
not native, because such an effect is to be expected from art, and not
from any medicine or any simple or mere natural way of working.