The essays, or councils, civil and moral, of Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban with a table of the colours of good and evil, and a discourse of The wisdom of the ancients : to this edition is added The character of Queen Elizabeth, never before printed in English.

ACTAEON and PENTHEƲS, or a Curi∣ous Man.

THe curiosity of Men, in prying into secrets, and coveting with an undiscreet desire to attain the knowledge of things forbidden, is set forth by the Anci∣ents in two other Examples: The one of Actaeon, the o∣ther of Pentheus.

Actaeon having unawares, and as it were by chance beheld Diana naked, was turned into a Stag, and de∣voured by his own Dogs.

And Pentheus climbing up into a Tree, with a desire to be a spectator of the hidden sacrifices of Bacchus, was strucken with such a kind of frensie, as that whatsoe∣ver he lookt upon, he thought it always double, sup∣posing (among other things) he saw two Suns, and two Thebes; insomuch that running towards Thebes, spying another Thebes, instantly turned back again, and so kept still running forward and backward with perpe∣tual unrest.

Eumenidum veluti demens vidit agmina Pentheu••, Et Solem geminum, duplices se ostendere Thebas.

Pentheus amaz'd, doth troops of furies spie; And Sun, and Thebes seem double to his Eye.

The first of the Fables pertains to the secrets of Prin∣ces, the second to Divine Mysteries. For those that are near about Princes, and come to the knowledge of more secrets than they would have them, do certainly incur great hatred. And therefore, (suspecting that they are shot at, and opportunities watcht for their o∣verthrow,) do lead their lives like Stags, fearful and full of suspicion. And it happens oftentimes that their Servants, and those of their Houshold, (to insinuate

into the Prince's favour) do accuse them to their de∣struction; for against whomsoever the Princes displea∣sure is known, look how many servants that Man hath, and you shall find them for the most part so many Traytors unto him, that his end may prove to be like Actaeon's.

The other is the misery of Pentheus: For that by the height of Knowledge and Nature in Philosophy, ha∣ving climbed, as it were, into a Tree, do with rash attempts (unmindful of their frailty) pry into the se∣crets of Divine Mysteries, and are justly plagued with perpetual inconstancy, and with wavering and per∣plexed conceits: For seeing the light of Nature is one thing, and of Grace another; it happens so to them as if they saw two Suns. And seeing the Actions of Life, and degrees of the Will to depend on the Un∣derstanding, it follows that they doubt, are inconstant no less in Will than in Opinion; and so in like man∣ner they may be said to see two Thebes: For by The∣bes (seeing there was the habitation and refuge of Pen∣theus) is meant the end of Actions. Hence it comes to pass that they know not whither they go, but as di∣stracted and unresolved in the scope of their intentions, are in all things carried about with sudden Passions of the Mind.