ERICTHONIƲS, or Imposture.
THe Poets Fable that Vulcan solicited Minerva for her Virginity, and impatient of denial, with an inflamed desire offered her violence, but in struggling his Seed fell upon the Ground, whereof came Erictho∣nius, whose Body from the middle upward, was of a comely and apt proportion, but his Thighs and Legs like the tail of an Eel, small and deformed. To which Monstrosity he being conscious, became the first in∣ventor of the use of Chariots, whereby that part of his Body which was well proportioned might be seen, and the other which was ugly and uncomely might be hid.
This strange and prodigious Fiction may seem to shew that Art which (for the great use it hath of Fire) is shadowed by Vulcan, although it labour by much striving with corporeal substances to force Nature, and to make her subject to it, (she being for her industri∣ous Works rightly represented by Minerva;) yet sel∣dom or never attains the end it aims at, but with much ado and great pains (wrestling as it were with her) comes short of its purpose, and produceth certain im∣perfect Births and lame Works, fair to the Eye, but weak and defective in use, which many Impostors (with much subtilty and deceit) set to view, and car∣ry about, as it were in triumph, as may for the most part be noted in Chymical productions, and other Mechanical subtilties and novelties, especially when (rather persecuting their intent, than reclining their Er∣rors) they rather strive to overcome Nature by force, than sue for her Embracements by due obsequiousness and observance.