The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. 311
afresh; wherefore it was at last granted that, the and get again: for that brand or burning torch
year being divided, Proserpina should, by alternate of tether which Ceres carried in her hand, doth
courses, remain one six months with her husband, doubtless signify the sun, which enlighteneth the
and other six months with her mother. Not long whole circuit of the earth, and would be of the
after this, Theseus and Perithous, in an over- greatest moment to recover Proserpina, if poshardy adventure, attempted to fetch her from sibly it might be.
Pluto's bed, who, being weary with travel and But Proserpina abides still, the reason of which
sitting down upon a stone in hell to rest them- is accurately and excellently propounded in the
selves, had not the power to rise again, but sat condition between Jupiter and Ceres: for first it
there forever. Proserpina therefore remained is most certain there are two ways to keep spirit
queen of hell, in whose honour there was this in solid and terrestrial matter: the one by constipagreat privilege granted; that, although it were tion and obstruction, which is mere imprisonment
enacted that none that went down to hell should and constraint; the other by administration or prohave the power ever to return from thence; yet portionable nutriment, whicl it receives willingly
was this singular exception annexed to this law, and of its own accord; for after that the included
that if any presented Proserpina with a golden spirit begins to feed and nourish itself, it makes
bough, it should be lawful for him to go and no haste tobe gone, but is, as it were, linked to its
come at his pleasure. Now there was but one earth: and this is pointed at by Proserpina her
only such a bough in a spacious and shady grove, eating of pomegranate; which, if she had not
which was not a plant neither of itself, but bud- done, she had long since been recovered by Ceres
ded from a tree of another kind, like a rope of gum, with her torch, compassing the earth. Now, as
which being plucked off, another would instantly concerning that spirit which is in metals and
spring out. minerals, it is chiefly perchance restrained by soThis fable seems to pertain to nature, and to lidity of mass: but that which is in plants and
dive into that rich and plentiful efficacy and va- animals inhabits a porous body, and hath open
riety of subalternal creatures, from whom what- passage to be gone in a manner as it lists, were it
soever we have is derived, and to them doth not that it willingly abides of its own accord, by
again return. reason of the relish it finds in its entertainment.
By Proserpina, the ancients meant that ethe- The second condition concerning the six months'
real spirit, which being separated from the upper custom, it is no other than an elegant description
globe, is shut up and detained under the earth, re- of the division of the year, seeing this spirit mixed
fresented by Pluto, which the poet well express- with the earth appears above ground in vegetable
thus: bodies during the summer months, and in the
"Sive recens tellus, seductaque nuper ab alto winter sinks down again.
XiEthere, cognati retinebat semina xceli." Now as concerning Theseus and Perithous,
Whether the youngling Tellus (that of late and their attempt to bring Proserpina quite away;
Was from the high-rear'd tether separate) the meaning of it is, that it oftentimes comes to
Did yet contain her teeming womb within pass that some more subtle spirits descending
The living seeds of heaven, her nearest kin.
Te living seeds of eaven, her nearest kin with divers bodies to the earth, never come to
This spirit is feigned to be rapted by the earth, suck of any subalteran spirit, whereby to unite
because nothing can withhold it, when it hath it unto them, and so to bring it away. But, on
time and leisure to escape. It is therefore caught the contrary, are coagulated themselves, and never
and stayed by a sudden contraction, no otherwise rise more, that Proserpina should be by that means
than if a man should go about to mix air with augmented with inhabitants and dominion.
water, which can be done by no means, but by a All that we can say concerning that sprig of gold
speedy and rapid agitation, as may be seen in is hardly able to defend us from the violence of
froth, wherein the air is rapted by the water. the chymists, if in this regard they set upon us,
Neither is it inelegantly added that Proserpina seeing they promise by that their elixir to effect
was rapt as she was gathering Narcissus flowers golden mountains, and the restoring of natural
in the valleys, because Narcissus hath his name bodies, as it were from the portal of hell. But,
from slowness or stupidity: for, indeed, then is concerning chymistry, and those perpetual suitors
this spirit most prepared and fitted to be snatched for that philosophical elixir, we know certainly
b)y terrestrial matter, when it begins to be coagu- that their theory is without grounds, and we suslated, and become as it were slow. pect that their practice also is without certain reRightly is Proserpina honoured more than any ward. And therefore, omiting these, of this last
of the other god's bed-fellows, in being styled the., part of the parable, this is my opinion, I am inLady of Dis, because this spirit doth rule and duced to believe by many figures of the ancients,
sway all things in those lower regions, Pluto that the conservation and restoration of natural
abiding stupid and ignorant. bodies, in some sort, was not esteemed by them
This spirit, the power celestial, shadowed by as a thing impossible to be attained, but as a thing
Ceres, strives with infinite sedulity, to recover abstruse and full of difficulties, and so they seven