we see in lewd persons, war Liway
indecent stories, and in soldier tur
counting their deeds: like grass
is only in their voice.

XVI.

JUNO'S SUITO:

OR DISHONOU

THE poets tell us that Jupie 108 praese assumed many different shap.

swan, a shower of gold: but in Juno, he turned himself into L...

could be, a very object of contemnya d

L

of a wretched cuckoo, drenched Will Ace amazed, trembling, and ual dei...

It is a wise fabic. derived from 1.

science. The meaning P themselves that an extiterion p' quer will win them estimation a. For that depends upona. »*• those to whom they arpenises persons of no gifts or ornaments qu a proud and malignant dispositio”. resented by Juno), then they uns must put off everything about ti show of honour or dignity, and t them to proceed any other way: enough to descend to the basenes they put on the outward show all ness and degeneracy.

XVII.

CUPID;

OR THE ATOM.

THE accounts given by the poets of Cupid, or Love, are not properly applicable to the same person; yet the discrepancy is such that one may see where the confusion is and where the similitude, and reject the one and receive the other.

They say then that Love was the most ancient of all the gods; the most ancient therefore of all things whatever, except Chaos, which is said to have been coeval with him; and Chaos is never distinguished by the ancients with divine honour or the name of a god. This Love is introduced without any parent at all; only, that some say he was an egg of Night. And himself out of Chaos begot all things, the gods included. The attributes which are assigned to him are in number four: he is always an infant; he is blind; he is naked; he is an archer. There was also another Love, the youngest of all the gods, son of Venus, to whom the attributes of the elder are transferred, and whom in a way they suit.

The fable relates to the cradle and infancy of nature, and pierces deep. This Love I understand to be the appetite or instinct of primal matter; or to speak more plainly, the natural motion of the atom; which is indeed the original and unique force that constitutes and fashions all things out of matter. Now this is entirely without parent; that is, without cause. For the cause is as it were parent of the effect; and of this virtue there can be no cause in nature (God always ex

cepted): there being nothing before it therefore no efficient; nor anything more original in nature, therefore neither kind nor form. Whatever is be therefore. it is a thing positive and inexplicable. And even f were possible to know the method and process of is pet to know it by way of cause is not possilie: it being next to God, the cause of causes—isel vitun awa That the method even of its operation shall ever de brought within the range and comprehensive of bu inquiry, is hardy perhaps to be hoped; with good rear son therefore it is represented as an egg habed by night. Such certainly is the judgment of the sacred philosopher, when he says. He Axà main all the beauti“ i according to their seasons; as in hach suimitted the world to man's inquiry, yet si tha man cưNNE find o A the work which God worketh from the innang to the end. For the summary law of nature, that impulse of desire impressed by God upon the primary particles of matter which makes them come together, and which by repetition and multiplication produces all the variety of nature, is a thing which mortal thought may glance at, but can hardly take in.

Now the philosophy of the Greeks, which in investigating the material principles of things is careful and acute, in inquiring the principles of motion, wherein lies all vigour of operation, is negligent and languid ; and on the point now in question seems to be altogether blind and babbling; for that opinion of the Peripatetics which refers the original impulse of matter to privation, is little more than words—a name for the thing rather than a description of it. And those who refer it to God, though they are quite right in that, yet they as cend by a leap and not by steps. For beyond all donta

there is a single and summary law in which nature centres and which is subject and subordinate to God; the same in fact which in the text just quoted is meant by the words, The work which God worketh from the beginning to the end. Democritus considered the matter more deeply; and having first given the atom some dimension and shape, attributed to it a single desire or primary motion simply and absolutely, and a second by comparison. For he thought that all things move by their proper nature towards the centre of the world; but that that which has more matter, moving thither faster, strikes aside that which has less, and forces it to go the other way. This however was but a narrow theory, and framed with reference to too few particulars; for it does not appear that either the motion of the heavenly bodies in circle, or the phenomena of contraction and expansion, can be reduced to this prineiple, or reconciled with it. As for Epicurus's opinion of the declination and fortuitous agitation of the atom. it is a relapse to triding and ignorance. So it is hut wo plain that the parentage of this Cupid is wrapped ut might.

Let us now consider his arbures. E is describe£ wild great elegance as a little hilt, ami a child for ever, the things compounded are arrer and are if bcond 'n age; whereas the primary seets if things r

von * minute and
Yes, rub also ste
sapoamis o me that pushes hen

emain ʼn berneta 'nfance.
presentei as navi or ul

Masses uni southest. uni tes & wing

whatever he be, has very little providence; but directs his course, like a blind man groping, by whatever he finds nearest; which makes the supreme divine Providence all the more to be admired, as that which contrives out of subjects peculiarly empty and destitute of providence, and as it were blind, to educe by a fatal and necessary law all the order and beauty of the universe.

His last attribute is archery: meaning that this virtue is such as acts at a distance: for all operation at a distance is like shooting an arrow. Now whoever maintains the theory of the atom and the vacuum (even though he suppose the vacuum not to be collected by itself but intermingled through space), necessarily implies the action of the virtue of the atom at a distance: for without this no motion could be originated, by reason of the vacuum interposed; but all things would remain fixed and immovable.

As for that younger Cupid, it is with reason that he is reported to be the youngest of the gods; since until the species were constituted he could have no operation. In the description of him the allegory changes its aim and passes to morals. And yet there remains a certain conformity between him and the elder Cupid. For Venus excites the general appetite of conjunction and procreation; Cupid, her son, applies the appetite to an individual object. From Venus therefore comes the general disposition, from Cupid the more exact sympathy. Now the general disposition depends upon causes near at hand, the particular sympathy upon principles more deep and fatal, and as if derived from that ancient Cupid, who is the source of all exquisite sympathy.