Facles of the Ancients, in Philosophy, Morality, and Civil Policy: Illustrated and ExplainedT. Tegg & J. Dick, 1813 - 144 páginas |
Términos y frases comunes
Achelous action æther allegory ancient fables Apollo appears arts asses ears Atalanta Augmentis Scientiarum Augustus Cæsar Bacchus betwixt bodies brought calamities cause celestial Ceres concealed corruption creatures Cupid Dædalus dæmons death delight Democritus denotes depraved desire Diomed divine earth effect elegance elegantly endeavours enquiry excellent EXPLAINED fable seems fears fire goddess gods Greæ heavens Hercules Hippomenes honour human Icarus indulged infernal interpret judgment Jupiter justly kind kings knowledge Lastly learning length mankind manner matter means Mercury mind monster moral motion muses MYTHOLOGY nature Nemesis noble Novum Organum observed Orpheus Pallas Pan's particular passion Pentheus perpetual Perseus person philosophy pleasures Pluto poets present princes Prometheus properly Proserpine Proteus prudent relate religion remains represented revenge riddles Saturn secret shew Sileni Sirens Sphinx spirit strange subdued subtile Sylva Sylvarum Thebes things tion torch Typhon vulgar whence whereof whilst wings youth
Pasajes populares
Página 13 - And this principally raises my esteem of these fables, which I receive, not as the product of the age, or invention of the poets, but as sacred relics, gentle whispers, and the breath of better times, that from the traditions of more ancient nations came, at length, into the flutes and trumpets of the Greeks.
Página 13 - ... could never be conceived or related in this way must surely have a different use. For example, what a monstrous fiction is this, that Jupiter should take Metis to wife, and as soon as he found her pregnant eat her up, whereby he also conceived, and out of his head brought forth Pallas armed. Certainly no mortal could, but for the sake of the moral it couches, invent such an absurd dream as this, so much out of the road of thought...
Página 53 - ... confidence, soared aloft, and fell down headlong. EXPLANATION. — The fable is vulgar, and easily interpreted ; for the path of virtue lies straight between excess on the one side, and defect on the other. And no wonder that excess should prove the bane of Icarus, exulting in juvenile strength and vigor ; for excess is the natural vice of youth, as defect is that of old age ; and if a man must perish by either, Icarus chose the better of the" two ; for all defects are justly esteemed more depraved...
Página 56 - Proteus seems to mean nothing else than the several kinds of animals, plants, and minerals, in which matter appears to diffuse and spend itself: so that, after having formed these several species, and as it were finished its task, it...
Página 82 - ... could by no means be got away ; but remained continually fixed and gazing; till at length he was turned into a flower, of his own name, which appears early in the spring, and is consecrated to the. infernal deities, Pluto, Proserpine, and the furies. EXPLANATION. THIS fable seems to paint the behaviour and fortune of those, who, for their beauty, or other endowments, wherewith nature, (without any industry of their own,) has graced and adorned them, are extravagantly fond of themselves.
Página 57 - ... tortured, by human means. > But if any skilful minister of nature shall apply force to matter, and by design torture and vex it, in order to its annihilation, it, on the contrary, being brought under this necessity, changes and transforms itself into a strange variety of shapes and appearances ; for nothing but the power of the Creator can annihilate, or truly destroy it : so that at length, running through the whole circle of transformations, and compleating its period, it in some degree restores...
Página 12 - ... must surely have a different use. For example, what a monstrous fiction is this, that Jupiter should take Metis to wife; and as soon as he found her pregnant, eat her up ; whereby he also conceived, and out of his head brought forth Pallas * See with regard to natural history and physics, Dr.