t this is the hard fate of wise men, who
are grown so scarce, that like Phoenixes, they appear but one in an age.
The Grecians, it is true, reckoned up seven within the narrow precincts
of their own country; yet I believe, were they to cast up their accounts
anew, they would not find a half, nay, not a third part, of one in far
larger extent.

[Illustration: 218]

Farther, when among the several good properties of Bacchus this is
looked upon as the chief, namely, that he drowns the cares and anxieties
of the mind, though it be indeed but for a short while; for after a
small nap, when our brains are a little settled, they all return to
their former corrodings: how much greater is the more durable advantage
which I bring? while by one uninterrupted fit of being drunk in conceit,
I perpetually cajole the mind with riots, revels, and all the excess and
energy of joy.

Add to this, that I am so communicative and bountiful, as to let no one
particular person pass without some token of my favour; whereas other
deities bestow their gifts sparingly to their elect only. Bacchus has
not thought fit that every soil should bear the same juice-yielding
grape: Venus has not given to all a like portion of beauty: Mercury
endows but few with the knack of an accomplished eloquence: Hercules
gives not to all the same measure of wealth and riches: Jupiter has
ordained but a few to be born to a kingdom: Mars in battle gives a
complete victory but to one party; nay, he often makes them both losers:
Apollo does not answer the expectation of all that consult his oracles:
Jove oft thunders: Phoebus sometimes shoots the plague, or some other
infection, at the point of his darts: and Neptune swallows down more
than he bears up: not to mention their Ve-Jupiters, their Plutos, their
Ate goddess of loss, their evil geniuses, and such other monsters of
divinity, as had more of the hangman than the god in them, and were
worshipped only to deprecate that hurt which used to be inflicted by
them: I say, not to mention these, I am that high and mighty goddess,
whose liberality is of as large an extent as her omnipotence: I give to
all that ask: I never appear sullen, nor out of humour, nor ever demand
any atonement or satisfaction for the omission of any ceremonious
punctilio in my worship: I do not storm or rage, if mortals, in
their addresses to the other gods pass me by unregarded, without the
acknowledgment of any respect or application: whereas al