ARREPTA NEGLECTA" (4to, Antwerp, 1605),-Opportunity seized or neglected. It contains twelve curiously beautiful plates by Theodore Galle, showing the advantages of seizing the Occasion, the disadvantages of neglecting it. We choose an example, it is Schema 7, cap. 1, p. 117. (See Plate XII.)

"While Time is passing onward men keep Occasion back by seizing the hair on her forehead."

Various speakers are introduced,

"Time. Now the need is to visit other climes of earth

B.

C.

And other youths. Ye warned then, bid farewell.
What this heat of sudden flight?

If flight indeed at length

For thee is fix'd, her swift wings let the bald goddess
At least rest here.

Occasion.

E.

Why to no purpose words in air
Waste ye? hence elsewhere, no delay, I go; farewell.
Should she flee? rather her scattered locks in front
Seize hold of.

Alas! freely I follow, at your own homes

Occasion.

Will tarry, till in just measure I prolong my stay.

Faith. I praise your spirit, for by friendly force the goddess

Rejoices to be compelled."

The line, "her scattered locks in front seize hold of," has its parallel in Othello (act iii. sc. 1, 1. 47, vol. viii. p. 505),—

"he protests he loves you,

And needs no other suitor but his likings

To take the safest occasion by the front
To bring you in again."

Classical celebrities, whether hero or heroine, wrapt round with mystery, or half-developed into historical reality, may also form portion of our Mythological Series.

The grand character in Æschylus, Prometheus Bound, is depicted by at least four of the Emblematists. The hero of suffering is reclining against the rock on Caucasus, to which he

M M

had been chained; a vulture is seated on his broad chest and feeding there. Alciat's Emblem, from the Lyons edition of 1551, or Antwerp, 1581, number 102, has the motto which reproves men for seeking the knowledge which is beyond them: Things which are above us, are nothing to us,-they are not our concern. The whole fable is a warning.

"On the Caucasian rock Prometheus eternally suspended,

Has his liver torn in pieces by talons of an accursed bird. And unwilling would he be to have made man; and hating the potters Dooms to destruction the torch lighted from stolen fire.

Devoured by various cares are the bosoms of the wise,

Who affect to know secrets of heaven, and courses of gods."

Similarly as a dissuasive from vain curiosity, Anulus, in his "PICTA POESIS" (Lyons, 1555, p. 90), sets up the notice,

The device is almost the same with Alciat's,-the stanzas, however, are a little different,

"Forbear to inquire the secrets of God, and what heaven may be.

Nor be wise more than man ought to be wise.

Bound on Caucasian rock this does Prometheus warn,
Scrutator of heaven and thief in the fire of Jove.

His heart the voracious Eagle gnaws in ever reviving wound,
Material sufficient this for all his penalties."

"As for Prometheus pain gnaws his heart the bosom within,
So is pain the eagle that consumes the heart."

The "MICROCOSME," first published in 1579, fol. 5, celebrates in French stanzas Prometheus and his cruel destiny; a fine device accompanies the emblem, representing him bound not to Caucasus, but to the cross.

"Promethee s' estant guindé iusques aux cieux

Pour desrober le feu des redoubables Dieux,
Pour retribution de ceste outrecuidance

Fut par eux poursuiui d'une rude vengeance.