(no subject)

[timelets]

Again Sphinx proposes to men a variety of hard questions and riddles which she received from the Muses. In these, while they remain with the Muses, there is probably no cruelty; for so long as the object of meditation and inquiry is merely to know, the understanding is not oppressed or straitened by it, but is free to wander and expatiate, and finds in the very uncertainty of conclusion and variety of choice a certain pleasure and delight; but when they pass from the Muses to Sphinx, that is from contemplation to practice, whereby there is necessity for present action, choice, and decision, then they begin to be painful and cruel; and unless they be solved and disposed of, they strangely torment and worry the mind, pulling it first this way and then that, and fairly tearing it to pieces. Moreover*

the riddles of the Sphinx
have always a twofold condition
attached to them;
distraction and laceration of mind,
if you fail to solve them;
if you succeed, a kingdom.

For he who understands his subject
is master of his end;
and every workman
is king over his work.

--- Francis Bacon, Of the Wisdom of the Ancients. XXVIII. Sphinx Or Science.

https://www.bartleby.com/82/28.html

* I just had to write out the sentence that follows in the form of a poem, rather than its original prose.

Comments

[gracheeha]

Замечательно! Спасибо за ссылку! :)

[timelets]

Пожалуйста. У меня в детстве была книжка "Мифы Древней Греции." Подозреваю, они их у Бэкона частично списали :)

[gracheeha]

:)))