'Men have proposed to answer two different and contrary ends by the use of Parables, for parables serve as well to instruct and illustrate, as to wrap up and envelope:' [and what is more, they serve at once that double purpose] 'so that for _the present we drop the concealed use_, and suppose the _ancient fables_ to be vague undeterminate things _formed for amusement, still the other use must remain_, and can never be given up. And every man of any learning must readily allow that THIS METHOD of INSTRUCTION is grave, sober, exceedingly useful, and _sometimes necessary in the sciences_, as it opens an easy and familiar passage to the human understanding, IN ALL NEW DISCOVERIES that are abstruse and _out of the road of vulgar opinion_. Hence, in the first ages, when such inventions and conclusions of the human reason as are _now_ trite and common, were rare and little known, all things abounded with fables, parables, similes, comparisons, allusions, which were not intended to _conceal_, but to _inform and teach_, whilst the minds of men continued rude and unpractised in matters of subtlety and speculation, and even impatient, and in a manner _incapable of receiving such things as did not directly fall under and strike the senses_.' [And those ages were not gone by, it seems, for these are the very men of whom Hamlet speaks, 'who for the most part are capable of nothing but _inexplicable dumb-shows_ and _noise_.'] 'For as hieroglyphics were in use before writings, so were parables in use _before argument_. _And even to this day_, if any man would let NEW LIGHT IN upon the human understanding, [who was it that proposed to do that?] and _conquer prejudices without raising animosities_, OPPOSITION, or DISTURBANCE--[who was it that proposed to do that precisely]--he _must still_--[note it]--he _must still go in the same path_, and have recourse _to the like method_.' Where are they then? Search and see. Where are they?--The lost Fables of the New Philosophy? 'To conclude, the knowledge of the earlier ages was either great or happy; _great_, if _by design_ they made use of tropes and figures; happy, if whilst _they had other views_ they afforded _matter_ and _occasion_ to such _noble contemplations_. Let either be the case, _our_ pains perhaps will not be misemployed, _whether we illustrate_ ANTIQUITY _or_ [hear] THINGS THEMSELVES.