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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [V1r p305]

Φιλαυτία

Self-satisfaction.

EMBLEMA LXIX.

Man looking at himself in a stream.
[Click on image to enlarge]

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [V1v p306]

Quod nimium tua forma tibi, Narcisse, placebat,
In florem, & noti est versa stuporis olus.[1]
Ingenii est marcor, cladesque Φιλαυτία, doctos
Quae pessum plures datque, deditque viros:
Qui veterum abiecta methodo, nova dogmata quaerunt,
Nilque suas praeter tradere phantasias.

Because your beauty gave you too much satisfaction, Narcissus, it was turned both into a flower and into a plant of acknowledged insensibility. Self-satisfaction is the rot and destruction of the mind. Learned men in plenty it has ruined, and ruins still, men who cast off the method of teachers of old and aim to pass on new doctrines, nothing more than their own imaginings.

Notes:

1.  For the story of Narcissus, see Ovid, Metamorphoses, 3.344ff. On the flower, see Pliny, Natural History, 21.75.128: “there are two kinds of narcissus... The leafy one ... makes the head thick and is called narcissus from narce (‘numbness’), not from the boy in the story.” (cf. ‘narcotic’).

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Section: ORGUEIL. View all emblems in this section.

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [F6r p91]

Amour de soymesme .

Apostrophe.

Figure kneeling looking at his reflection in a pool.
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Narcis: par trop te plaire en ta beaulté
Mué en fleur, sans sens tu has esté.[1]
Cuyder de soy est, & fut la ruine
De maints savans, Qui laissans la doctrine
Des anciens: aultre voye ont choisie,
Pour n’enseigner rien que leur phantaisie.

Trop cuyder de soy faict laisser le
mieulx des aultres, à la grand per-
te, & confusion de l’oultrecuyde.

Notes:

1.  For the story of Narcissus, see Ovid, Metamorphoses, 3.344ff. On the flower, see Pliny, Natural History, 21.75.128: ‘there are two kinds of narcissus... The leafy one ... makes the head thick and is called narcissus from narce (numbness), not from the boy in the story.’ (cf. narcotic).

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