Pan and Proteus

Use in the book

The argument starts long before the names appear. Vaughan promises to speak first about the one thing that is the art’s subject and the mother of all things (p. 79). His discussion of creation then makes outward forms answer to inward conceptions (p. 81). The many are not merely an undifferentiated heap: their differences belong to the way the universal agent conceives and forms creatures. Pan and Proteus later compress this relation into a memorable pair.

The first matter is explicitly distinguished from existing animals, vegetables and minerals because it precedes and mothers them all (p. 83). This prevents a false inference from the universal source to an arbitrary example. A common mineral is not first matter merely because minerals arise from first matter. The order of dependence cannot be reversed simply by selecting one familiar product. Pan names what has the properties of the products within it, not whichever product the reader happens to favour.

Vaughan’s account of Nature at play supplies the positive image of variation. Matter is like wax shaped into birds, beasts, flowers and frogs; Nature makes one form and then another while continuing to care for what she has made (p. 90 · Passage 2; p. 91). Later, her inward patterns seek appearance in matter, described as her mirror (p. 92; p. 93 · Passage 1). This sustained account gives the mythic transformation its context. Protean variety is not a defect that philosophy must eliminate. It is the visible fruitfulness that the universal principle explains.

At p. 123 Vaughan declares that the outward agent has enabled the magicians to unlock chaos. The image of an iron key opening a golden treasury prepares the next sentence: in the universal subject they found the natures of all particulars. The maxim then functions as an interpretive conclusion, not an isolated ornament. If the universal subject really contains the sources of determinate natures, acquaintance with it would offer a route to understanding their differences.

Vaughan states that Pan transforms into Proteus (p. 124 · Passage 1). This is a movement from universal source to manifested plurality. The explanatory movement recommended to the student goes in the opposite direction, from perplexing particulars back to their source. Keeping those two directions distinct clarifies the maxim. Generation proceeds into variety; inquiry seeks the principle that makes variety intelligible. The passage does not say that all particulars can be casually converted into any other particulars.

That qualification is reinforced elsewhere. A thing reduced to its particular seed retains the specific Idea with which God has sealed it and produces effects suitable to its species (p. 113 · Passage 1). The universal source and a recovered particular seed are therefore not equivalent simply because both are called seed. Pan’s comprehensive properties should not be transferred without argument to every reduced creature. This distinction is especially important when reading the surrounding language of change and restoration.

Mercury enters as interpreter or expositor of lower and higher things (p. 124 · Passage 1). The invocation attributed to Orpheus then calls upon Hermes, rendered Mercury in Vaughan’s own English. The names connect a mythic messenger with the philosophical function of making relations intelligible. The lexical focus here is that function; the broader family of material and philosophical Mercury belongs to its own entry. Finally, the question of Mercury’s birth and place leads directly to the Ideas and their region (p. 124 · Passage 2). Mythic interpretation thus opens a new question rather than completing every part of the cosmology.

Places to read

1. p. 79Original; p. 80 · Passage 1Original; p. 80 · Passage 2Original; p. 81OriginalThe promised one thing and the creator’s inward conceptions establish the universal-particular problem.
2. p. 83OriginalThe mother of all natural kinds is distinguished from any already existing member of them.
3. p. 90 · Passage 2Original; p. 91Original; p. 92Original; p. 93 · Passage 1OriginalNature’s changing forms, playful production and inward patterns prepare the later mythic summary.
4. p. 113 · Passage 1OriginalA particular seed remains limited by its specific Idea.
5. p. 123Original; p. 124 · Passage 1Original; p. 124 · Passage 2OriginalThe universal subject explains particulars; Pan becomes Proteus; Mercury interprets and prompts a further inquiry into place.

In this edition

The Latin Qui Proteum non novit, adeat Pana is rendered as a conditional invitation to approach Pan when Proteus is not known. The proper-name forms in the sentence differ from the English headwords because Latin grammar changes them. They should not be treated as different beings. Vaughan immediately supplies his English interpretive account, which gives the safest local definitions.

In the following invocation the new translation uses Hermes and Zeus, while Vaughan’s historical English uses Mercury and Jove (p. 124 · Passage 1). The edition keeps both versions rather than making the historical rendering disappear. The modern prose retains “interpreter or expositor”; the fresh Greek invocation uses “interpreter,” while the modernised Vaughan rendering keeps “expositor.” The role is one of showing what lower and higher things mean through their relation. Neither the name change nor the modern wording establishes that Vaughan’s natural-philosophical reading exhausts the ancient hymn’s meaning.

Historical forms and local uses: Pan — the universal chaos or Mercury containing the properties of particulars (p. 124 · Passage 1); Proteus — the variety of particular creatures and their species (p. 124 · Passage 1); Qui Proteum non novit, adeat Pana — whoever does not know Proteus should approach Pan (p. 124 · Passage 1); Interpreter — Mercury’s function of explaining lower and higher things (p. 124 · Passage 1); Individualls — particular creatures, contrasted with the universal source (p. 124 · Passage 1).

Approach — adeat

In the Latin maxim, this verb directs the person who does not understand Proteus toward Pan. It gives the saying its investigative movement: knowledge of particulars is sought through their common source. It is not a statement that the inquirer should literally travel to a named landscape.

Historical forms: adeat — let the inquirer go to the universal source (p. 124 · Passage 1).

Read: p. 124 · Passage 1 · Original.

Transform — transformes

Pan “transformes himself into a Proteus.” Vaughan immediately explains this as the production of animals, vegetables and minerals from first matter. The reflexive image retains continuity of source while allowing diverse products; it does not by itself license the interchangeability of already formed species.

Historical forms: transformes — passes from universal nature into varied particular forms (p. 124 · Passage 1).

Read: p. 124 · Passage 1 · Original.

Iron key — Iron-key

An iron key can open a treasury of gold: the value of the result need not match the splendour of the means. Vaughan uses the comparison to defend the simplicity of the concealed external agent. It prepares the claim that unlocking chaos reveals the natures of particulars.

Historical forms: Iron-key — ordinary-seeming means with momentous consequences (p. 123).

Read: p. 123 · Original.