238 P R E F A C E. 



was made in the fpeculations of men, which ap- 

 pears in the poet's words, and that they were ea- 

 fily induced to think, that the furprifmg fore- 

 fight of birds, as to the time of migration, in- 

 dicated fomething of a divine nature in them ; 

 which opinion Virgil, as an Epicurean, thinks fit 

 to enter his proteft againft ; when he fays. 



Hand equidem credo qtiia fit divinitus illis 

 Ingeniiwt. 



But to return to Ariilophanes. The firil part 

 of the chorus from whence the afore-cited paf- 

 fage is taken, feems with all its wildnefs to con- 

 tain the fabulous cant, which the augurs made 

 ufe of in order to account for their impudent 

 impofitions on mankind. It fets out with a cof- 

 mogony, and fays, that in the begining were 

 Chaos, and Night, and Erebus, and Tartarus. 

 That there was neither water, nor air, nor Iky ; 

 that Night laid an egg, from whence, after a 

 time. Love arofe. That Love, in conjundlion 

 with Erebus, produced the bird kind, and that 

 they were the firft of the immortal race, &c. 



With this paflage in Ariftophanes, the account 

 of the oracle of Dodona feems to agree. This 

 oracle was the oldeft in Greece, and there a dove 

 prophefied, according to the concurrent tefti- 

 mony of hiftory ^ but according to the explica- 

 tion of Herodotus, this ftrange opinion arofe from 

 hence, that the Theban prieftefs, who was ftolen 

 by the Phoenicians, and carried into Greece, was 

 called a dove^ becaufe being a barbarian, Ihe 

 feemed to the Dodoneans to chatter like a bird, 

 till file had learned the Greek language, and then 

 flie was faid to fpeak v/ith a human voice. This 



expii- 



