[ 4 ] 



fumption than that beft and earliefl of profane hiflorlans,^ Hero- 

 dotus. This elegant and inftruAive writer, " qui princeps" as TuUy 

 fays, " genus hoc ornavit" has of late years been the principal 

 but of conceited criticifm ; his opinions have been contro- 

 verted, and decried as abfurd ; his affertions have been peremp- 

 torily contradiifted ; and this luminary, which had for ages been 

 fuppofed to have thrown the mofl certain light on the dark 

 hiftoric times, has been difcovered to be at beft an ignis 

 fatuus, while in its flead the bright fun of modern erudition 

 has been fet up as fufficiently luminous to enlighten the mofl 

 remote and obfcure ages, by Cafting its rays backwards into the 

 depths of time. Whether I may not be too partial to an 

 author who, during my Eaflern voyage, was my conflant and 

 beloved companion, I will not pretend to fay ; but this I can 

 fafely alTert, that though perhaps in thofe circumftances and 

 opinions which he relates or adopts on the authority of others 

 he may be often erroneous, wherever he fpeaks from his own 

 knowledge I have always found him a faithful guide ; and in 

 many inflances, with fome of which I may perhaps hereafter 

 trovible the Academy, I have clearly difcovered that the errors 

 which have been imputed to him have proceeded, not from 

 his fault, but from our ignorance of his true meaning ; one 

 of which mifconceptions, (for fuch at leafl it appears to me) 

 fhall be the fubje(5l of the prefent efTay. 



Robinson in his DlfTertation prefixed to Hefiod, and Mr. 



Mufgrave in a poflhumous work entitled " Two DifFertations on 



Grecian Mythology," and many others, have bitterly inveighed 



•■ againfl 



