Vlll PREFACE. 



u their admiration ; and, on the other hand, their 

 &quot; opposites were no less pleased with a piece, from 

 &quot; which they thought they could demonstrate, that 

 &quot; the sagacity of a modern genius, had found out 

 &quot; much better meanings for the ancients, than ever 

 &quot; were meant by them.&quot; 



And Mallet, in his Life of Bacon, says, &quot; In 

 &quot; 1610 he published another treatise, entitled 

 Of the Wisdom of the Ancients. This work 

 &quot; bears the same stamp of an original and in- 

 &quot; ventive genius with his other performances. 

 &quot; Resolving not to tread in the steps of those who 

 &quot; had gone before him, men, according to his own 

 &quot; expression, not learned beyond certain common 

 &quot; places, he strikes out a new tract for himself, and 

 &quot; enters into the most secret recesses of this wild 

 &quot; and shadowy region, so as to appear new on a 

 &quot; known and beaten subject. Upon the whole, if 

 &quot; we cannot bring ourselves readily to believe that 

 &quot; there is all the physical, moral, and political mean- 

 &quot; ing veiled under those fables of antiquity, which 

 &quot; he has discovered in them, we must own that it 

 &quot; required no common penetration to be mistaken 

 &quot; with so great an appearance of probability on his 

 &quot; side. Though it still remains doubtful whether 

 &quot; the ancients were so knowing as he attempts to 

 &quot; shew they were, the variety and depth of his own 

 &quot; knowledge are, in that very attempt, unquestion- 

 able.&quot; 



In the year 1619, this tract was translated by 

 Sir Arthur Georges. Prefixed to the work are two 



