IV PREFACE. 



mesis, revenge ; and the like. Neither let it trouble 

 any man, if sometimes he meet with historical narra 

 tions, or additions for ornament s sake, or confusion 

 of times, or something transferred from one fable to 

 another, to bring in a new allegory ; for it could be 

 no otherwise, seeing they were the inventions of 

 men which lived in divers ages, and had also divers 

 ends, some being ancient, others neoterical ; some 

 have an eye to things natural, others to moral. 



There is another argument, and that no small 

 one neither, to prove that these fables contain certain 

 hidden and involved meanings, seeing some of them 

 are observed to be so absurd and foolish in the very 

 relation that they shew, and, as it were, proclaim a 

 parable afar off; for such tales as are probable they 

 may seem to be invented for delight and in imitation 

 of history. And as for such as no man would so 

 much as imagine or relate, they seem to be sought 

 out for other ends : for what kind of fiction is that 

 wherein Jupiter is said to have taken Metis to wife, 

 and perceiving that she was with child, to have de 

 voured her, whence himself conceiving, brought forth 

 Pallas armed out of his head ? Truly, I think there 

 was never dream, so different to the course of cogi 

 tation and so full of monstrosity, ever hatched in the 

 brain of man. Above all things this prevails most 

 with me, and is of singular moment ; many of these 

 fables seem not to be invented of those by whom they 

 are related and celebrated, as by Homer, He?iod, 

 and others : for if it were so, that they took be 

 ginning in that age, and from those authors by whom 



