TheS JTYRS of the Ancients, 4^ 



And that their wanton fport, their loud delight 



Breaks thro' the quiet filence of the Night : 



Their Ma/4's fofteft Ayrs fill all the Plains, 



And mighty Pan delights the liftning Swains; 



The Goat-fac'd Pan^ whilft Flocks fecurely feed. 



With long-hung lip he blows his Oaten Reed ; 



The horn'd, the half-beafc God, when brisk and gay 



With Pine-leaves crown'd, provokes the Swains to play, 



Ten thoufand fuch Rom ants the Vulgar tell, 



Perhaps leaft Men (hould think the Gods will dwell 



In Tovens alone, and fcorn their Plains and Cell 



Or fomewhat 5 for Man credulous and vain 



Delights to hear ftrange things, delights f^/ez^w. 



Lucretius here attributes the Invention of thefe Fables to the fuperftiti- 

 ous Notions Men had of Deities^ and the Itching Ears Mankind general- 

 ly hath for hearing Novelties and Wonders ; and no doubt,the fatisfying 

 this Humour put the Ancients upon inventing moft of thefe Stories. But 

 we may take notice that Lucretius places together the Satyrs^ the Nymphs, 

 the Fauni and Pan ; and generally I obferve, where mention is made o£ 

 them, feveral are joyned together : As (0) Ovid, 



JUum RuricoliS, Sylvarum Numna, Fauni 

 Et Satyrijfatres, d^ tunc qitoque clar us Olympus 

 ~Et Nymphteflerunt. 



The Fauni therefore 2in^Satyrs I find are near akin. And (/?) Ovid in 

 another place faith, 



^iid nan & Satyri Saltatihus apt a juventus 

 Fecere, (^ Pinu pr£cinSii Cornua Panes. 

 Silvanufque fuis femper juvenilior annis. 



And elfewhere he tells us Qj), . 



. Panes & in Venerem Satyrorum prona juventus. 



The Satyrs therefore and Fauni feem to be young ones, and the eider, the. 

 Panes and Silvani, according to that of (r) Virgil, 



-Deos qui novit agrefles 



Panaque, Silvanumqtte Senem Nymphafque Sorores. 



And (j) Plutarch tells us that what the Greeks called JEgipan^the Romans 

 called Silvamis. And (t) Paufanias exprefly tells us, that when the Satyrs 



(oj OvU. Mitamorpb. lib. 5. verf. 592. (p) Ovid, Metamorph.lih. li^.verL 6^7, (q)(?wi. l.i. 

 Faftorum. (r) Vir^il.Geo)s.l2.ye[i,ii5^, (s) Flutanh.in ParaUdk. (t) Pauftn.inAttic^.m.zi, 



grow 



