

PREFACE. 



THE Poem, which is here offered to the Public, 

 does not pretend to instruct by deep researches 

 of reasoning; its aim is simply to amuse by bring- 

 ing distinctly to the imagination the beautiful 

 and sublime images of the operations of Nature 

 in the order, as the Author believes, in which 

 the progressive course of time presented them. 



The Deities of Egypt, and afterwards of Greece, 

 and Rome, were derived from men famous in those 

 early times, as in the ages of hunting, pasturage, 

 and agriculture. The histories of some of their 

 actions recorded in Scripture, or celebrated in the 

 heathen mythology, are introduced, as the Author 



