THE WISDOM OF 

 Till-: ANCIENTS. 



THE PREFACE. 



THE earliest antiquity lies buried in silence and oblivion, excepting tlie remains 

 * we have of it in sacred writ. This silence was succeeded by poetical fables, 

 and these, at length, by the writings we now enjoy ; so that the concealed and 

 seen- 1 learning of the ancients seems separated from the history and knowledge of 

 the following ages by a veil, or partition-wall of fables, interposing between the 

 things that are lost and tho^c that remain. 



Many may imagine that I am here entering upon a work of fancy, or amuse 

 ment, and design to use a poetical liberty, in explaining poetical fables. It is true, 

 fables in general are composed of ductile matter, that may be drawn into great 

 variety by a witty talent or an inventive genius, and be delivered of plausible 

 meanings which they never contained. But this procedure has already been carried 

 to excess ; and great numbers, to procure the sanction of antiquity to thdr own 

 notions and inventions, have miserably wrested and abused the fables of the 

 pncients. 



Nor is this only a late or unfrequcnt practice, but of ancient date, and common 

 rven to this day. Thus Chrvsippus, like an interpreter of dreams, attributed the 

 opinions of the Stoics to the poets of old ; and the chemists, at present, more 

 childishly apply the poetical transformations to their experiments of the furnace. 

 And though 1 have well weighed and considered all this, and thoroughly seen into 

 tlie levity which the mind indulges for allegories and allu -ions, yet I cannot but 

 retain a high value for the ancient mythology. And, certainly, it were \ery inju- 

 u.cious to suffer the fondness and licentiousness of a few to detract from the 

 tii&amp;lt;nour of allegory and parable in general. This would be rash, and almost pro- 

 f, -ie ; for, since religion ddight in such shadows and disguises, to abolish them 

 *ne, in a manner, to prohibit a intercourse bcttuxl things divine and human. 



Upon deliberate consideration, my judgment is, that a concealed instruction 

 aud allegory was originally intended in many of the ancient fables. This opinion 

 may, in some respect, be owing to the veneration I have for antiquity, but more to 

 observing that some fables discover a great and evident similitude, relation, and 

 connection with the thing they signify, as well in the structure of the fable as in 

 th; propriety of the names whereby the persons or actors aic characterized ; inso 

 much, that no one could positively deny a sense and meaning to be from the first 

 intended, and purposely shadowed out in them, i- or who can hear that Fame, 

 after the giants were destroyed, sprung up ;is their posthumous sister, and not 

 apply it to the clamour of parties and the seditious rumours which commonly fly 

 aiMJiit for a time upon the quelling of insurrections? Or who can read how the 

 giant Typhon cut out and carried away Jupiter s sinews -which Mercury afterwards 

 stole and again restored to Jupiter- and not presently observe that this allegory 

 denotes strong and powerful rebellions, which cut away from kings their sinews, 

 both of money and authority ; and that the way to have them restored is by lenity, 

 affability, and prudent edicts, which soon reconcile, and as it were steal upon the 

 affections of the subject? Or who, upon hearing that memorable expedition of 



