то HIS GRACE THOMAS DUKE of NEWCASTLE, Chancellor of the University of CAMBRIDGE. MY LORD, HEN it was proposed to me by my. Lord Bishop of Chefter, that I fhould offer thefe Firft Fruits of my academical Labours to your GRACE, it was with much Satisfaction, that I embraced the Propofal: Nothing doubting of your GRACE's Favour to a Member of that University, which has been fo di stinguished by your Regard, and more especially to a Member of that College, which claims the Honour of your GRACE's Education. But when the Honourable Gentleman * who has long been an Ornament to that learned Body in general, and to our Society in particular, was pleased to introduce my Caufe to your GRACE, your ready and pleafing Acceptance of my little Tribute, was no more than the Fruits of a reafonable and well grounded Expectation. THE Author, here offered to your GRACE's Patronage, was happy in the Smiles and Protection of the most Noble and Worthy PRINCES: His Merits were equal to their Efteem, his Gratitude no inconfiderable Means of perpetuating their Glory, and those very Paffages, wherein he applauds his Benefactors, fufficient Testimonies of the Excellency of their Judgment. IT has been my Endeavour, that he should lose none of his deserved Praise in an English Dress; how far I have fucceeded, muft be left to the De * The Honourable Thomas Townshend, Efq; Member for the University of Cambridge. cifion cifion of others: But I fhall efteem myself happy, if the acknowledged Worth of the Author fhall recommend to your GRACE's Regard, the more humble Labours of the Tranflator. OUR Author and his Patrons are no more; but the Works of the one are the ftanding Memorials of the Fame of both: And, (in the Words of one of our Poets) What Reward Than this more excellent, for Pow'r and Wealth THEOC. Encom. p. 196. Suffer me, my Lord, (without that Flattery which have rendered Dedications infamous) heartily to wish, that your GRACE, like these illustrious Perfons, may gain the Stamp of Worth and honeft Fame, by di recting recting all your Actions,---the leaft of which, in your high Station, is important---to the Glory of God, the Honour of your moft gracious Sovereign, and the Good of your Country: That so, when, like theirs, your outward Splendor shall be diminished, and you sleep in Duft, your Fame may flourish in happy Immortality below, yourself may flourish in far more happy Immortality above. I am, PREFACE. "A S it is the defign of the following notes to illuftrate and explain fuch parts of the antient Mythology as occur in the hymns here presented to the reader in an English drefs, it may be proper, in order to his forming a right judgment of particulars, to lay before him a general view of my fentiments concerning the rife and progress of what is called Mythology in the world. To do this at large, and produce the proofs and teftimonies that are neceffary from antiquity, would vaftly exceed the bounds of a preface, which obliges me to content myself at prefent with giving only a short sketch of what I take to be the true state of the cafe. The chief difficulty then, I apprehend, that attends an enquiry of this kind, and has rendered fo many attempts fruitless, is the want of a clue to lead us regularly up to the fountain; which must have been originally one, however afterwards, in their courfes, the ftreams took different tinctures in different ages and countries. For were we once well acquainted with the nature and properties of the water at the fpring-head, we might eafily, by following the current down again, perceive when and how it became adulterated and corrupted with adventitious mixtures. The Mythology of the Greeks and Romans, who lived in the midnight of Paganism, just before the day dawned, and the fun of righteousness arofe upon the earth, is one vast ocean of confufion, which ingulphed into itself all the broken traditions of theological, phyfical, and hiftorical truths that came near it, and converted them into fables, changing the truth of God (as the Apostle speaks of them) into a LIE. Accordingly, if we look into the mufter-roll of their gods, and the facts related of them, we fhall find fome owe their birth to the great things revealed to believers from the beginning concerning the Saviour of the world, and what he was to be, to do, and to fuffer, for the falvation of men. Thefe may be put to the score of theology. Another fet of gods are the operations of nature and the mechanical agents, that perform them, deified, which may therefore be faid to have a phyfical divinity; while a third part of the annals of heaven is made up of broken and disjointed fragments concerning heroes and heroines that lived, or were reported to have lived, and acted upon earth; and thefe venerable perfonages cannot, I think, be allowed more than an historical godhead. These I take to be the three grand fources of mythology; and were they always kept diftinct, it might be no difficult matter, perhaps, to refer each |