The mythology of ancient Greece and Italy

iv
PREFACE.
more confidence. It is the result of my reading for the last
six years, during which I have gone through the whole of the
Greek and Latin classics with a view to it ; and I can assert
with truth that there are very few of the references in the fol-
loAving pages which I have not made myself directly from the
originals. It will also be found to contain the results of the
inquiries of those eminent scholars whose works are so fre-
quently referred to, my obligations to whom I at all times
most cheerfully acknowledge. Should it chance to come
under the eye of any of them, and should he happen to find
his ideas anywhere adopted without a reference to his work,
I trust he will have the candour to impute the omission to in-
advertence rather than to design.
The soldier in Cervantes' comic romance sings,
To the wars my necessities take me away,
But if I had money at home I would stay ;
so I may say of myself, it was necessity, not any idle visions
of fame that led me to make literature my profession ; for had
I been free to choose, I had certainly trodden the fallentis semita
vitce. Engaged however in the literary career, my first
thought was how I might at the same time promote my own
interest, and render some service, however trifling, to my
country, that it might be said of me, Hand inutiliter vixit.
It appeared to me that histories of a better kind than the
compilations of Goldsmith were wanting in our schools, and
I felt that I could supply the deficiency. The event has more
and the adoption of my books
than justified my anticipation ;
at Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester, and most of the other
great public schools, besides a number of private ones, imme-
diately on their appearance, proved, I may say, their merit
for to nothing else can it be justly ascribed. I have thus the
satisfaction of thinking that I shall be instrumental in im-
pressing correct ideas in history and politics on the minds of
those who will be future legislators, or occupy other important
stations in society.
The present work is of a different character ; its object is
to keep up and extend the taste for classic literature, which
;