The-mythology-of-ancient-greece-and-italy-thomas-keightley

PREFACE.
This new edition of the Mythology of Greece and Italy is
properly speaking a new work- Few pages or even paragraphs
remain unaltered, and nearly two-thirds of it are new matter,
or have been rewritten. The causes of this change (of which
I think an explanation is due) are as follows. The work was
originally intended to be a mere school-book, and it was com
menced on that plan ; circumstances caused it to be continued
on another, and to be completed on a third ; hence the in
equality in it which every one must have observed. Further,
it was written at such hours as I could withdraw from other
literary avocations, and with but a moderate apparatus of
books ; hence the errors in facts, as I did not always recollect
to verify what I had written from perhaps a bad edition of a
classic author. Finally, I was only a learner when I aspired
to become a teacher ; and though I had attained to correct
principles, 1 had not acquired the habit of applying them with
readiness and accuracy.
Considering these real defects, and that the work was by
an author who was little known, and on a subject against
which there was rather a prejudice, and that it appeared du
ring the very height of the Reform fever, when few could
think of the calm pursuit of literature, it may be said to have
had more success than could have been reasonably anticipated.
The praises which it has received from Mr. Thirlwall and
other competent judges have naturally given me much gra
tification ; for as they must have been well aware of its de
fects, it is plain that they thought them to be more than com
pensated by its merits.
Of the present Edition I think I may venture to speak with
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