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THE PREFACE.

HE Antiquities of the first Age (except thofe we find in Sacred Writ) were buried in Oblivion and Silence: Silence was fucceeded by Poetical Fables; and Fables again were followed by the Records we now enjoy. So that the Mysteries and Secrets of Antiquity were distinguished and separated from the Records and Evidences of fucceeding Times by the Veil of Fiction, which interpofed itself, and came between thofe Things which Perifhed, and thofe which are Extant. I suppose some are of Opinion, that my Purpose is to write Toys and Trifles, and to ufurp the fame Liberty in applying, that the Poets affumed in feigning, which I might do (I confefs) if I lifted, and with more ferious Contemplation intermix thefe Things, to delight either myself in Meditation, or others in Reading. Neither am I ignorant how Fickle and Inconftant a Thing Fiction is, as being fubject to be drawn and wrested any way, and how great the commodity of Wit and Difcourfe is, that is able to apply Things well, yet fo as never meant by the first Authors. But I remember that

this Liberty hath been lately much abused, in that many, to purchase the Reverence of Antiquity to their own Inventions and Fancies, have for the fame Intent laboured to wreft many Poetical Fables: Neither hath this old and common Vanity been used only of late, or now and then: For even Chryfippus long ago did (as an Interpreter of Dreams) afcribe the Opinions of the Stoicks to the Ancient Poets; and more fottifhly do the Chemists appropriate the Fancies and Delights of Poets in the Transformation of Bodies, to the Experiments of their Furnace. All thefe Things, I fay, I have fufficiently confidered and weighed, and in them have feen and noted the general Levity and Indulgence of Men's Wits above Allegories; and yet for all this I relinquish not my Opinion.

For first it may not be, that the Folly and Loofeness of a few should altogether detract from the refpect due to the Parables: For that were a Conceit which might favour of Profaneness and Prefumption: For Religion itself doth sometimes delight in fuch Veils and Shadows: So that who fo Exempts them, feems in a manner to interdict all Commerce between Things Divine and Human. But concerning Human Wisdom, I do indeed ingenuously and freely confefs, that I am inclined to imagine, that under fome of the Ancient Fictions lay couched certain Myfteries and Allegories, even from their first Invention. And I am perfuaded (whether ravished with the Reverence of Antiquity, or because in fome Fables I find fuch fingular Proportion between the Similitude and the Thing fignified; and fuch apt

and clear coherence in the very Structure of them, and propriety of Names wherewith the Perfons or Actors in them are inscribed and entitled) that no Man can conftantly deny, but this Senfe was in the Author's Intent and Meaning, when they first invented them, and that they purposely shadowed it in this fort: For who can be fo Stupid and Blind in the open Light, as (when he hears how Fame, after the Giants were destroyed, sprang up as their youngeft Sifter) not to refer it to the Murmurs and Seditious Reports of both fides, which are wont to fly abroad for a time after the suppressing of Insurrections? Or when he hears how the Giant Typhon, having cut out and brought away Jupiter's Nerves, which Mercury stole from him, and restored again to Jupiter; doth not presently perceive how fitly it may be applied to powerful Rebellions, which take from Princes their Sinews of Money and Authority; but fo that by affability of Speech, and wife Edicts (the Minds of their Subjects being in time, privily, and as it were by fealth reconciled) they recover their Strength again? Or when he hears how (in that memorable Expedition of the Gods against the Giants) the braying of Silenus's Afs, conduced much to the profligation of the Giants, doth not confidently imagine that it was invented to fhew how the greatest Enterprizes of Rebels are oftentimes difperfed with vain Rumours and Fears.

Moreover, to what Judgement can the Conformity and Signification of Names feem obfcure? Seeing Metis, the Wife of Jupiter, doth plainly fignify Counfel: Typhon, Infurrection: Pan, Univerfality

Nemefis, Revenge, and the like: Neither let it trouble any Man, if sometimes he meet with Hiftorical Narrations, or Additions for Ornament's fake, or confufion of Times, or fomething transferred from one Fable to another, to bring in a new Allegory: For it could be no otherwife, feeing they were the Inventions of Men, which lived in diverfe Ages, and had alfo diverfe Ends: Some being ancient, others neoterical; fome have an Eye to Things Natural, others to Moral.

There is another Argument, and that no small one neither, to prove that these Fables contain certain hidden, and involved Meanings, feeing some of them are obferved to be fo abfurd, and foolish in the very relation that they fhew, and as it were proclaim a Parable afar off: For fuch Tales as are probable, they may feem to be invented for delight, and in imitation of History. And as for fuch as no Man would fo much as imagine or relate, they seem to be fought out for other Ends: For what kind of Fiction is that, wherein Jupiter is faid to have taken Metis to Wife; and, perceiving that she was with Child, to have devoured her; whence himself conceiving, brought forth Pallas armed, out of his Head? Truly, I think there was never Dream (fo different to the courfe of Cogitation, and fo full of Monstrosity,) ever hatched in the Brain of Man. Above all Things, this prevails most with me and is of fingular Moment ; many of thefe Fables feem not to be invented of those by whom they are related, and celebrated, as by Homer, Hefiod and others. For if it were fo, that they took beginning in that Age, and from those Au

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