The Wisdom of the Ancients/1 THE earliest antiquity lies buried
in silence and oblivion, excepting the 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 secret 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 those that remain. Many may imagine that I am here
entering upon a work of fancy; or amusement, 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 their own notions and inventions, have miserably wrested and
abused the fables of