by whom I was at first very willing to be taught, but whom I do not always find disposed to learn, nor to be untaught the nonsense which they learned in their youth.
In my search I soon found that it was impossible to look upon the histories of ancient empires, or upon the history of the ancient mythologies, except as pleasing or amusing fables, fit only for the nursery or the fashionable drawing-room table, but totally below the notice of a philosopher. This consideration caused my search into their origin; indefatigable labour for many years has produced the result,—the discovery which I believe I have made, and which in this work I make known to my countrymen.
I am convinced that a taste for deep learning among us is fast declining;[1] and in this I believe I shall be supported by the booksellers, which is one reason why I have only printed two hundred copies of this work: but I have reason to think the case different in France and Germany; and on this account I have sometimes thought of publishing editions in the languages of those countries. But whether I shall wait till these editions be ready, and till my second volume be finished, before I make public the first, I have not yet determined; nor, indeed, have I determined whether or not I shall publish these editions. This must depend upon the foreign booksellers.
If, like some learned persons, I had commenced my inquiries by believing certain dogmas, and determining that I would never believe any other; or if, like the Rev. Mr. Faber, I had in early life sworn that I believed them, and that I would never believe any other, and that all my comfort in my future life depended upon my professed continuance in this belief, I should have had much less trouble, because I should have known what I was to prove; but my story is very different. When I began this inquiry, I was anxious for truth, suspicious of being deceived, but determined to examine every thing as impartially as was in my power, to the very bottom. This soon led me to the discovery, that I must go to much more distant sources for the origin of things than was usual; and, by degrees, my system began to form itself. But not having the least idea in the beginning what it would be in the end, it kept continually improving, in some respects changing, and I often found it necessary to read again and again the same books, for want of an index, from beginning to end, in search of facts passed hastily over in the first or second reading, and then thought of little or no consequence, but which I afterwards found most important for the elucidation of truth. On this account the labour in planting the seed has been to me great beyond credibility, but I hope the produce of the harvest will bear to it a due proportion.
I very early found that it was not only necessary to recover and improve the little Greek and Latin which I had learned at school, but I soon found my inquiries stopped by my ignorance of the Oriental languages, from which I discovered that ours was derived, and by which it became evident to me that the origin of all our ancient mythoses was concealed. I therefore determined to apply myself to the study of one of them; and, after much consideration and doubt whether I should choose the Hebrew, the Arabic,
- ↑ Of this a more decisive proof need not be given than the failure of the Rev. Dr. Valpy’s Classical Journal, a work looked up to as an honour to our country by all learned foreigners, which was given up, as well from want of contributors as from want of subscribers.
