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 following 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 frequently 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 inadvertence 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 vita. 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, Haud 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 than justified my anticipation; and the adoption of my books at Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester, and most of the other great public schools, besides a number of private ones, immediately 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 impressing 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

in my opinion tends so strongly to refine, and at the same time to invigorate the intellect, but which I sometimes fear is rather on the wane in this country. Its size and necessary price (the present containing more by a fifth than the former edition) are perhaps insuperable impediments to its general adoption in schools; but I should hope that it will continue to be used in the Universities, and that in schools the reading of it will be recommended to, though not enjoined on, the higher classes. I think I may speak with some confidence of the correctness of the narratives: it must be of advantage to know the opinions of the leading scholars of the continent; and as to my own, as I advance them without dogmatism, I can see them rejected without displeasure. I confess I wish to entice as many as possible into the pleasing regions of mythology, for I know from experience how delightful it is to escape at times from the dull realities of the actual world, and lose one's self in the enchanted mazes of primeval fiction.

In selecting Mythology I took possession of a field which lay totally unoccupied. This can hardly be said of any other part of classic literature, but many may be better cultivated than they have been hitherto. Thus the private life of the ancient Greeks and Romans may be more fully elucidated. That of the latter people I intend to make the subject of a future work; the former has for many years engaged the attention of my friend Mr. St. John, whose enthusiasm for Greece far exceeds mine; and his work, when it appears, will, I am confident, be found to contain a vast store of curious knowledge, and will prove a valuable aid to the classic student.

The reader will observe that I employ the Greek terminations os and on in mythic names instead of the Latin us and um. There is no good reason for this last usage, and I think Greek names should be so written as that they might be at once transferred to the original Greek characters. For this purpose the long e and o should be marked as they are in the Index, and if we were to use k instead of c before e and i, writing for instance Kimón and Kephalos instead of Cimon and Cephalus, it would be all the better.

The subjects of the plates are all genuine antiques, chiefly taken from the Galérie Mythologique. The errata, which I have carefully marked, are I think very few considering the bulk and nature of the work. In this praise however I claim no share; it all belongs to the printers, to whom also belongs the praise or blame of the peculiarities in orthography or

grammar.

The following digression will I hope be excused. It is on a subject—that of literary property-in which, from the nature of my works, I feel myself interested. As our silence is made an argument against us, it becomes every author to take an opportunity of expressing his sentiments on it. The following are mine.

No fallacy can be greater than that of supposing that the public have any rights in this matter unless it be the right of the stronger, according to

the simple plan,

That they should take who have the power,

And they should keep who can.

A literary work, whether the creation of genius, like Waverley, or the product of toil and patient industry, like the present, is I conceive property in the fullest sense of the word, as much so as lands or houses. To these last the public have a right, but it is only on giving the full value of them, and on the principle that private feelings and interests are not to stand in the way of the public good. But this principle does not apply in any way to literature. What, we may ask, is to be derived from Waverley and such books? Simply amusement; and it surely seems very absurd to say that the public has a right to be amused, to which right those of individuals must give way. It is very much as if the public were to insist on admission to theatres and exhibitions on its own terms, the principle of the O. P. riots of our younger days. No man, be it observed, will be the worse statesman, lawyer, or physician for not having read Waverley, so that the plea of public utility cannot be urged. Even in books of instruction I deny any right in the public. Supposing (a most improbable event)

that the study of mythology should ever become general, the public would have no right to my book except on my own terms. The legitimate course, if these were exorbitant, would be to get some one to write a cheaper and better work on the subject, and thus punish cupidity while respecting the rights of property.

I am far however from expecting that full justice will be done us by the legislature. We are a small and a disunited party. It cannot be said of us

Hic multum in Fabia valet, ille Velina;
Cui libet is fasces dabit eripietque curule
Importunus ebur.

Our enemies are numerous; the booksellers have caused printers, book-binders, etc. to petition against us; the newspaper press is, with a few honourable exceptions, arrayed against us; the political œconomists, who will sacrifice anything, how sacred soever, on the altar of their idol, misnamed Utility, are opposed to us; and the diffusion of knowledge, the march of intellect, the public good, and similar specious phrases, enable legislators to perpetrate injustice under the show of patriotism and public spirit.

I do not think that the great publishing houses can be properly classed among our opponents. They have no objection to the extension of the period of copyright provided the author be empowered to transfer all his rights to them, and that any extension of the term of those copyrights which they have purchased should go to them also, and not to the author. Theirs indeed is but too often the lion's share, as I know by my own experience. For the Outlines of History in Lardner's Cyclopædia I received only 1307., and if I am not greatly misinformed, that sum bears little proportion to what the proprietors have already made by it, and the copyright has yet twenty years to run. I applied in vain for some small share in the gain; it was contrary I was told to the rules of trade. Nay, when they wanted me to write another work, likely to be as popular, they said they could not afford to give more than 150%.! I mention these facts not out of ill-will to the

proprietors, some of whom are the publishers of most of my other works, but simply to let the world see how inadequate is the remuneration sometimes received by the authors of even the most successful works.

I would say then, as the publishers say they would not give more for a long than for a short term of copyright, let the public be the gainer; and if an author has parted, or will part, with his copyright, let it become common property at the end of his life, or of the twenty-eight years. Otherwise the great publishers will be almost the only gainers by a change in the law; for most authors will transfer to them all their rights if they have the power to do it.

For my own part, I view the question with tolerable indifference, as even under the present law I know how to extend my copyright. My books, thank Heaven and the liberality of the gentlemen at whose office they are printed, are my own. When the booksellers had refused the present work, they enabled me to give it to the world, and thus lay the foundation of a moderate independence; and in that our first transaction originated a friendship which nothing I am confident will dissolve but that event which terminates all human relations. Another friend, Mr. Brooke, was equally liberal with respect to the plates; and should mythology ever become popular by means of this work, they surely are entitled to share in the praise.

London, Oct. 7th, 1838.

T. K.