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TO THIS REVISED EDITION OF

TOOKE'S PANTHEON.

THE object of the Editor of this work, is to present a complete summary of Mythology, in a chaste diction, for the study of persons of every age, and of either sex. Without a general knowledge of Heathen Mythology, the immortal writings of Homer, Virgil, Ovid, and others, are almost unintelligible, and their principal beauties lost.

*TOOKE'S PANTHEON is a work which has stood the test of time. It is more than a century since it was published, and the labours and researches of the author are at this day so justly esteemed, that it is used as a class-book in several of our colleges. The sole exception urged by many, is, that the work is occasionally too indelicate in its phraseology, and therefore not well adapted for the youth of either sex. An attempt has been made in this edition to render it free from this objection, by altering or expunging the language or phrases considered improper, while much care has been taken that no fact nor incident, worthy of any note, related by the author, is omitted.

* Andrew Tooke, born in London, 1673, was a learned man, and a very respectable teacher. Though he possessed much property, he was so attached to literature and his habits of life, that he continued in his profession to the end of his days. He published several learned works, among them The Pantheon, translated from the Latin of Pomey, a Jesuit of Lyons. Pomey was much distinguished for his Pantheum Mysticum, translated by Tooke without acknowledgment. He wrote besides a French and Latin dictionary, and several works which exhibited his great learning in ancient literature. He died at Lyons, in the year 1678; thus it appears that this work was published previous to that year,

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ADVERTISEMENT.

While this book may be resorted to, occasionally by gentlemen who have finished their classical course of education, we trust it will be found very useful to both young ladies and young gentlemen prosecuting their studies in polite literature, especially as classical learning has of late become an object of considerable importance in female edu-{ cation.

Thirty new and beautiful outlined plates, drawn from antique statues, have been engraved for this edition by G. FAIRMAN, Esq. an artist of the first reputation of this country, and the work is printed with good type, on paper of an excellent quality; it is therefore anticipated, that it will meet with a favourable reception, and a liberal support from the classical reader and the heads of colleges, acada mies and schools, equal to the endeavours of the publishers to render it worthy of their patronage. QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION, for the convenience of teachers, and for the use of students, will be found at the end of each chapter. The table of contents exhibits a brief ANALYSIS of the work,

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INTRODUCTION.

MODERN DESCRIPTION OF THE PANTHEON.

THIS temple, the most celebrated of those which have escaped the more essential injuries of time, impresses us with a very striking idea of the magnificence of the ancients. From its circular form it has acquired the name of the rotunda. The entrance to it is under a grand portico, supported by sixteen immense columns of the Corinthian order, each of them composed of a single piece of red oriental granite. Of these, eight of them are in front, and sustain an entablature and frontispiece of the most beautiful proportion which architecture can boast. The circumference of each of these columns is fourteen feet; and the height, independent of the base and capital, which are of white marble, two and forty. The inside of the temple is supplied with light through one circular aperture, the diameter of which is six and twenty feet, and to which there is an ascent by a staircase consisting of an hundred and ninety steps. The gallery over the principal altar of a semicircular form, is obtained from the thickness of the wall, and supported by pillars of yellow marble. every side are chapels adorned also with columns of yellow marble, and with pilasters crowned with an entablature of white marble, which extends round the building. The walls and the pavement are cased with marble. The whole presents us with an assemblage of rare beauty; and we cannot but regret the

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