Author Description

THE following pages are offered simply as a con- tribution to science. The progress of human society has, in different ages, presented abundance of hor- rors and abundance of vices, which, in treating history popularly, we are obliged to pass over gently, and often to conceal; but, nevertheless, if we neglect or suppress these facts altogether, we injure the truth of history itself, almost in the same manner as we should injure a manís health by destroying some of the nerves or muscles of his body. The superstitions which are treated in the two essays which form the present volume, formed a very important element in the working of the social frame in former ages, óin fact, during a very great part of the existence of man in this world, they have had much influence inwardly and outwardly on the character and spirit of society itself, and there- fore it is necessary for the historian to understand them, and a part of the duties of the archÊologist to investigate them. The Dissertation by Richard Payne Knight is tolerably well knownóvi CONTENTS.at least by nameóto bibliographers and antiquaries, as a book of very considerable learning, and at the same time, as one which has become extremely rare, and which, therefore, can only be obtained occasionally at a very high price. It happened that, in a time when the violence of political feelings ran very high, the author, who was a member of the House of Commons, belonged to the liberal party, and his book was spitefully misrepresented, with the design of injuring his character. We know the unjust abuse which was lavished upon him by Mathias, in his now little- read satire, the ìPursuits of Literature.î Some of the Conti- netnal archÊologists had written on kindred subjects long before the time of Payne Knight.It was thought, therefore, that a new edition of this book, pro-duced in a manner to make it more accessible to scholars, would not be unacceptable. Payne Knightís design was only to investigate the origin and