He added, that it
was an indulgence conceded to antiquity to blend human things with
things divine, in such a way as to make the origin of cities appear
more venerable. This principle is much the same as that on which Milton
wrote his history, and it seems a very good one. Let us, therefore,
follow it.
In the narrative of events for several hundred years after the city of
Rome was founded, according to the early traditions, it is difficult to
distinguish truth from fiction, though a skilful historian (and many
such there have been) is able, by reading history backwards, to make up
his mind as to what is probable and what seems to belong only to the
realm of myth. It does not, for example, seem probable that ?neas was
the son of the goddess Venus; and it seems clear that a great many of
the stories that are mixed with the early history of Rome were written
long after the events they pretend to record, in order to account for
customs and observances of the later days. Some of these we shall
notice as we go on with our pleasant story.
We must now return to ?neas. After long wanderings and many marvellous
adventures, he arrived, as has been said, on the shores of Italy. He
was not able to go rapidly about the whole country, as we are in these
days by means of our good roads and other modes of communication, but
if he could have done this, he would have found that he had fallen upon
a land in which the inhabitants had come, as he had, from foreign
shores.
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