Produced by Dave Maddock, Keith Edkins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they are listed at the end of the text. A NEW SYSTEM; OR, AN ANALYSIS OF ANTIENT MYTHOLOGY: WHEREIN AN ATTEMPT IS MADE TO DIVEST TRADITION OF FABLE; AND TO REDUCE THE TRUTH TO ITS ORIGINAL PURITY, BY JACOB BRYANT, ESQ. _THE THIRD EDITION._ IN SIX VOLUMES. WITH A PORTRAIT AND SOME ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR; A VINDICATION OF THE APAMEAN MEDAL; Observations and Inquiries relating to various Parts of Antient History; A COMPLETE INDEX, AND FORTY-ONE PLATES, NEATLY ENGRAVED. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. WALKER; W.J. AND J. RICHARDSON; R. FAULDER AND SON; R. LEA; J. NUNN; CUTHELL AND MARTIN; H.D. SYMONDS; VERNOR, HOOD, AND SHARPE; E. JEFFERY; LACKINGTON, ALLEN, AND CO.; J. BOOKER; BLACK, PARRY, AND KINGSBURY; J. ASPERNE; J. MURRAY; AND J. HARRIS. 1807. * * * * * SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF JACOB BRYANT, ESQ. * * * * * The earliest authentic account we can obtain of the birth of this learned and celebrated writer, is from the Register Book of Eton College, in which he is entered "of Chatham, in the county of Kent, of the age of twelve years, in 1730,"--consequently, born in 1718. Whence a difference has arisen between the dates in this entry, and the inscription on his monument, hereafter given, we are unable to explain. The two royal foundations of Eton, and King's College, Cambridge, justly boast of this great scholar and ornament of his age. He received his first rudiments at the village of Lullingstone, in Kent; and was admitted upon the foundation, at Eton College, on the 3d of August, 1730, where he was three years captain of the school, previous to his removal to Cambridge. He was elected from Eton to King's College in 1736; took the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1740; and proceeded Master in 1744. He attended the Duke of Marlborough, and his brother, Lord Charles Spencer, at Eton, as their private tutor, and proved a valuable acquisition to that illustrious house; and, what may be reckoned, at least equally fortunate, his lot fell among those who knew how to appreciate his worth, and were both able and willing to reward it. The Duke made him his private secretary, in which capacity he accompanied his Grace during his campaign on the continent, where he had the command of the British forces; and, when he was made Master-General of the Ordnance, he appointed Mr. Bryant to the office of Secretary, then about 1400l. per annum.