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it ought to be better known than what it is, andnext, those which but ostensibly engaged Mr.Charles Blount to offer his translation to thepublic. I say but ostensibly, for Blount s realdesign, it is well known, was to use the textof Philostratus as a vehicle to convey a deepdigested series of notes and observations, which,in the vain imagination of his heart, he thoughtwould injure the Christian religion, but whichonly tended, as all such impotent attacks havedone, to serve it, and to exalt the character ofits Divine Author, and humble that of its feebleand wicked opponent: for feeble and wickedmust that man be, whose real design is to castthe slightest reflection on a religion “ whichfrom Heaven proclaimed peace on earth, and goodwill amongst all its inhabitants

Though the books of Philostratus , says Ca-saubon, contain many fabulous things, as any manmay expect from the undertaking, yet they haveso much truth and variety of ancient learning,that I think they deserve a more attentive con-sideration than what has fallen to their lot.I thought, writes Blount in his Preface, themany descriptions in Philostratus of remotecountries and former customs, so differentfrom our own ; the various hints of ancient his-tory, wherein our author is esteemed authentic,as well as the philosophical discourses on thesubject of morality, might be not only enter-taining, but useful to every reader that perused