a little care,
preceptors may manage so as to teach mythology without in the least
injuring their pupils. Children may be familiarized to the strange
manners and strange personages of ancient fable, and may consider them
as a set of beings who are not to be judged by any rules of morality,
and who have nothing in common with ourselves. The caricatura of some
of the passions, perhaps, will not shock children who are not used to
their natural appearance; they will pass over the stories of love and
jealousy, merely because they do not understand them. We should rather
leave them completely unintelligible, than attempt, like Mr. Riley, in
his mythological pocket dictionary for youth, to elucidate the whole
at once, by assuring children that Saturn was Adam, that Atlas is
Moses, and his brother Hesperus, Aaron; that Vertumnus and Pomona were
Boaz and Ruth; that Mars _corresponds_ with Joshua; that Apollo
_accords_ with David, since they both played upon the harp; that
Mercury can be no other than our Archangel Michael, since they both
have wings on their arms and feet; that, in short, to complete the
concordance, Momus is a striking likeness of Satan. The ancients, Mr.
Riley allows, have so much disfigured these personages, that it is
hard to know many of the portraits again at first sight; however, he
is persuaded that "the young student will find a peculiar
gratification in tracing the likeness," and he has kindly furnished us
with a catalogue to explain the exhibition, and to guide us through
his new pantheon.

As books of reference, the convenient size, and compressed
information, of _pocket_ mythological dictionaries, will recommend
them to general use; but we object to the miserable prints with which
they are sometimes disgraced. The first impression made upon the
imagination[9] of children, is of the utmost consequence to their
future taste. The beautiful engravings[10] in Spence's Polymetis, will
introduce the heathen deities in their most graceful and picturesque
forms to the fancy. The language of Spence, though classical, is not
entirely free from pedantic affectation, and his dialogues are,
perhaps, too stiff and long winded for our young pupils. But a parent
or preceptor can easily select the useful explanations; and in
turning over the prints, they can easily associate some general
notion of the history and attributes of the gods and goddesses with
their forms: the little eager spectators will, as they crowd