Passages in Josephus and Justin Martyr," are extremely
curious, and such perhaps as only he could have written.

* * * * *

"The New System, or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology," here presented to
the public, is a literary phenomenon, which will remain the admiration of
scholars, as long as a curiosity after antiquity shall continue to be a
prevailing passion among mankind. Its author was master of the profoundest
erudition, and did not come behind the most distinguished names of the last
century, for their attention to the minutest circumstance that might cast a
ray of light upon the remotest ages. Nothing in the antient Greek and Roman
literature, however recondite, or wherever dispersed, could escape his
sagacity and patient investigation. But we are not to confine our
admiration of the work before us to the deep erudition discoverable in it;
this elaborate production is equally distinguished for its ingenuity and
novelty. Departing with a boldness of genius from the systems of his
predecessors in the same walks of literature, he delights by his ingenuity,
while he astonishes by his courage, and surprises by his novelty. In the
last point of view, this work is indeed singularly striking; it departs
from the commonly-received systems, to a degree that has not only never
been attempted, but not even thought of by any men of learning.

The subject, here undertaken by Mr. Bryant was one of uncommon difficulty;
one of the most abstruse and difficult which antiquity presents to us; the
information to be obtained concerning it must be collected from a vast
number of incidental passages, observations and assertions scattered
through antient authors, who being themselves but imperfectly acquainted
with their subject, it is next to impossible to reconcile. This, however,
our author has attempted; and though, in doing this, the exuberances of
fancy and imagination are conspicuous, and some may entertain doubts,
concerning the solidity of some of his conjectures, yet, even such are
forced to allow that many parts of the author's scheme are probable, and
deserving the highest attention.

His method of proceeding by etymology was not a little hazardous; men of
the greatest abilities have often failed in the use of it, while those of
weak judgment have, by their application of it, rendered it the source of
the greatest absurdities, and almost led the unthinking to connect an idea
of ridicule with