[Livy, says,] we must accustom youth in reading such sort of authors [here referring to the “strange stories” of mythology from antiquity] to distinguish between the true and false, and must also tell them that reason and equity require that they should not reject all a writer says, because some things are false, nor believe all he relates without exception, because many things are true. — —
This love for truth, which ought to be inculcated as much as possible, may be of great servis [service] to preserve them from a bad taste, which was formerly very prevalent, I mean, that for romances and fabulous tales, which by degrees extinguish the love and taste of truth, and make the mind incapable of attending to such useful and serious lectures, as speak more to the reason than the imagination — — — —
It is the peculiar felicity of our age, that as soon as they were supplied either with the translations of the famous writers of antiquity, or such modern works as merited their application, they presently abandoned all these fictions, and even neglected them with scorn; as being sensible, that nothing in reality could be a greater disgrace to human reason, which was intended to be nourished with truth,