Spence, Joseph; Tindal, Nicholas [Editor]; Dodsley, James [Oth.]: A Guide To Classical Learning: Or, Polymetis Abridged: Containing, I. By Way of Introduction, the Characters of the Latin Poets and their Work ... II. An Inquiry concerning the Agreement between the Works of the Roman Poets and the Remains of the Antient Artists ... Being a Work absolutely necessary, not only for the Right Understanding of the Classics, but also for forming in Young Minds a True Taste for the Beauties of Poetry, Sculpture, and Painting (London: Printed for J. Dodsley, 1786)

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ter deities, when their monarch wanted their aiiist-
ance or counsel. It was sometimes a real shell,
and fometimey formed of silver or other metal.
With his trumpet he gave the signal to all the
rivers to retire into their channels after the
deluge k.
Proteus, as well as Triton, was by Neptune
advanced to a high charge. His distinguishing
character was the power of changing his form ;
a character more manageable by the poets (who
could describe him in all his various shapes, with
the transition from one to another) than by the
artists, who could show him only in his own
form, or Tome one alone of all his transmuta-
tions. Virgil, of all the poets, has described him
the most fully. He gives the charader of his
perfon, and the description of Kis cave, with his
sea-herds about him. He represents him as tend-
ing them on shore ; as plunging bimself into the
sea; and as riding over the surface of it. He
marks out, briessy indeed, but in a very pidturesque
manner, the whole series of the transmutation of
this changeable deity *.
Glaucus,
k At a naumachia, in the time of Claudius, just as the ad-
vcrse sseets were ready for battle, a ,filver Triton, prepared for the
purpose, rose suddenly out of the water, and blew his trumpet, as
a signal to engage. Suet, in Claud, cap/21. Met. i. v. 331—*
342.
1 Senex, Geo. iv. v. 438. — Ceeruleus9 v. 386. Glaucis
uulUs v. 451. Gcq. iv, v. 4iS«»422. v. 430. 431. v.433—