[Note: Atlas and Hesper were of the race of Titans. They were sons of
Uranus, or of Japetus, according as the fable is traced to different
countries, whose supreme God (originally the sun) was called by different
names. Atlas, from being king of Mauritania, became a mountain to support
the heavens, and gave his name to the western ocean. Hesper frequented that
mountain in the study of astronomy; till one evening he disappeared, and
returned no more. He was then placed in the western heaven; and, having
been a beautiful young man, he became a beautiful planet, called the
evening star. This circumstance gave his name to the western regions of the
earth indefinitely. Italy was called Hesperia by the Greeks, because it
lay west from them, and seemed under the influence of the star of evening;
Spain was called Hesperia by the Romans, for the same reason.

If the nations which adopted this fable had known of a country west of the
Atlantic, that country must have been Hesperia to them all; and pursuing
this analogy I have so named it, in several instances, in the course of
this poem. Considering Hesper as the guardian Genius, and Columbus as the
Discoverer, of the western continent, it may derive its name, in poetical
language, from either of theirs indifferently, and be called Hesperia or
Columbia.

Atlas is considered in this poem as the guardian Genius of Africa. See his
speech, in the eighth book, on the slavery of his people.

This explanation seemed of such immediate importance for understanding
the machinery of the poem, as to require its being placed here. The other
notes, being numerous and some of them long, have been forced to yield
to typographical elegance; and are placed at the end of the volume, with
suitable reference to the passages to which they belong.]