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taken notice of the different language made ufe of by Greece 

 and Troy, if any fuch difference had really fubfifled. 



This argument appears at firft to be pcrfedly conclufive. 

 Homer's great confiftcncy, his hiftorical truth, his unvarying 

 attention to the coftumi in every inftance, cannot be doubted. 

 His total filence in the Iliad, as to the language of Greece 

 and Troy, certainly favours the idea that it muft have been 

 common to both countries. Strongly fortified and fupported as 

 this idea feems to be, I think I (hall be able to prove that it had 

 not always that currency which it has now : That the greateft 

 tragic poet Athens ever faw (the greateft incontrovertibly in 

 point of original genius) entertained a different opinion, is a cer- 

 tain fad, in which conjedure has no room. From fome circum- 

 ftances which I fhall mention in the courfe of this effay, w-e 

 may reafonably prefume that the people of Athens concurred in 

 opinion with him. 



In the Agamemnon of iEfchylus, which, take it all together, 

 is one of his moft finifhed compofitions, he introduces that mo- 

 narch as juft returned from the deftrudion of Troy to his palace 

 at Argos. Agreeable to the fafliion of thofe heroic ages, when 

 a general urbanity of manners had not foftened the horrors of 

 war, he is attended by a train of unhappy captives The prin- 

 cipal figure in this groupe is Caffandra, the celebrated and 

 wretched daughter of Priam. She appears before Clytemneflra, 

 and the principal old men of Argos who compofe the chorus. 

 The queen addreffes her in a mixed ftrain of courtefy and fevc- 

 rity. The miferabic princefi makes no anfwer. At length Cly- 

 temneflra 



