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to the melody of his metre, and to the faftidious ears of his 

 countrymen, vrlthout incurring the cenfure of anachronifm, 

 though none but the original Egyptian appellations had been 

 ufed or even known at the time of the Trojan war. Virgil 

 may feem, at the firfl glance, to have been guilty of a fimilar 

 error, if fuch it fliould be deemed ; his heroes fpeak of the Gods 

 by names which could not poffibly be known to the Trojans, 

 the Greeks, or probably to the ancient inhabitants of Italy. 

 But then his heroes fpeak a language alfo of which in their 

 times they m.uft necelTarily have been ignorant, and confe- 

 quently the names of that adopted language are fubftituted 

 for thofe by which they had in reality invoked their deities, as 

 the only appellations which could be intelligible to fuch as pof- 

 fefled no other tongue but that in which he wrote. His Trojans 

 fpeak Latin, and therefore neceflarlly call upon their Gods by 

 Latin names. A fimilar apology cannot, however, be made for 

 Homer ; his language was probably the fame in fadl, allowmg 

 for fuch alterations and improvements as would naturally be 

 made in the time which elapfed between the Trojan war and 

 his day, with that which was fpoken by the Greeks, and, as 

 fome fuppofe, by the Trojans alfo, at the fiege of Troy. But 

 yet he may be furely allowed, without being liable to any 

 " great degree of cenfure, to make ufe of names for the divinities 

 traoflated into the vernacvilar idiom, both of his own time and 

 of the period which he celebrates, from thofc Egyptian appella- 

 tions which were ufed in the age of his heroes ; but had he 

 made his heroes invoke by name Gods, who before his time were 

 namelefs, and to whom he himfelf had firft given names, the 



finachronifra 



