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O ! guardian of thefe walls, Pallas revered, 

 Divine of GoddefTes ! 



Now the palladium, if we may credit the defcription of Apol- 

 lodorus, Lib. iii. Cap. xi. was an idol little refembling thofe 

 ftatues of Minerva, which may be fuppofed to have been after- 

 wards formed on the plan given by Homer, being a figure 

 apparently in the Egyptian ftyle, with its feet joined, for fo 

 the words roT; Se ttoo-i a-vf^lSefivixo; are underftood by the beft 

 commentators, and indeed little more than a block of ftone, 

 or rather wood, cut out into fomething like the human form ; 

 a fpecies of fculpturc, which, confidering the age, when there 

 was probably no other tafte to be imitated but that of Egypt, 

 was very likely to have prevailed. That it was a fitting figure 

 feems to be marked by the veil having been laid either at or 

 upon its knees, for ett* is capable of both fignifications ; and 

 it muft have been made of fome light material, fince Diomed 

 could fteal and carry it away, which circumftance induces me 

 to fuppofe that it was of wood, as Apollodorus gives it the 

 height of three cubits, a proportion which in ftone would 

 render fuch carriage impoflible. This miraculous image is faid 

 to have come down from Heaven, a fable which would feem to 

 indicate that it was not the manufadlure. of Troy ; and perhaps 

 the idea of its heavenly origin may have been derived from 

 its having been brought from Egypt, the great fource of reli- 

 gion in remote ages, by fome one of the early colonifts * who 



fettled 



* I woul I here wifli to be utir^erdood as alluding to the fecond colonization from tlie Eaft, 

 which took place foon after tht extiaaion of the family and empire of the Titans, wr.en 



Cecrops 



