[ 41 ] 



the very early age in which he lived, may be fuppofed to 

 have been better able to detecfl the forgery of the works at- 

 tributed to thefe fuppofed ancient poats, or, allowing the com- 

 pofitions to be genuine, more accurately to afcertain their 

 precife degree of antiquity, than thofe writers who lived long 

 after his time. 



But, however it may operate againft me and my favourite 

 writer, I muft not conceal a proof, feemingly of a much more 

 decifive nature, which is produced by the ingenious author of 

 the Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer, page lOO, 

 where Herodotus is brought forward to difprove his own afler- 

 tion, and flatly to contradia himfelf. The hiftorian, in that 

 very book, Euterpe, page 113, where he gives his opinion con. 

 cerning the priority of Hefiod and Homer to all fuch bards 

 as were faid to have lived before them, fpeaking of the word 

 Oceaii^ thus expreffes himfelf, 'Oyjfii^Qv h, ^' two. tuv vporepov ytvo- 

 l^svuiv noivijav, SoKBu, ro avof^cc eupoi!]oi sj tjji/ noir,<r'v t<rimKoi.<r^ai ; which 

 words Blackwall thus tranflates :— " Homer, I believe, or fomt 

 " of the pods who lived before btm, having invented the word, 

 " inferted it into their poetry." The paffage however may be 

 otherwife tranflated, as it indeed is in mofl of the verfions I 

 have feen; and the words, ij nva, tw -n-f-on^ov yivofuvuv Ua'^Huv^ 

 may mean no more than, or fome one of the ancient poets ; or, 

 as we commonly exprefs ourfelves, fome one of the more ancient 

 poets. 7\nd furely, where a paffage is capable of two meanings, 

 that which may tend to involve the author in a feeming con- 

 tradiaion ought feduloufly to be avoided. But, not to infift 

 Vol. V. [F] ^PO" 



