Chap.XVIII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 249 



that they had not difcovered there was no God, that I think that it 

 is impoflible their vanity ihould not be mortified by the comparifon. 

 And, if tliey could carry their learning ftill farther, and read Homer 

 with ,good tafte and underftanding, confiderlng him not only as a 

 poet, but as an hlflorian, they would find in him charadcrs of n-:en 

 ftill iup^rior ; the heroes he delbribes being men that excelled others 

 fo much, both in body and mind, in council and in fight *, that rhey 

 were by nature deftined to govern ; for thofe heroic governments, 

 which obtained at that time in Greece, I confider as not of human in- 

 ilitution, but from nature ; for we fee that, in all the herds of grega- 

 rious animals living in the natural ftate, there are fome by Nature 

 defigned to lead and dire<SI: the reft ; fome kind of government being 

 neceflary In all focieties ; and this deftgnation Is marked by fuperior 

 fize, ftrength of body, and fpirit f. Thefe men, by the joint fuffrage 

 of all antiquity, were acknowledged to be much fuperior to the ordi- 

 nary race of men, and to be fomething betv/ixt Gods and men, to 

 which they gave the name of hero. From the ftudy of fuch charac'* 

 ters, as they arc moft accurately defcribed by Homer, they might 

 learn to form fome notion of Natures fuperior to their own, and get 

 free of that moft abfurd, and even impious vanity, by w^hich they 

 fet themfelves, as it were, at the head of the creation, and believe 

 themlelves to be the moft excellent creatures that are, were, or will 



I i be. 



* '0< fri^i i^i'i ^ovM Lummy Urt^iV tin; i y,ii)c^o-^nu IliAD. I. V. 258. 



This Is the defcription which Neftor gives of the Grecian heroes who fought at 

 Troy. 



t Homer has defcrited one bf thefe hcavcn-horn, and truly jurc-divim kings, in 

 the following lines : 



JLKVi-nr^it t' tj^'j ttf*frTHi, 'tiK <r(piertv fujixtrtMvfi. 



