Chap. Hi. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 109 



Trojan war, there were thofe heroes whom Neftor mentions *, in 

 company with whom he fought when he was a young man, fuch 

 as Perithous, Dryas, Thefeus, and the reft of them ; among whom, 

 it is to be obferved, that Homer does not name Hercules, who, it 

 would feem, was not engaged in that war with the Lapithae, but 

 was the greateft of all the heroes of that age, and fuch a man, that, 

 I think, it is impoffible for any one, that is not moft violently pre- 

 judiced in favour of modern times, to believe that the like of him 

 exifts at prefent, at leaft in Europe. And, 1 think, M. Gebelin, in 

 his Monde Pnmitif^ makes the moft of the ftory of Hercules, 

 in favour of the opinion, that men of all ages have been the 

 fame, when he allegorifes him, and fuppofes him to be a type of 

 the fun, as he likewife fuppofes Romulus the founder of Rome 

 to be. The generation after that, being the one immediately prece- 

 ding the Trojan war, produced thofe heroes who fought and fell in 

 the firft Theban war, fuch as Tideus and Capaneus, whofe fons, 

 Diomede and Sthenelus fought at Troy f. After the Trojan war, 



we 



Achilles at his tomb, (See Plutarch, in the Life of Alexander), and likewife Amia- 

 nus Marcellinus, when he fpeaks of the tombs of Achilles and Ajax being extant in 

 his time, (Lib. 22. cap. 8.)- Such a wonderful difcovery as this, muft not onlv exalt 

 this age above antient times, in point of philofophy and fcience, according to the 

 opinion of the French academician above mentioned, but alfo in point of hiftorical 

 knowledge, fhowing that we underfland antient hiftory much better than the An- 

 tients thcmfelves did. After fuch refpedable authorities are fet afide, I am afhamed 

 to mention the teftimony of Dr Trumbull, who mas much in the Eaft, and travelled 

 all over the Trsade^ and who, if he be ftill alive, is now in Florida. He told me 

 he faw the tomb of Achilles, and paced it round, being a great mound of an 

 oval fhape, telling me, at the fame time, the dimenfions of it, which I have forgot. 

 He faid, he alfo faw the tomb of He61or near to that of Achilles, and likewife 

 the tomb of Ajax on the Ilhetaean Promontory. 



* Iliad, i. Verf. 262. 263 &c. 



fTherc are many, I believe, real fcholars, who doubt much of the truth of the hiftory 

 of Hercules and the other Grecian heroes, before the Trojan war ; but, whoever will 



take 



