Chap. V. A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S, 140 



of his hiftory, as he tells us, to relate what he heard, yet he fre- 

 quently lets U3 know that fbme things, he had licard, he did not he- 

 lieve, even when he ought to have believed tliem, bccaufe they were 

 certainly true. Thus, he was told by the Phoenicians, that, in their 

 voyage from the Red Sea round Africa, in failing weflvvard, ihey 

 had the fun upon their right hand. * This,' fays Herodotus, * I do 

 not believe, though others may * :' But our more perfccl know- 

 ledge of the climates of the earth, and of the courfe of the fun, 

 has now made it certain that it muft have been fo. In fliort, I 

 cannot omit this opportunity of declaring my opinion, that Hero- 

 dotus Is not only the mod pleafant hiftorian, for the ftyle, that ever 

 wrote, but mod diligent and accurate as to the matter, and, fo 

 far from being credulous, as he is commonly efteemed, a moft fcru- 

 pulous examiner of evidence t- — But to return to the ftature of 

 the antient Greek heroes. 



Plutarch, In the beginning of his life of Thefeus, relates it as a; 

 faiSt moil certain, that there were In thofe days men of extraordi- 

 nary prowefs, and of wonderful ftrength of body and fwiftnefs of 

 foot. The body of Thefeus was difcovered, in later times, in the 

 ifland of Scyros, by Cimon the fon of Miltiades, and was brought to 

 Athens, w^here heroic honours were paid to it. Plutarch does not 



mention 



* Lib. iv. Cap. 42. 



t Where there is any doubt in the matter, he generally gives you both fides of the 

 ftory, and then examines which of the relations is the truth, as in the queftion. 

 Whether Helen was carried to Troy, as the Greeks faid, or detained in Egypt, as 

 the Egyptians told Herodotus ? (Lib. ii. Cap. 112. et fequen)- And the trouble, he 

 took to get information, was really furpr'fing. Thus, in order to inform him- 

 felf whether the Hercules of Tyre, or he of I hafus, was older or younger than the 

 Greek Hercules, he made a voyage, firft to the one place, and then to the otber,. 

 (Lib. ii. Cap. 44.). 



