Chap. Vlir. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 1S3 



that ever exiRed ; and, accordingly, Homer has put into their 

 mouths, as I have elfewhere obferved *, fome of the fined Speeches 

 that ever were made. 



The account which Homer in his Iliad has given us of thofe he- 

 roic governments, is a very important part of the hiftory of man ; 

 For I do not think, that ever fuch men eKided fo eminent in council 

 and in fight, in eloquence, public fpirit, private friendlhip and 

 hofpitaliry. Whatever liberties Homer may have taken with fads, 

 and 1 think there can be no doubt that he has added and taken a- 

 way circumftances, and altered the order and arrangement of them, 

 that he might give to his fable that unity and ihat ideal beauty 

 without which no work of art can be perfedl. But, as to the cha- 

 raders and manners, I have not the leaft doubt, that he has given 

 them truly and faithfully, and at the fame time minutely and circum- 

 ftantially. He has defcribed the Greek heroes, not only as very 

 great but very amiable men. So that I do not wonder, that Horace, 

 though he lived in what is commonly thought a very fine age, 

 earneftly wiHies to have been born in that heroic age, 



Hos utimam inter 



Heroas naturn tellus me prima tuliflet f 



There are, I know, who think that Homer has exaggerated much in 

 this matter, and that, upon the whole, thofe Greek heroes were 

 men fuch as we, or very little different. But if he had afcribed the 

 adions, he makes thofe heroes perform, to men fuch as we, I fliould 

 have thought the Iliad a mock heroic poem, like the battle of frogi 

 and mice. 



All thofe heroes were, as I have fald, men of illuftrious birth, 



though not Gods, nor even Daemons, like the firft Kings of Egypt. 



Nor is there any example, in thofe antient times, of men who 



founded 

 * Vol. VI. of Orlg. of Lan. Book 4. Chap. i. 



t Lib. 2. Sat. 2, V. 92. 



