Natural Hiftory of the Ancients. 24^ 



the hunting of the mighty Calydonian boar without 

 his own pulfes beating the quicker the next time 

 he found himfelf chafing a dangerous quarry in 

 the Theflalian mountains ; nor could he ever hear 

 the recital of Cyclops's cannibal feaft and portentous 

 gluttony, as told in the "Odyffey," without having 

 his own character directed to that moderation and 

 chaftened fpirit which are among the fpecial 

 attributes of his nation. Though difcredited, they 

 ftill hold their own in the national Olympus, 

 mutely inculcating a horror of the monftrous 

 appetites of favagery. 



He who would gauge the credulity of our fore- 

 fathers in the matter of monfters mould confult 

 Topfel's "Hiftory of Four-footed Beafts," 1658. 

 There he will find marvellous accounts and illuf- 

 trations of the fea-horfe, the fu, the water-fheep, 

 the tartarine, and the mantichora. Topfel ob- 

 tained his notion of this horrific creature from 

 Ctefias, but his print of it is fo amazing, that it 

 was certainly evolved from imagination. 



