34 



TABLEAU de la PLAINE de TROTE 



lents in an attempt to invalidate and remove this obftrudHon, in 

 order to pave the vv^ay for his Dijfertation ; vv^hich now at length 

 has likewife made its appearance, and of which I have alfo re- 

 ceived a copy from the learned author. 



I AM now ready to admit (as, in a jQiort correfpondence with 

 Mr Bryant, on the firft glance of the former of thefe produc- 

 tions, 1 promifed. to do, if afterwards, upon a careful perufal of 

 that pamphlet, I Ihould fee good caufe), that he has difcovered 

 what now appear to me to be inaccuracies and inadvertencies in 

 feveral parts of M. Chevalier's performance, and fome errors 

 in the notes which I had written. For, upon topics and invefti- 

 gations, where hypothefis mud fometimes take place, and where 

 arguments may not always be conclufive, it is not to be wonder- 

 ed at if a perfon of Mr Bryant's learning and fagacity fliould 

 have dete<5l;ed a few improprieties and inaccuracies. But after a 

 careful perufal, which I have now given both to his Obfervations, 

 and his Dijjertation^ I cannot bring myfelf to go along with him 

 in his views of this fubje<fl ; nor can I be perfuaded.; by any 

 thing Mr Bryant has written, to give up the pleafure received 

 from remarking the flriking fimilarity between thofe fcenes, 

 which ftill exift, and the deicriptions which occur in the poems of 

 Homer. This fimilarity has been traced by Mr Heyne, in a 

 moft convincing manner, in his EJfay on the 'Topography of the 

 lUad ; a valuable piece of inveftigation, which of itfelf appears 

 to me completely to refute all Mr Bryant's radical obje<5lions to 

 M. Chevalier's Eflliy*. I fhall therefore decline following the 

 learned gentleman through the minute parts of his elaborate 

 performances, which indeed I want time as well as inclination 

 to do : but fhall content myfelf with introducing a few remarks 

 upon his Objervations. I moft readily refign every attempt at 

 framing an anfwer to his Dijfertation j as I find he has met vdth 

 two antagonifts much better qualified to enter the lifts with 



him 



* See Appendix, No. III. 



