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loo years, we (hall have the year before Chrift 875?. 
when, according to him, both Heiiod and Homer, if 
contemporaries, mull have flourifhed. In what man- 
ner Sir Ifaac Newton computed this, or whether in- 
deed he ever computed it at all himfelf, is not, at 
leaft publickly, known. It is probable he only fol- 
lowed lome one elfe ; and therefore, without dero- 
gating in the lead; from his authority, or thinking it 
a failure in refpedt to the memory of the greateft man 
that ever lived, I fhall confider a little how far the 
age of thefe poets may be determined, with any cer- 
tainty, from this achronical riling of Ardturus. 
Longomontanus, in his AJiron. Da?iic.( 10) fup- 
pofeth Heiiod to have flourilhed about the year be- 
fore Chrift 776. when he makes the place of Arc- 
turus ri? 12 0 16, the place of the Sun’s apogee 
*5 20 0 10', and his place, 00 days after the winter l'ol- 
ftice, X i° 10'. In the year after Chrift 1610. he 
fays, the place of Ardturus was ^ 18 0 47' ; fo that 
from the year before Chrift 776. to the year 1610. 
Ardturus had moved through 36° 31', = 131460'^ 
which divided by 2386, the number of years elapfed, 
gives the annual motion of the fixed liars 5 f". But 
as he makes the annual motion of the fixed liars 
49" 45'", or i° in 7 1\ years j 55" will, according to 
him, require about 2658 years. So that Heiiod, ac- 
cording to his computation, mull have lived about 
the year before Chrift 1048; unlefs, as he feems to- 
fufpedt, that poet defcribes the riling of Ardturus, not 
(ro) Lib. II. Spbaric. cap. iv. prob. 2. 
3 
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