PLAIN OF TROY. 99 
With these facts in contemplation, it is chap. 
unreasonable to suppose, that a plain, boasting 
every advantage that Nature could afford, f/^g"^^^. 
would offer an extraordinary exception to cus- -^'"J ^^^ 
-' i indepen- 
toms so o-eneral amoner antient nations ; that it '^*^"* «*" 
should have remained untenanted and desolate ; 
and that no adventurers should have occupied 
its fertile soil. It is still more difficult to 
believe, when the monuments of a numerous 
people, and the ruins of many cities, (all having 
reference, by indisputable record, to one more 
antient, as their oncigna parens,) have been found 
in such a plain, that the compositions of any 
Bard, however celebrated, should have afforded 
the sole foundation of a belief that such a people 
and city did really exist. Among the gem.s, the 
vaseSj the marbles, and the medals, found in 
other countries, representing subjects connected 
with the Trojan tvar, yet destitute of any 
reference to the works of Homer, we meet with 
documents proving the existence of traditions 
independent of his writings ' ; and in these we 
(1) " That the Antieiits differed as to tbe circumstances of the 
Trojan war, is well known ; and tliat some variations, even in the 
accounts of those who were actors in that scene, left the Poet at 
liberty to adopt or reject facts, as it best suited his purpose, is highly 
probable Eurijiides chose a subject fur one of his Plays, 
which supposes that Helun never was at Troy ; yet we cannot 
suppose that he would have deserted Homer without any authority. 
As the first Poets differed with regard to the Trojan war, 
so their brother Artists adopted variations Polygnotus did not 
always follow Homer." Wood's Essay on Homer, pp. 183, 184. 
