II O M 
conceived and wrote it. Mr. Home, at the advanced age 
of Seventy-eight, pu'blidled his long-meditated work, en¬ 
titled, The History of the Rebellion in Scotland, in 1745—6, 
in which lie recorded the exploits and remarks of his 
youth. Of this work it is Sufficient to observe, that the 
principles are juft, and the opinions liberal. For a consi¬ 
derable time prior to his death, Mr. Home's mind, as well 
as body, Seemed to be much impaired. He lived in the 
2110ft Secluded manner, So much So, that the houfe he in¬ 
habited had all the marks of a deferted dwelling. So long 
as he continued to poft'efs Sufficient Strength, he ufed to 
walk for a certain time every day; the molt acute phy¬ 
siognomist, however, who met him, could Scarcely have 
traced any remains of the author of Douglas. He Seemed 
to pay no attention to what was -palling, and to poliefs 
little more than mere existence. In this diftrefsful State, 
he lingered for many years. He died at Merchiftpii-houfe, 
on the 4th of September 1808, in the eighty-fifth year of 
his age. A life So little varied by incident as that of Mr. 
Home, affords few materials for biography. Fidelity to 
his friends, and generosity to his enemies, were confpi- 
cuous traits in liis character. As a man of letters, he will 
be known to posterity by his tragedies, and efpecially by 
his Douglas, which will probably retain a place among 
the molt approved compositions of that clafs, and will long 
continue to delight and interest on the Stage as well as in 
the clofet. 
HO'ME-BORN, adj. Native; natural: 
Though to be thus elemented, arm 
Thefe creatures from home-born intrinsic harm. Donne. 
Domeftic ; not foreign : 
Num’rous bands 
With home-born lies, or tales from foreign lands. Pope. 
HCVME-BRED, adj. Native ; natural.—God hath taken 
care to anticipate every man, to draw him early into his 
church, .before other competitors, home-bred luffs, or vicious 
customs of the world, Should be able to pretend to him. 
Hammond. —Not polished by travel ; plain; rude; artlefs; 
uncultivated.—Only to me two home-bred youths belong. 
Drydcn. —Domeftic ; not foreign : 
This once happy land, 
By home-bred fury rent, long groan’d. Phillips. 
HO'ME-FELT, adj. Inward ; private : 
Happy next him who to thefe Shades retires, 
Whom nature charms, and whom the mule infpires, 
Whom humbler joys of home-felt quiet pleafe, 
Succeflive Study, exercil'e, and eale. Pope. 
FIOME-KEE'PING, adj. Staying at home.— Home-keep¬ 
ing youth have ever homely wits. Shakefpeare. 
HO'ME-MADE, adj. Made at home ; not manufac¬ 
tured in foreign parts.—A tax laid on your native pro¬ 
duct, and home-made commodities, makes - them yUdd lefts 
to the firSt Seller. Locke. 
HOM'ELEN, a town of Germany, in Weftpha-lia, and 
Bishopric of Liege : four miles weft of Maeftricht. 
HO'MELILY, adv. Rudely; inelegantly. 
HO'MELINESS, f. Plainnefs ; rudenefs ; coarfenefs.— 
Homer has opened a great field of raillery to men of more 
delicacy than greatnefs of genius, by the homelincfs of Some 
of his fentiments. Addifori. 
HO'MELY, .adj. Plain; homefpun; not elegant; not 
beautiful; not fine; coarfe; rude. It is ufed both of per- 
fons and things.—Our Stomachs will make what’s- homely 
favory. Shakefpeare. —It is for homely features to keep home. 
Milton. —It is observed that there is none fo homely but 
loves a looking-glafs. South. 
Now Strephon daily'entertains 
His Chloe in the homeliejl Strains. Swift. 
HO'MELY, adv. Plainly; coarfely; rudely: 
Thus, like the god, his father, homely drell, 
He ltrides into the hall, a horrid gueft. Dryden. 
Vol.’X. No. 658. 
H O M (2.53 
HO'MER, f. A Hebrew meafure of about three pints. 
<—A homer of barley-S’eed lhall be valued at fifty Shekels of 
Silver. Lev. xxviii. 16. 
HO'MER, the Sublime author of the “Iliad,” and the' 
“ OdySTey,” furnamed the Prince of Poets, and the Father 
of Poetry. Yet famous as his works remain, and long 
cherished as hath been his memory. Still his history lies 
buried in impenetrable darknefs. We know not where 
he was born, nor (with any degree of precision) at what 
time he lived. If we consider him in the light in which 
he is transmitted to us by ancient writers, we inuft be 
contented to pats from one absurdity to another; and, in 
the multiplied and contradictory accounts. Substitute fa¬ 
bulous affertion for rational narration. It may Satisfy the 
fceptical reader to be informed; by Suidas, that no lefs than 
ninety cities claimed the honour of having given him birth. 
In Euftathius, we read that he was born in Egypt, and 
that he was nurfsd by a prielteSs of Ifis, from whom he 
imbibed honey inftead of milk. In Heliodorus, that he 
was the Son of Mercury. Others, aferibe to him a direct 
and lineal delcent from Apollo. But thefe were the ex¬ 
travagant theories of men, who, unable to exprefs how 
much they admired the poet, have exceeded all bounds 
of probability in their accounts of him. The mind, ap¬ 
parently dazzled by fuch excellence, lofes the common 
idea of the man in the imaginary Splendour of perfection ; 
and, unwilling that he Should ever be mentioned in a lan¬ 
guage beneath its conception, gives us fable for hiftory. 
The poetical genealogy, which may be Seen in Suidas, 
proves that the advocates for Greece even furpalfed the 
others in exaggerated fiction, in proportion as the refine¬ 
ment of the Greeks was fuperiorto. that of the Egyptians. 
Every writer who has pretended to give us an account of 
Homer, however he may differ from others in his narra¬ 
tive, is equally Studious in aferibing to him a celeftial 
origin, and the molt marvellous adventures. Euftathius, 
Heliodorus, Hermias, Diodorus Siculus, Suidas,-Plutarch, 
and riElian, offered to the mind only confuted and con¬ 
tradictory compilations of the mod abibrd allegories. His 
life feems to have been invented, rather than written; 
and every biographer, in the abfence of regular history, 
has not failed to exhibit an hypothefis of his own. In 
the poems which are indifputably Homer’s, he has no 
where Spoken difeCtly of himlelf; nor was there in his 
time any historian (at lealt, we know of none) to record 
his name, and the events of his life. Herodotus alone 
(who, by his own account, lived about 400 years after 
Homer) has transmitted to us fomething in the form of 
a probable narrative: but probable only in this, that, di¬ 
verted of thofe fabulous descriptions and incidents which 
abound in other writers, it is a Simple narrative of circum¬ 
stances, which might have composed the life of any other 
man, as well as of Homer. It relts upon as meagre a 
foundation, and is as little Supported by authority, as any 
of the reft. If, therefore, we ltate from Herodotus that 
all he fays historically of Homer, it is not becaule we be¬ 
lieve his account to be entitled to greater credit than that 
of any other ancient. 
Homer, according to him, was born at Smyrna, about 
106 years after the Siege of Troy, and 622 before the ex¬ 
pedition of Xerxes into Greece. His father is not men¬ 
tioned : but his mother Crytheis proving with child in 
confequence of an illicit connection, She was Sent to 
Smyrna, a colony from Cuma. Some time after her remo- • 
val, accompanying a proceffion of women to a feftival ce¬ 
lebrated near the river Mcies, She was unexpectedly deli¬ 
vered of Homer, to whom She gave the name of Meleii- 
genes, from the place of his birth. In proceSs of time, 
under the tuition and infpeCtion of Phemius, who had 
married his mother, he advanced with Such rapidity in all 
the arts and improvements of his age, and betrayed fuch 
extraordinary intelligence, as to become the common won¬ 
der, not only of his countrymen, but of all the Strangers 
who retorted to Smyrna, attracted by its profperous trade. 
Homer appears to have polfeffed a great defire of informing 
3 T himlelf 
