254 
HOMER, 
himfelf of the manners and cuftoms of different nations; 
this he judged would be of coniiderable ufe in the defign he 
had formed, of making poetry the great bufinefs of his life. 
But a defluxion in his eyes, which afterwards occafioned 
total blindnefs, compelled him to remain fome time in 
Ithaca, where he is laid to have collected thofe flories of 
Ulyfles which became the ground-work of the Odyffey. 
He then returned to Smyrna; where, falling into poverty 
and neglect, he relieved his neceflities by begging, and 
reciting his verfes. At Cuma, in confequence of fome 
fuccefs in this employment, he was encouraged to addrefs 
the government for a maintenance ; but was anfwered, 
that if they made it a cuftorn of taking all the Op.^ei, or 
blind ftrollers, under their protection, their city would in 
a little time be filled with fuels ufelefs creatures. To this 
circumftance the unfortunate bard owed his name. Irri¬ 
tated at his difappointment, he departed for Phocasa; and, 
on leaving Cuma, prayed the gods that there might never 
arife among his countrymen a poet to celebrate fo un¬ 
grateful a people. At Phocasa he applied more intenfely 
to poetry, and obtained the protection of Theftorides, 
who promifed him fubfiftence, upon condition that he 
fliould be permitted to tranferibe liis poems. But in pro¬ 
tecting the poet, he had no other view than to obtain 
from him as many of his pieces as he could ; and, when 
he had collected a fufficient number, he departed for 
Chios, and there opened a fchool, where he recited the 
verfes of Homer as his own, and obtained infinitely greater 
emolument and fame than the original author himfelf. 
Homer was informed of the ltratagem, and refolved to 
fail himfelf for Chios to deteCt the impofture. But he 
remained fome time at Bolifl'us, where he compofed leve- 
ral of his lighter pieces, particularly the Batrachomyoma- 
chia. At Chios lie met with unulual fuccefs ; and, after 
defeating the iniquitous projeft of Theftorides, he himfelf 
maintained a fiourifhing fchool. Having now attained 
fome degree of eafe in his circumftances, he married, and 
continued at Chios for fome years. It was then that he 
is fuppofed to have written his greater poems ; and his 
fame, no longer confined to Ionia, quickly fpread into 
Greece. Having complimented the city of Athens in 
fome of his verles, he received an invitation to vifit it, 
which he accepted ; and palled a winter at Samos, in his 
way thither. In the fpring he failed again for Athens ; 
but landing at Ios, he was taken ill, died, and was buried 
on the fea-fhore. 
Such is, briefly, the account we have of Homer by 
Herodotus. But this is attributing to him a ftrange 
anachronifm, of which he could fcaVcely have been guil¬ 
ty : by placing Homer 622 years before,the expedition of 
Xerxes; whereas he himfelf, who was alive at the time of 
that expedition, tells us, in his hiftory, that Homer lived 
only 400 years before him. This Angular inconfiftency 
has been noticed by various modern writers; but has not 
ferved to convince them of the impolfibility of ever afeer- 
taining the age in which Homer lived, nor prevented them 
from advancing the molt Angular paradoxes in fupport of 
their opinions. In general, they fieem to take their rife 
from an error common to both ancient and modern cri¬ 
tics, of aferrbing to Homer a much earlier period than 
that in which he really exilted. What has chiefly led 
them into a belief of this high antiquity of the poet, has 
been the Ample, rough, and often lavage, manners of his 
heroes ; and a grcundlefs fuppofition, that he has de- 
feribed the cuftoms prevalent in his own age. It has 
been fuggefted, that the Aril interelfing Itories he had 
heard when a boy were of the exploits at Troy, and that 
he had finilhed both his poems about half a century after 
the town was taken. But the manners which he deferibes 
cannot be adduced as a proof of the age in which he lived ; 
for, by the rules of his art as an epic poet, it would have 
been abfurd if, writing of an ancient event, he had not 
adapted the characters of his perfonages to the times in 
which he laid the plan of his poems. Virgil, who wrote 
fo long after him, gives the fame Ample manners to his 
heroes. All tragic poets, In ancient and in modern times, 
have endeavoured to fuit the manners and fentiments of 
their characters, to the country and the era in which they 
are fuppofed to have lived. Why then fliould we fuppofe 
that Homer might not do the fame ? and that, though 
living himfelf in a polilhed age, he had the good fienfe not 
to aferibe to the rough warriors of Ilium the refined 
manners of his own contemporaries. It was eafier for him 
to give to his heroes the lefs polilhed calt of an age long 
before his own, than to have anticipated, in idea, a ftate 
of refinement in language, in metre, and in the arts, which 
Greece could not have attained till a coniiderable time 
after. There are fuch internal evidences in his poems of 
refinement, as ftand in direCt contradiction to the rough- 
nefs of his characters. The invocation of the Mules in 
the fecond book, demonftrates that he lived long after the 
fiege of Troy; and this would fieem ahnolt incontrover- 
tibly corroborated by an expreflion which he ufies, and 
which has been noticed by Velleius Paterculus, “ that 
mankind was but half fo ftrong in his age, as in that of 
which he wrote.” This expreflion, grounded on the fup¬ 
pofed gradual degeneracy of our nature, difeovers the 
long interval between the poet and his fubjeCt. The va¬ 
rious articles of elegance and luxury deferibed in the 
Odyffey, betray a much later age than is ufually afligned 
him; and infer that he mull have lived in more civilized 
times than can be confiftent with the fimplicity which he 
attributes to his heroes. The appearances of luxury and 
elegance in the Asneid, are nothing compared to thofe in 
Homer; and, although the Greek orders of architecture 
might not then be invented, yet the ideas of magnificence 
confpicuous in his palaces, might have been borrowed 
from the praClice of much later periods than thofe he de¬ 
feribes, from times more polilhed in arts, as well as more 
civilized in manners. 
This conclufion will appear the more reafonable, when 
we confider the language of Homer, which, with the ex¬ 
ception of a few' words, is equal to the Greek of the pre- 
fent times. The formation of the language into tenfes, 
cafes, and numbers, w'as already perfeCt and completed. 
This evidently proves that the Greeks had, long before 
his time, arrived at a coniiderable ftate of improvement. 
It was impoflible that the language fliould attain fuch ex¬ 
cellence, as to require little amendment or addition, un- 
lefs thofe who fpoke it had alfo acquired equal excellence 
in the arts offocial life, and of civil government. It is 
the real perception of things, which gives birth to their 
refpeClive ideas in the mind, and thefe again to outward 
expreflions, by words combined into fignificant fentences. 
That the ufe of a language to exprefs all the improve¬ 
ments of civilization, fliould precede the aCtual birth and 
progrefs of civilization itlelf, is a paradox that no man 
can urge that has not adopted fome hypothefis incon- 
fiftent with the real truth. Homer certainly wrote in the 
dialect which prevailed in Alla, down to the moil im¬ 
proved times of the Grecian colonies there. And we 
cannot fuppofe that the language of thofe Ionic fettlers, 
Ihould become any ways fixed and pure, till long after 
the fettlement of the colonifls themfelves. But, without 
entering any further into this difpute, it is enough to fay, 
that we mult Hill have recourfe to the Arundelian marble, 
which affords the bell computation of thofe early ages ; 
and this, by placing Homer when Diognetus ruled in 
Athens, makes him flourifli a little before the Olympiads 
were eftablilhed ; about threehundred years after the taking 
of Troy, and one thoufand before the Chriftian era. 
The queftion refpeCting the country of Homer, is one 
of hill greater diificulty. The internal evidence of the 
poems may, and, as we have feen, occafionally do, fierve 
to contradict thofe affections, which aflign him a period 
inconfiltent with the elegance of his language, and the 
refinement of his ideas. But the number of places which 
have difputed the honour of having given him birth, ren¬ 
ders it impoflible, at this diflance of time, fatisfaCtorily to 
afeertain the precife place. To mention all the cities and 
provinces 
