Page:Proofs of the Enquiry into Homer's Life and Writings.pdf/106

Rh Homer'* Life and Writings. Here the Dolopian Band? Achilles there Display'd his Tent ; the Place this of the Fleet ; And this the Plain where oft the Battlejoin'd. Or as it is fancied by a softer Poet,

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Here fiow'd Simoi's, down this fiow'ry Mead ; Therefair Sigeum'i Promontory run ; , Here Priam'j Palace rear'd its lofty Head $ And there encamp'd the mighty Peleus' Son : Here flood Ulysses' Tent ; and there the Corse Of mangled Hector fcar'd thefiying Horse. Ovid. This Writing fully proved, that Homer's Ac counts of the Field of Battle, and of the various Actions between the Greeks and Trojans were not fictitious ; but that they really corresponded with the true State of Land and Water round about Troy : So that in this respect the Poem may be considered as an exact History ; and in deed the great Mixture of Truth throughout the whole Narration, the accurate Descriptions both of Places and Persons had such an Effect upon Mankind, that no historic Facts were more firmly believed than those fung by the Writer of the Trojan War. The Belief of them was so rooted in Mens Minds, that they are pitched upon by the Philojbphic Poet, as the most likely to seduce us into an Opinion, that an Action is a real Being., existing by itself, di stinct

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