truth is fo amiable in itself, that even where it is of least importance there is a pleasure in the search after it, and a fatisfaction in the vindication of it.

Tho' the beauties of this enfuing poem, in the original, want not even the name of Homer to recommend them, and much lefs does that mighty name stand in need of their reputation, yet if they are his, it is an injuftice to him to ascribe them to any other; and it is a hardship to them to deprive them of the authority due to them, and to leave them to make their way thro' bad judgments purely by their own merit.

I will not trouble the reader with the inquiry my curiofity led me to make in this matter; I will only give him one reafon, of many, why thefe Hymns niay be received for genuine. The most suspected of them all is that to Apollo. (As for this to Venus, it were almost enough to induce us to conclude it legitimate, to obferve that Lucretius thought it not below him to copy from the beginning of it the beginning of his own admirable poem.)

The Hymn to Apollo has been fuppofed to have been written by one Cynæthus of Chios, who was a famous repeater of Homer's verfes*. To obviate

*After the decease of Homer, there were such persons who made a profeffion of repeating his verses; from the repetitions of whom, and of their defcendants or fucceffors, (for they became a fect) the entire poems of Homer, in after times, were collected and put in order. These were called Homerifiæ, or Homerida: of whom fee Aelian. Var. Hift. L. 13. c. 14, Athenæ. L. 1. 5. 14 Strabo, L. 14. Pindar Nem, ode 2. Cœlius Polig. L. 7. c. 19.

which fuppofition we only reply, that this very Hymn to Apollo is quoted twice by Thucydides, in the third book of his hiftory, and expressly quoted as the work of Homer.

After bis fecond quotation, which confiits of about half a score verfes, Thucydides observes, that in those verfes Homer has made mention of himself: hence it is beyond question Thucydidcs believed, or rather was affured, it was the work of Homer. He might be very well morally affured of it, for he lived within four hundred years of Homer*, and that is no diftance of time to render the knowledge of fuch things either uncertain or obfcure in fuch a' country as Grecce, and to a man of fuch learning, power, and wisdom, as our author. The learned Cafaubon, in his comment on a paffage in the first book of Strabof, takes the liberty to diffent from Strabo, and cites, as authority against him, part of the quotation made by Thucydides from the aforementioned Hymn of Homer. Strabo fays, Homer has made no mention of what country he was. In one of the verfes cited by Thucydides, Homer calls himself "The blind man "of rocky Chios‡ "Cafaubon's note is as follows: In

Herodotus fays of himself, in Euterpe, he was but four hundred years after tiomer. Thucydides was contemporary with Herodotus.

+ Strab. lib. I. p. 30.

The original fays" The blind man who lives in "rocky or fandy Chios, and whofe poems thall be in highest "efteem to all pofterity:" which indeed only proves that he dwelt there, not that he was born there.

Hymno Apollonis quem ego cur debeamus berev contra autoritatem Thucydidis, caufam nullam fatis magnam video: in eo inquam hymno, bai de fe Homerus, &c.

Now, whether it be more reasonable, by the example of fo learned a man as Cafaubon, to give credit to the authority of Thucydides, the most grave, wife, faithful, and confummate hiftorian that ever wrote, or to give into the fcruples, conje&ures, and fuggeftions of fcholiafts and grammarians, I leave to the determination of each impartial reader.

SING, Mufe! the force and all-informing fire
Of Cyprian Venus, goddess of defire;

Her charms th' immortal minds of gods can move,
And tame the stubborn race of men to love:
The wilder herds and rav'nous beasts of prey
Her influence feel, and own her kindly fway :}
Thro' pathlefs air and boundless ocean's space
She rules the feather'd kind and finny race:
Whole Nature on her fole fupport depends,
And far as life exifts her care extends.

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Of all the num'rous hoft of gods above, But three are found inflexible to love; Blue-ey'd Minerva free preferves her heart, A virgin unbeguil'd by Cupid's art; In fhining arms the martial maid delights, O'er war prefides, and well-difputed fights; With thirst of fame the firft the hero fir'd, And first the skill of ufeful arts infpir'd; Taught artists first the carving tool to wield, Chariots with brass to arm, and form the finceful She first taught modest maids in early bloom (shield; To fhun the lazy life, and spin, or ply the loom. Diana next the Paphian queen defies, Her fmiling arts and proffer'd friendship flies; She loves with well-mouth'dhoundsandcheerfulhorn, Or filver-founding voice, to wake the Morn,

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To draw the bow, or dart the pointed fpear, [deer:
To wound the mountain boar, or rouse the woodland
Sometimes of gloomy groves the likes the fhades,
And there of virgin-nymphs the chorus leads;
And fometimes feeks the town, and leaves the plains,
And loves fociety where Virtue reigns.

The third celeftial pow'r averfe to love

Is Virgin Vefta, dear to mighty Jove,

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Whom Neptune fought to wed, and Phœbus woo'd, And both with fruitless labour long purfu'd;

For fhe, feverely chaste, rejected both,

And bound her purpose with a folemn oath,
A virgin life inviolate to lead;

She wore, and Jove affenting bow'd his head.
But fince her rigid choice the joys deny'd
Of nuptial rites, and bleffings of a bride,
The bounteous Jove with gifts that want supply'd.
High on a throne fhe fits amidft the skies,
And first is fed with fumes of facrifice;
For holy rites to Vefta first are paid,
And on her altar firil-fruit off'rings laid;

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40

45

So Jove ordain'd in honour of the maid.

These are the pow'rs above, and only thefe,

Whom love and Cytherea's arts difplease:

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Of other beings none in earth or fkies

Her force refifts or influence denies.

With cafe her charms the 'hunderer can bind,
And captivate with love th' almighty Mind: