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rdingly endeavour to make it appear, that not only the _Pygmies_ of the Ancients, but also the _Cynocephali_, and _Satyrs_ and _Sphinges_ were only _Apes_ or _Monkeys_, not _Men_, as they have been represented. But the Story of the _Pygmies_ being the greatest Imposture, I shall chiefly concern my self about them, and shall be more concise on the others, since they will not need so strict an Examination. We will begin with the Poet _Homer_, who is generally owned as the first Inventor of the Fable of the _Pygmies_, if it be a Fable, and not a true Story, as I believe will appear in the Account I shall give of them. Now _Homer_ only mentions them in a _Simile_, wherein he compares the Shouts that the _Trojans_ made, when they were going to joyn Battle with the _Graecians_, to the great Noise of the _Cranes_, going to fight the _Pygmies_: he saith,[A] [Greek: Ai t' epei oun cheimona phygon, kai athesphaton ombron Klangae tai ge petontai ep' okeanoio rhoaon 'Andrasi pygmaioisi phonon kai kaera pherousai.] i.e. _Quae simul ac fugere Imbres, Hyememque Nivalem Cum magno Oceani clangore ferantur ad undas Pygmaeis pugnamque Viris, caedesque ferentes._ [Footnote A: _Homer. Iliad_. lib. 3. ver. 4.] Or as _Helius Eobanus Hessus_ paraphrases the whole.[A] _Postquam sub Ducibus digesta per agmina stabant Quaeque fuis, Equitum turmae, Peditumque Cohortes, Obvia torquentes Danais vestigia Troes Ibant, sublato Campum clamore replentes: Non secus ac cuneata Gruum sublime volantum Agmina, dum fugiunt Imbres, ac frigora Brumae, Per Coelum matutino clangore feruntur, Oceanumque petunt, mortem exitiumque cruentum Irrita Pigmaeis moturis arma ferentes._ [Footnote A: _Homeri Ilias Latino Carmine reddita ab Helio Eobano Hesso_.] By [Greek: andrasi pygmaioisi] therefore, which is the Passage upon which they have grounded all their fabulous Relations of the _Pygmies_, why may not _Homer_ mean only _Pygmies_ or _Apes_ like _Men_. Such an Expression is very allowable in a _Poet_, and is elegant and significant, especially since there is so good a Foundation in Nature for him to use it, as we have already seen, in the _Anatomy of the Orang-Outang_. Nor is a _Poet_ tied to that strictness of Expression, as an _Historian_ or _Philosopher_; he has the liberty of pleasing the Reader's Phancy, by Pictures and Representations of his own. If there be a becoming likeness, 'tis all that he is accountable for. I might therefore here make
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