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They were so weak as to think that the city Canobus had its name from a pilot of Menelaus, and that even Memphis was built by Epaphos of "Argos. There surely was never any nation so incurious and indifferent about truth. Hence have arisen those contradictions and inconsist ences with which their history is 24 embarrassed.

It may appear ungracious, and I am sure it is far from a pleasing task to point out blemishes in a people of so refined a turn as the Grecians, whose ingenuity and elegance have been admired for ages. Nor would I engage in a display of this kind, were it not necessary to shew their prejudices and mistakes, in order to remedy their failures. On our part we have been too much. accustomed to take in the gross with little or no examination, whatever they have been pleased to transmit and there is no method of discovering the truth but by shewing wherein they failed, and pointing out the mode of error, the line of deviation. By unravelling the clue, we may be at last led to see things in their original state, and to reduce their mythology to order. That

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Apollodorus. 1. 2. p. 62. Clemens. 1. 1. Strom. p. 383 from Aristippus.

*See Josephus contra Apion. 1. 1. c. 3. p. 439.

my censures are not groundless, nor carried to an undue degree of severity, may be proved from the like accusations from some of their best writers; who accuse them both of ignorance and forgery. 25 Hecatæus, of Miletus, acknowledges, that the traditions of the Greeks were as ridiculous as they were numerous: 26 and Philo confesses that he could obtain little intelligence from that quarter: that the Grecians had brought a mist upon learning, so that it was impossible to discover the truth he therefore applied to people of other countries for information, from whom only it could be obtained. Plato owned that the most genuine

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Ελληνων λογοι πολλοι και γελοιοι, ως εμοι φαίνονται. Αpud Jamblichum-See notes. p. 295.

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Πολυν αυτος επήγον τυφον, ὡς μη ραδίως τινα συνόραν τα κατ' αληθεια» γενόμενα. He therefore did not apply to Grecian learningΟυ την παρ Ελλησι, διαφωνος γας μαλλον, η προς αληθειαν συντεθεισα. c. ix. p. 32.

αυτη και φιλονεικοτερον ὑπ' ενίων Philo apud Euseb. Ρ. Ε. 1. 1.

See the same writer of their love of allegory. p. 32.

27 Πλατων εκ αρνείται τα καλλισα εις φιλοσοφίαν παρα των βαρβαρών EμTOREVE ba. Clemens Alexand. Strom. 1. 1. p. 355.

-Κλεπτας της βαρβαρες φιλοσοφιας Ελληνας. Clemens Alexand Strom. 1. 2. p. 428.

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Clemens accuses the Grecians continually for their ignorance and vanity: yet Clemens is said to have been an Athenian, though he lived at Alexandria. He sacrificed all prejudices to the truth, as far as he could obtain it.

helps to philosophy were borrowed from those who by the Greeks were styled barbarous: and 28 Jamblichus gives the true reason for the preferences The Helladians, says this writer, are ever waters ing and unsettled in their principles, and are. carried about by the least impulse. They want › steadiness; and if they obtain any salutary knowl ledge, they cannot retain it; nay, they quit it with a kind of eagerness; and, whatever they do admit, they new mould and fashion, according to some novel and uncertain mode of reasoning. But people of other countries are more determinate in their principles, and abide more uniformly by the very terms which they have traditionally received. They are represented in the same light by Theo philus 29 he says, that they wrote merely for empty praise, and were so blinded with *vanity, that they neither discovered the truth theirselves, nor encouraged others to pursue it. Hence Tati

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Έλληνες εισι νεοτροποι, και αττοντες φέρονται πανταχής ἔχοντες ἑρμα εν ἑαυτοις, εδ' οπερ. δέξωνται παρα τικων διαφύλατ τοντες αλλά και τετο οξέως αφέντες παντα κατα την αφατον Ευρεσιά λογιαν μεταπλάττεσι. Βαρβαροι δε μονιμοι τους ήθεσιν οντες, και τοις λόγοις βεβαίως τους αυτοις εμμενεσι. Jamblichus. sect. 7. c. 5. p.155.

29 Δόξης γαρ κενης και ματαια παντες ουτοι ερασθέντες, ουτε αυτοι τὸ αλήθες εγνωσαν, ούτε μεν αλλες επι την αλήθειαν προετρέψαντο. Theo philus ad Autol. 1. 3. p. 382.

anus says, with great truth, " that the writers of other countries were strangers to that vanity with which the Grecians were infected: that they were more simple and uniform, and did not encourage themselves in an affected variety of notions.

In respect to foreign history, and geographical knowledge, the Greeks, in general, were very ignorant: and the writers, who, in the time of the Roman Empire, began to make more accurate inquiries, met with insuperable difficulties from the mistakes of those who had preceded. I know no censure more severe and just than that which Strabo has passed upon the historians and geographers of Greece, and of its writers in general. In speaking of the Asiatic nations, he assures us, that there never had been any account transmitted of them upon which we can depend. "Some of these nations, says this judi

30 Παρ ήμιν δε της κενοδοξίας ο ίμερος εκ εσι' δογματων δε ποικιλίαις καταχρώμεθα. Tatianus contra Græcos. p. 269.

31 Τους μεν Σάκας, τους δε Μασσαγετας εκάλουν, εκ εχοντες ακριβως λεγειν περί αυτών ουδέν, και περ προς Μασσαγετας τον Κυρε πολεμον 15ο φουντες αλλά ούτε περι τουτων ουδείς ηκρίβωτο προς αληθειαν ουδέν, στε τα παλαια των Περσών, ούτε των Μηδικων, η Συριακών, ες πίςιν αφικνείτο μεγάλην δια την των συγγραφέων απλότητα και την φιλομυθίαν, Όρωντες γαρ τους φανέρως μυθογράφους ευδοκιμούντας, ώήθησαν και αυτές παρέξεστ θαι την γραφην ήδειαν, εαν εν ισορίας σχηματι λεγωσιν, ο μηδεποτε είδον, ειδότων σκοπόντες δι δε μόνον τέτο, αυτο

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cious writer, the Grecians have called Saca, and others Massageta, without having the least light to determine them. And though they have pretended to give a history of Cyrus, and his particular wars with those who were called Massagetæ, yet nothing precise and satisfactory could ever be obtained; not even in respect to the war. There is the same uncertainty in respect to the antient history of the Persians, as well as to that of the Medes and Syrians. We can meet with little that can be deemed authentic, on account of the weakness of those who wrote, and their uniform love of fable. For, finding that wri

ακρόασιν ήδειαν έχει, και θαυμαςην. Ραδίως δ' αν τις Ἡσιόδω και Όμηρω πιςεύσειεν Ηρωολογεσι, και τοις τραγικοίς Ποιηταις, ο Κτησια τε και Ηροδοτῳ, και Ελλανικῳ, και άλλους τοιύτοις. Ουδε τοις περι Αλεξανδρου δε συγγράψασιν ῥᾳδιον πιςεύειν τοις πολλοις· και γαρ όυτω ῥαδιεργασι δια τε την δόξαν Αλεξανδρο, και δια το την τρατείαν προς τας εσχατίας γεγονέναι της Ασίας πορρω αφ' ἡμων· το δη πορρω δυσελεγτον. Strabo. 1. 11. p. 774.

Græcis Historicis plerumque poeticæ similem esse licentiam. Quinctilianus. 1. 11. c. 11.

quicquid Græcia mendax

Audet in Historia. Juvenal.

Strabo of the antient Grecian historians: Δεν δε των παλαιών ισορίων ακούειν όντως, ὡς μη ὁμολογουμένων σφόδρα. οι γαρ νεώτεροι πολι

λάκις νομίζεσι και τ' αναντία λεγειν. 1. 8. p. 545.

Παντες μεν γαρ δι περι Αλεξανδρον το θαύμαζον αντι τ' αληθώς αποδε χονται μαλλον. Strabo. 1. 15. p. 1022,

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