TO HIS GRACE JOHN DUKE OF ARGYLL AND GREENWICH, &c. MY LORD, fentiments of honour and virtue, he thinks with ab horrence of all that is bafe and trifling, I may say, while he is reading, he is exalted above himself. As this is the only method by which men of genius and learning, though small perhaps my claim to either, can fhow their efteem for perfons of extraordinary merit, in a fuperior manner to the rest You, my Lord, I say, have a juft fenfe of the of mankind, I could never embrace a more fa- benefits arifing from works of genius, and will vourable opportunity to exprefs my veneration therefore pardon the zeal with which I exprefs for your Grace, than before a tranflation of fo an- myfelf concerning them: and great is the blefling, cient and valuable an author as Heliod. Your that we want not perfons who have hearts equal high defcent, and the glory of your illuftrious anto their power to cherish them: and here I muft celtors, are the weakest foundations of your praife; beg leave to pay a debt of gratitude to one, who, your own exalted worth attracts the admiration, I dare fay, is as highly thought of by all lovers of and I may say the love of all virtuous and diftin-polite learning as by myself, I mean the Earl of guifhing fouls; and to that only I dedicate the following work. The many circumstances which contributed to the railing you to the dignities which you now enjoy, and which render you deferving the greatest favours a prince can bestow; and, what is above all, which fix you ever dear in the affection of your country, will be no fmall part of the English hiftory, and fhall make the name of Argyll facred to every generation; nor is it the least part of your character, that the nation entertains the highest opinion of your tafte and judgment in the polite arts. Pembroke; whofe notes I have used in the words in which he gave them to me, and diftinguished them by a particular mark from the reft. Much would I fay in commendation of that great man ; but I am checked by the fear of offending that virtue which every one admires. The fame reafon makes me dwell lefs on the praise of your Grace than my heart inclines me to. The many obligations which I have received from a lady, of whofe virtues I can never fay too much, make it a duty in me to mention her in the moft grateful manner; and particularly before a You, my Lord, know how the works of genius tranflation, to the perfecting which I may with lift up the head of a nation above her neighbours, propriety fay fhe greatly conduced, by her kind and give it as much honour as fuccefs in arms; folicitations in my behalf, and her earreft recomamong these we must reckon our tranflations of mendation of me to several perfons of distinction. the claffics, by which, when we have naturalized I believe your Grace will not charge me with all Greece and Rome, we shall be fo much richer vanity, if I confefs myself ambitious of being in than they were by fo many original productions the least degree of favour with fo excellent a lady as we fhall have of our own. By tranflations. as the Marchionefs of Annandale. when performed by able hands, our countrymen | I fhall conclude without troubling your Grace have an opportunity of difcovering the beauties of the anciens, without the trouble and expence of learning their la guages; which are of no other advantage to us than for the authors who have writ in them; among which he poets are in the first ranic of honour, whofe veries are the delightful channels through which the belt precepts of moranty are conveyed to the mind, they have generally fomething in the fo much above 'the common fefe of mankind; and that delivered with fuch dignity of expreffion, and in fuch harmony of numbers, all which put together, confti with any more circumstances relating to myself, fincerely withing what I offer was more worthy your patronage; and at the fame time I beg it may be received as proceeding from a juft fenfe of your eminence in all that is great and laudable. I am, My Lord, with the most profound respect, tute the es divinum, that the reader is inspired with January 1728. your Grace's most obedienc, and moft humble fervant, THOMAS COOKI TWO DISCOURSES ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF HESIOD. ON THE LIFE OF HESIOD. Sec. 1. The Introduction. in the following book. I have no doubt but Le Clerc is right in the meaning of the word d; but at the fame time I think his obfervation on it trif THE lives of few perfons are confounded with foling, becaufe, if his father was reduced to poverty, many uncertainties and fabulous relations as those of Hefiod and Homer; for which reafon, what may poffibly be true, is fometimes as much difputed as the romantic part of their ftories. The firft has been more fortunate than the other, in furnishing us, from his writings, with fome circumftances of himself and family, as the condition of his father, the place of his birth, and the extent of his travels; and he has put it out of difpute, though he has not fixed the period, that he was one of the earlicht writers of whom we have any account. 2. Of his own and father's country, from bis writings. He tells us in the fecond book of his Works and Days, that his father was an inhabitant of Cuma, in one of the Eolian ifles; from whence he removed to Afcra, a village in Boeotia, at the foot of mount Helicon; which was doubtlefs the place of our poet's birth, though Suidas, Lilius Gyraldus, Fabricius, and others, fay he was of Cuma. Hefiod himself seems, and not undefignedly, to have prevented any mistake about his country; he tells us pofitively, in the fame book, he never was but once at fea, and that in a voyage from Aulis, a fea port in Boeotia, to the island Euboea. This, connected with the former paffage of his father failing from Cuma to Baotia, will leave us in no doubt concerning his country: 3. Of bis quality, from his writings. we are not to infer from thence he was never Perfe. And Frifius calls him Perfe divine. 4. A judgment of his age and quality from fiction, The genealogy likewife which the author of the contention betwixt Homer and Hefiod, gives us, very much countenances this interpretation. We are told in that work, that Linus was the fon of Apollo, and of Thoofe the daughter of Neptune; King Pierus was the son of Linus, Oeagrus of Pierus and the nymph Methone, and Orpheus of Ocagrus and the Mufe Calliope; Orpheus was the father of Othrys, Othrys of Harmonides, and Harmorides of Philoterpus; from him fprung Euphemus the father of Epiphrades, who begot Menalops the father of Dios; Hefiod and Feries were the fons of Dios by Pucamede the daughter of Apollo; Perfes was the father of Mæon, whofe daughter Crytheis bore Homer to the river Meles. the brother of Hefiod. I do not give this account Homer is here made the great grandfon of Perfes with a view it fhould be much depended on; for it is plain from the poetical etymologies of the inferences may be made from it; first, it is natural names, it is a fictitious generation; yet two ufeful have forged fuch an honourable defcent, unless it to fuppofe the author of this genealogy would not was generally believed he was of a great family; nor would he have placed him fo long before Homer, had it not been the prevailing opinion he was Of what quality his father was we are not very certain; that he was drove from Cuma to Afcra, by misfortunes, we have the teftimony of Hefiod. Some tell us he fled to avoid paying a fine; but what reason they have to imagine that I know not It is remarkable that our poet in the first book of his Works and Days, calls his brother day yvos. We are told indeed that the name of his father was Dios, of which we are not affured from any of his writings now extant; but if it was, I rather beheve, had he defigned to call his brother of the race of Dios, he would have ufed Alysons or A18 yisos; he must therefore by dio vivos intend to call him of race divine. Le Clerc obferves, on this 5. Of bis age, from Longomontanus, and the Arundelian paffage, that the old posts were always proud of firft. marble. the epithet divine: and brings an inftance from Mr. Kennet quotes the Danish aftronomer LonHomer, who ftyled the fwincherd of Ulyffes fogomontanus, who undertook to fettle the age of In the fame remark he fays, he thinks Hefiod de-Hefiod from fome lines in his Works and Days; bafes the word in his application of it, having and he made it agree with the Arundelian marble, fpoke of the neceffitous circumstances of his father which makes hini about thirty years before Homer of the age of Homer or Hefiod. The Ionic poets, Dr. Clarke obferves, had one fixed rule of making the first fyllable in xaλo; long: the Attic poets Sophocles, Euripides, and Ariftophanes, in innumerable places, he fays, make it fhort; the Doric poets do the fame: all therefore that can be inferred from this is, that Homer always used it in the Ionic manner, and Hefiod often in the Ionic, and often in the Doric. This argument of Dr. Clarke's, founded on a fingle quantity of a word, is entirely destructive of Sir Ifaac Newton's fyftem of chronology; who fixes the time of Troy being taken but thirty-four years before Hefiod flourished. Troy, he fays, was taken nine hundred and four years before Christ, and Hefiod, he fays, flourished eight hundred and feventy. This fhows Sir Ifaac Newton's opinion of the age of Hefiod in regard to his vicinity to Homer: his 8. The opinions of Justus Lipfius, and Ludolphus bringing the chronology of both fo low as he does, Neocorus confuted. Justus Lipfius, in his notes to the first book of Velleius Paterculus, fays," there is more fimpli"city, and a greater air of antiquity in the works "of Hefiod than of Homer," from which he would infer he is the older writer: and Fabricius gives us these words of Ludolphus Neocorus, who writ a critical history of Homer: "if a judgment of "the two poets is to be made from their works, "Homer has the advantage in the greater fim. "plicity and air of antiquity in his ftyle. Hefiod " is more finished and elegant." One of thefe is a flagrant inftance of the random judgment which the critics and commentators often pafs on authors, and how little dependence is to be laid on some of them. In fhort, they are both in an error; for, had they confidered through how many hands the Iliad and Odyffes have been fince they came from the first author, they would not have pretended to determine the question, who was first by their style. 9. Dr. Clarke's and Sir Ifaac Newton's opinions conjidered. is to fupport his favourite scheme of reducing all to fcripture chronology. 10. A thousand years before Chrift. After all, it is univerfally agreed he was before, or at least cotemporary with Homer; but I think we have more reafon to believe him the older; and Mr. Pope, after all the authorities he could find in behalf of Homer, fixes his decifion on the Arundelian marble. To enter into all the dif putes which have been on this head, would be endlefs and unneceffary; but we may venture to place him a thousand years before Chrift, without exceeding an hundred, perhaps, on either fide. 11. Some circumflances of bis life from his writings. Having thus far agreed to his parents, his country, and the time in which he rofe, our next busi nefs is to trace him in fuch of his actions as are discoverable; and here we have nothing certain but what occurs to us in his works. That he tended his own flocks on mount Helicon, and there first received his notions of poetry, is very proba. ble from the beginning of his Theogony; but what he there fays of the mufes appearing to him¡ and giving him a fceptre of laurel, I país over as a poetical flight. It likewife appears, from the first book of his Works and Days, that his father left fome effects, when he died, on the division of which his brother Perfes defrauded him, by brib Dr. Samuel Clarke (who was indeed a perfon of much more extenfive learning and nicer difcernment than either Neocorus or Lipfius) bas founded an argument for the antiquity of Homer on a quantity of the word nanos: in his note on the 434 verfe of the ad book of the Iliad, he ob-ing the judges. He was fo far from being pro ferves, that Homer has ufed the word xxλos in the Iliad and Odyffey above two hundred and seventy times, and has in every place made the first fyllable long, whereas Hefiod frequently makes it long, and often short: and Theocritus ufes it both long and fhort in the fame verfe; from which our learned critic infers that Hefiod could not be cotemporary with Homer (unless, fays he, they spoke different languages in different parts of the country) but much later; because he takes it for granted, that the liberty of making the first fyllable of * fhort was long after Homer; who ufes the word above two hundred and feventy times, and never has the firft fyllable fhort. This is a curious piece of criticism, but productive of no certainty voked to any act of resentment by this injustice, that he expreffed a concern for thofe poor mistaken mortals, who placed their happiness in riches only, even at the expence of their virtue. He lets us know, in the fome poem, that he was not only above want, but capable of affifting his brother in time of need; which he often did after the ill usage he had met with from him. The laft paffage, relating to himself, is his conqueft in a poetical contention. Amphidamas, king of Eubœa, had inftituted funeral games in honour of his own memo ry, which his fons afterwards faw performed Hefiod here was competitor for the prize in poe * In bis chrenology of ancient kingdoms amended, |