The Works of Monsieur Boileau Volume . 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1711 Excerpt: ...Homer made ule of, to express the Setting of the Sun. This is confirm'd by Hejychius, who explains the Word T ?jnti by that of A/Wf which undoubtedly signifies Setting. 'Tis true, there's an Old Commentator, who has made a Little Note, that Homer by these Words, wou'd also (hew there was a Bower in this Tste, where the Turns of the Sua were (hewn. One cannot very well tell what this Commentator means; he being as Obscure as Homer is clear: But 'tis certain, neither he nor any one else ever pretended Homer meant that the Isle of Syros was situated under the Tropick; and that this Great Poet was never attack'd nor defended on account of such an Error; because it was never laid to his Charge. Monsieur Perrault, who as I have shewn already by so many Proofs, does not understand Greek, and knows so little of Geography, that in one of his Works, he places the River Mxinder, and consequently Phrygia and Troy in Greece: Monsieur Perrault, I say, is the only Man, into whose Head such a Chimerical Idea ever came; perhaps conceiv'd upon reading the Miserable Note of some Wretched Pedant; on which he accuses a Poet, allow'd by all the Ancient Geographers as the Father of Geography, of placing thejfle of Syros and the Mediterranean Sea under the Tropick: A Fault, a School-boy wou'd not have committed And he not only accuses him of it, but supposes 'cis a thing acknowledg'd by all the World; and the Interpreters have in vain, fays he, endeavour'd to expound it, bv applying it to the Sun-dial, which Pkerecyies, who Liv'd three Hundred Years after Homer made in the Isle of Syros; yet, Euftatbiies the only Commentator who understood Homer perfectly well, says nothing of this interpretation, which cou'd not have been impos'd on Homer, but by some ridiculous Commentator ...