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 the same _Apology_ for him, as _Strabo_[A] do's on another account for his _Geography_, [Greek: ou gar kat' agnoian ton topikon legetai, all' haedonaes kai terpseos charin]. That he said it, not thro' Ignorance, but to please and delight: Or, as in another place he expresses himself,[B] [Greek: ou gar kat' agnoian taes istorias hypolaepteon genesthai touto, alla tragodias charin]. _Homer_ did not make this slip thro' Ignorance of the true _History_, but for the Beauty of his _Poem_. So that tho' he calls them _Men Pygmies_, yet he may mean no more by it, than that they were like _Men_. As to his Purpose, 'twill serve altogether as well, whether this bloody Battle be fought between the _Cranes_ and _Pygmæan Men_, or the _Cranes_ and _Apes_, which from their Stature he calls _Pygmies_, and from their shape _Men_; provided that when the _Cranes_ go to engage, they make a mighty terrible noise, and clang enough to fright these little _Wights_ their mortal Enemies. To have called them only _Apes_, had been flat and low, and lessened the grandieur of the Battle. But this _Periphrasis_ of them, [Greek: andres pygmaioi], raises the Reader's Phancy, and surprises him, and is more becoming the Language of an Heroic Poem. [Footnote A: _Strabo Geograph_. lib. 1. p.m. 25.] [Footnote B: _Strabo_ ibid. p.m. 30.]