ust necessarily lead them into Mistakes. _Sam.
Bochartus_[A] tho' he gives _Aristotle_'s Text in Greek, and adds a new
Translation of it, he leaves out indeed the _Cranes_ fighting with the
_Pygmies_, yet makes them _Men_, which _Aristotle_ do's not; and by
anti-placing, _ut aiunt_, he renders _Aristotle_'s Assertion more dubious;
_Neque enim_ (saith he in the Translation) _id est fabula, sed revera, ut
aiunt, Genus ibi parvum est tam Hominum quam Equorum. Julius Caesar
Scaliger_ in translating this Text of _Aristotle_, omits both these
Interpretations of _Gaza_; but on the other hand is no less to be blamed
in not translating at all the most remarkable passage, and where the
Philosopher seems to be so much in earnest; as, [Greek: ou gar esti touto
mythos, all' esti kata taen alaetheian], this he leaves wholly out,
without giving us his reason for it, if he had any: And Scaliger's[B]
insinuation in his Comment, _viz. Negat esse fabulam de his (sc. Pygmeis)_
Herodotus, _at Philosophus semper moderatus & prudens etiam addidit_,
[Greek: hosper legetai], is not to be allowed. Nor can I assent to Sir
_Thomas Brown_'s[C] remark upon this place; _Where indeed_ (saith he)
Aristotle _plays the_ Aristotle; _that is, the wary and evading asserter;
for tho' with_ non est fabula _he seems at first to confirm it, yet at
last he claps in,_ sicut aiunt, _and shakes the belief he placed before
upon it. And therefore_ Scaliger (saith he) _hath not translated the
first, perhaps supposing it surreptitious, or unworthy so great an
Assertor._ But had _Scaliger_ known it to be surreptitious, no doubt but
he would have remarked it; and then there had been some Colour for the
Gloss. But 'tis unworthy to be believed of _Aristotle_, who was so wary
and cautious, that he should in so short a passage, contradict himself:
and after he had so positively affirmed the Truth of it, presently doubt
it. His [Greek: hosper legetai] therefore must have a Reference to what
follows, _Pusillum genus, ut aiunt, ipsi atque etiam Equi_, as _Scaliger_
himself translates it.

[Footnote A: _Bocharti Hierozoic. S. de Animalib. S. Script. part.
Posterior_. lib. 1. cap. 11. p.m. 76.]

[Footnote B: _Scaliger. Comment. in Arist. Hist. Animal._ lib. 8. p.m.
914.]

[Footnote C: Sir _Thomas Brown_'s _Pseudodoxia_, or, _Enquiries into
Vulgar Errors_, lib. 4. cap. 11.]

I do not here find _Aristotle_ asserting or confirming any thing of the
fabulous Narrations that had be