Cardan[A] therefore must
certainly be out in his guess, that _Aristotle_ only asserted the
_Pygmies_ out of Complement to his friend _Homer_; for surely then he
would not have forgot their fight with the _Cranes_; upon which occasion
only _Homer_ mentions them.[B] I should rather think that _Aristotle_,
being sensible of the many Fables that had been raised on this occasion,
studiously avoided the mentioning this fight, that he might not give
countenance to the Extravagant Relations that had been made of it.
[Footnote A: _Cardan de Rerum varietate_, lib. 8. cap. 40. p.m. 153.]
[Footnote B: _Apparet ergo_ (saith _Cardan_) Pygmaeorum Historiam esse
fabulosam, quod &_ Strabo _sentit & nosira aetas, cum omnia nunc ferme
orbis mirabilia innotuerint, declarat. Sed quod tantum Philosophum
decepit, fuit Homeri Auctoritas non apud illium levis.]
But I wonder that neither _Casaubon_ nor _Duvall_ in their Editions of
_Aristotle_'s Works, should have taken notice of these Mistakes of _Gaza_,
and corrected them.
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