This great Antiquary could bring us to a certainty in all the difficulties of ancient story, and tell us whether the tale of the siege of _Troy_, and the rape of _Helen_ was a fable of _Homer_ or a history; whether the fictions of the Poets are form'd from their own brain, or founded in facts; and whether letters were invented by _Cadmus_ the _Phoenician_, or dictated immediately from _Heaven_ at mount _Sinai_.
Nay, he could tell us how and in what manner he wheedled _Eve_, deluded _Adam_, put _Cain_ into a passion, till he made him murther his own brother; and made _Noah_, who was above 500 years a preacher of righteousness, turn Sot in his old age, dishonour all his ministry, debauch himself with wine, and by getting drunk and exposing himself, become the jest and laughing-stock of his children, and of all his posterity to this day.
And would Satan, according to the modern practice of the late right reverend Historian, enter into the characters of the great men of his age, how should we be diverted with the just history of _Adam_, in paradise and out of it; his character, and how he behaved at and after his expulsion; how _Cain_ wandered in the land of _Nod_, what the mark was which _God_ set upon him, whose daughter his wife was, and how big the city was he built there, according to a certain Poet of noble extraction,
How _Cain_ in the land of _Nod_ When the rascal was alone Like an owl in an ivy tod Built a city as big as _Roan_.
He could have certainly drawn _Eve_'s picture, told us every feature in her face, and every inch in her shape, whether she was a perfect beauty or no, and whether with the fall she did grow crooked, ugly, ill-natur'd and a scold; as the learned _Valdemar_ suggests to be the effects of the curse.
Descending to the character of the Patriarchs in that age, he might, no doubt, give us in particular the characters of _Belus_, worship'd under the name of _Baal_; with _Satan_, and _Jupiter_, his successors; who they were here, and how they behaved; with all the _Pharaohs_ of _Egypt_, the _Abimilechs_ of _Canaan_, and the great monarchs of _Assyria_ and _Babylon_.
Hence also he is able to write the lives of all the Heroes of the world, from _Alexander_ of _Macedon_ to _Lewis_ the XIV. and from _Augustus_ to the great King _George_; nor could the Bishop himself go beyond him for flattery, any more than the Devil himself could go beyond the Bishop for falshood.