We may here observe how positive the Philosopher is, that there are Pygmies; he tells us where they dwell, and that ’tis no Fable, but a Truth.  But Theodorus Gaza has been unjust in translating him, by foisting in, Quo in loco pugnare cum Pygmaeis dicuntur, whereas there is nothing in the Text that warrants it:  As likewise, where he expresses the little Stature of the Pygmies and the Horses, there Gaza has rendered it, Sed certe Genus tum Hominum, tum etiam Equorum pusillum. Aristotle only saith, [Greek:  Genos mikron men hosper legetai, kai autoi, kai hoi hippoi].  He neither makes his Pygmies Men, nor saith any thing of their fighting the Cranes; tho’ here he had a fair occasion, discoursing of the Migration of the Cranes out of Scythia to the Lakes above AEgypt, where he tells us the Pygmies are.  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.  And Gesner, and Aldrovandus, and several other Learned Men, in quoting this place of Aristotle, do make use of this faulty Translation, which must 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: