The Iliad of Homer - Get a Free Blog

The minutiae of verbal criticism I am far
from seeking to despise. Indeed, considering
the character of some of my own
books, such an attempt would be gross
inconsistency. But, while I appreciate its
importance in a philological view, I am
inclined to set little store on its aesthetic
value, especially in poetry. Three parts
of the emendations made upon poets are
mere alterations, some of which, had
they been suggested to the author by his
Maecenas or Africanus, he would probably
have adopted. Moreover, those who
are most exact in laying down rules of
verbal criticism and interpretation, are
often least competent to carry out their
own precepts. Grammarians are not poets
by profession, but may be so per accidens.
I do not at this moment remember
two emendations on Homer, calculated to
substantially improve the poetry of a passage,
although a mass of remarks, from
Herodotus down to Loewe, have given us