The Iliad of Homer - Get a Free Blog

the capabilities of the same gentleman,
be he Seneca or not, to produce not only
these, but a great many more equally bad.
With equal sagacity, Father Hardouin astonished
the world with the startling announcement
that the Æneid of Virgil, and
the satires of Horace, were literary deceptions.
Now, without wishing to say
one word of disrespect against the industry
and learning—nay, the refined
acuteness—which scholars, like Wolf,
have bestowed upon this subject, I must
express my fears, that many of our modern
Homeric theories will become matter
for the surprise and entertainment, rather
than the instruction, of posterity. Nor can
I help thinking, that the literary history of
more recent times will account for many
points of difficulty in the transmission of
the Iliad and Odyssey to a period so remote
from that of their first creation.