48 



REV. PROFESSOR D. S. MARGOLIOUTB, D.LITT., ON 



the principle of Life ; to this principle he assigns parents, 

 Cronos and Rhea ; the latter name is (as indeed Plato observed) 

 simply the Greek word for currents, whereas the former is only 

 a dialectic variant of one which signifies fountain-head. There 

 is no reason for supposing that either of these deities had been 

 known before. The allegory is, therefore, as little disguised as 

 in the names of the Pilgrim's Progress ; the ultimate analysis of 

 the phenomenon of life into a fountain-head and currents 

 implies at least some speculation on this subject. And the 

 names of the parent deities would no more accidentally mean 

 these things than the letters of the cryptograms could accident- 

 ally furnish two sets of verses. It can be shown that the chief 

 ideas of the Aristotelian philosophy were learned from the 

 Homeric poems by their ablest interpreter. For, indeed, the 

 comments of Aristotle which have been preserved indicate a 

 greater grasp of the structure and purpose of the Iliad and the 

 Odyssey than is exhibited by any other student of them. 



There appears to have been no time at which free criticism of 

 these poems was forbidden, and though Homer is pre-eminently 

 the Poet, he is often treated as the first among equals ; yet, he 

 was never actually dethroned, and the place which his works 

 occupy among the Hellenes scarcely differs from that which 

 the Koran claims among Moslems. That fame was then won 

 because it was deserved. He was not superseded because he 

 was neither surpassed nor even equalled. And this was because 

 his productions were not naive, but in the highest degree mature : 

 not improvised, but the fruit of toilsome reflexion and elaboration. 

 In this case as in others the time spent on the production 

 has paid its interest in the preservation of the fruit. 



Appendix. 

 Prologue and Preface of the Odyssey. 



1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 



AN AP AM 01 EN NE I1E MO Y2 An OA YT PO HO NO SM AA An OA A A 



nA Ar xo he nE it po ih si ep on nT oaie op on En ep se 



no AA QN AA NO PO no NI AE NA 2T EA KA IN 00 NE T NQ 



no A A AA Or EN no NT 01 1IA 0E NA Ar EA ON KA TA OY M ON 



AP NY ME NO SH NT E* YX HN KA IN OS TO NE TA IP ON 



A A AO YA OS ET AP OY SE PP YS AT 01 EM EN OS U EP 



AY TO Nr AP S0> ET EP HI SI NA TA SO AA IH IS IN OA ON TO 



MI III 01 01 KA TA BO YS Yn EP 10 NO SH EA 10 10 



HS 01 ON AY TA PO TO IS IN A$ EI AE TO NO ST IM ON HM AP 



TO NA MO OE Nr E0 EA OY TA TE PA 10 SE in EK AI HM IN 



