A Little book of English Prose

nd the textit{Philosophert stone, since by making the Iliad pass through your poetical crucible into an English form without losing aught of its original beauty, you have drawn the golden current of Pactolus to Twickenham. I call this finding the Philosopher's stone, since you alone found out the secret, and nobody else has got into it. A n J and T 13 tried it, but their experiments failed; and they lost, if not their money, at least a certain portion of their fame in the trial?while you touched the mantle of the divine Bard, and imbibed his spirit. I hope we shall have the Odyssey soon from your happy hand, and I think I shall follow with singular pleasure 1 Addison. a Congreve. * TickelL the traveller Ulysses, who was an observer of men and manners, when he travels in your harmonious numbers. I love him much better than the hotheaded son of Peleus, who bullied his general, cried for his mistress, and so on. It is true, the excellence of the Iliad does not depend upon his merit or dignity, but I wish nevertheless that Homer had chosen a hero somewhat less pettish and less fantastick: a perfect hero is chimerical and unnatural, and consequently uninstructive; but it is also true that while the epic hero ought to be drawn with the infirmities that are the lot of humanity, he ought never to be represented as extremely absurd. But it becomes me ill to play the critick. JOSEPH BUTLER (1692-1752) HILLS OF SAND The Wise Man observes, that there...