[6] v. 39.
[7] iv. 527., vi. 7.
[8] v. 576., xiii. 658.
Grote also objects to the modifications of Lachmann, and in the following words:
"The advocates of the Wolfian theory appear to feel the difficulties which beset it: for their language is wavering in respect to these supposed primary atoms.... I will add in respect to his [Lachmann's] dissertations, so instructive as a microscopic examination of the poem, 1. That I find myself constantly dissenting from that critical feeling on the strength of which he cuts out parts as interpolations, and discovers traces of the hands of distinct poets: 2. That his objections against the continuity of the narrative are often founded upon lines which the ancient scholiasts and Mr. Payne Knight had already pronounced to be interpolations: 3. That such of his objections as are founded upon lines undisputed admit, in many cases, of a complete and satisfactory reply."[9]
[9] Hist. of Greece, vol. ii. p. 232. n. 1.
Grote's own opinions on the subject are difficult to arrive at, but what he has said is mostly true. These three different views of the Homeric controversy have, as I have said, occupied the world since thinking on the subject began; each hypothesis has found most able, critical, and quibbling adherents and opponents, each affirming and proving, after his own way, what the others denied and scouted.
There is another author who has likewise discussed the subject of Homer, and in a way more attractive to the general reader; and that is the finely-feeling and learned Walter Savage Landor, in his Pericles and Aspasia. Speaking in the person of Pericles, he says:—[10]
"I have no paradox to maintain, no partiality to defend. Some tell us there were twenty Homers; some deny that there was ever one. It were idle and foolish to shake the contents of a vase in order to let them settle at last. We are perpetually labouring to destroy our delights, our composure, our devotion to superior power. Of all the animals on earth we least know what is good for us. My opinion is, that what is best for us is our admiration of good. No man living venerates Homer more than I do. He was the only author I read when I was a boy; for our teachers are usually of opinion that wisdom and poetry are, like fruits for children, unwholesome, if too fresh. Simonides had indeed grown somewhat sound; Pindar was heating; Æschylus ... ay, but Æschylus was almost at the next door. Homer then nourished my fancy, animated my dreams, awoke me in the morning, marched with me, sailed with me, taught me morals, taught me language, taught me music, and philosophy, and war."
[10] Pericles and Aspasia, Letter LXXXIV.—Works, vol. ii. p. 387.