l I had handled all the
body of my lord." Therewithal she looked toward Penelope, as
minded to make a sign and the rest.

For here more things are shown than can be in a picture and those can be
weighed by the eyes. They are not to be taken in by the eyes, but by the
intelligence alone: such as the letting go of the foot through emotion,
the sound of the tears, the spilt water and the grief, and at the same
time the joy of the old women, her words to Odysseus, and what she
is about to say as she looks toward Penelope. Many other things are
graphically revealed in the poet which come out when he is read.

It is time to close a work which we have woven, like a crown from a
beflowered and variegated field, and which we offer to Muses. And we,
we shall not lay it to the heart if any one censures us, because the
Homeric poems contain the basis of evil things, if we ascribe to him
various political, ethical, and scientific discussions. Since good
things are by themselves simple, straightforward, and unprepared;
but what is mixed with evil has many different modes and all kinds of
combinations, from which the substance of the matter is derived. If evil
is added to the others, the knowledge and choice of the good is made
easier. And on the whole a subject of this sort gives occasion to the
poet for originating discourse of all kinds, some belonging to himself,
some proper to the characters he introduces. From this circumstance be
gives much profit to his readers. Why should we not ascribe to Homer
every excellence? Those things that he did not work up, they who came
after him have noticed. And some make use of his verses for divination,
like the oracles of God. Others setting forward other projects fit to
them for our use what he has said by changing or transposing it.

END OF TWELVE--------------

THE BANQUET OF THE SEVEN WISE MEN.

THE SEVEN,--SOLON, DIAS, THALES, ANACHARSIS, CLEOBULUS, PITTACUS, CHILO.

NILOXENUS, EUMETIS, ALEXIDEMUS PERIANDER, ARDALUS, AESOP, CLEODEMUS,
MNESIPHILUS, CHERSIAS, GORGIAS, DIOCLES.

DIOCLES TO NICARCHUS

No wonder, my friend Nicarchus, to find old truths so disguised, and
the words and actions of men so grossly and misrepresented and lamely
delivered, seeing people are so disposed to give ear and credit to
fictions of yesterday's standing. For there were not merely seven
present at that feast, as you were informed; there were more than double
the number. I was there m