Breed thou the boy as doth become
Both Hercules's race and us;

and Anaxarchus who, being pelted with apples by Alexander at supper,
rose up and said,

Some god shall wounded be by mortal hand.
(Euripides, "Orestes," 271.)

But that Corinthian captive boy excelled all, who, when the city was
destroyed, and Mummius, taking a survey of all the free-born children
that understood letters, commanded each to write a verse, wrote thus:--

Thrice, four times blest, the happy Greeks that fell.
("Odyssey," v. 306.)

For they say that Mummius was affected with it, wept and gave all the
free-born children that were allied to the boy their liberty. And some
mentioned the wife of Theodorus the tragedian, who refused his embraces
a little before he contended for the prize; but, when he was conqueror
and came in unto her, clasped him and said,

Now, Agamemnon's son, you freely may
(Sophocles "Electra," 2.)

After this a great many sayings were mentioned as unseasonably spoken,
it being fit that we should know such and avoid them;--as that to
Pompey the Great, to whom, upon his return from a dangerous war, the
schoolmaster brought his little daughter, and, to show him what a
proficient she was, called for a book, and bade her begin at this line,

Returned from war; but hadst thou there been slain,
My wish had been complete;
("Iliad," iii. 428.)

and that to Cassius Longinus, to whom a flying report of his son's
dying abroad being brought, and he no ways appearing either to know
the certain truth or to clear the doubt, an old senator came and said:
Longinus, will you not despise the flying uncertain rumor, as if you did
not know nor had read this line,

For no report is wholly false?
(Hesiod, "Works and Days," 763.)

And he that at Rhodes, to a grammarian demanding a line upon which he
might show his skill in the theatre, proposed this,

Fly from the island, worst of all mankind,
("Odyssey," x. 72.)

either slyly put a trick upon him, or unwittingly blundered. And this
discourse quieted the tumult.

QUESTIONS II. AND III. WHAT IS THE REASON THAT ALPHA IS PLACED FIRST IN
THE ALPHABET, AND WHAT IS THE PROPORTION BETWEEN THE NUMBER OF VOWELS
AND SEMI-VOWELS?

AMMONIUS, HERMEAS, PROTOGENES, PLUTARCH, ZOPYRION.

It being the custom of the Muses' feast to draw lots, and those that
were matched to propose curious questions to one another, A