Book 1
2.4
One thing is certain, that the poet has bestowed all these gifts upon Ulysses, whom beyond any of his other [heroes] he loves to adorn with every virtue. He says of him, that he Discover’d various cities, and the mind And manners learn’d of men in lands remote.Odyssey i 3.Odyssey i 3. That he was Of a piercing wit and deeply wise.Iliad iii. 202.Iliad iii. 202. He is continually described as the destroyer of cities, and as having vanquished Troy, by his counsels, his advice, and his deceptive art. Diomede says of him, Let him attend me, and through fire itself We shall return; for none is wise as he.Ib. x. 246.Ib. x. 246. He prides himself on his skill in husbandry, for at the harvest [he says], I with my well-bent sickle in my hand, Thou arm’d with one as keen.Odyssey xviii. 367.Odyssey xviii. 367. And also in tillage, Then shouldst thou see How straight my furrow should be cut and true.Ib. xviii. 374.Ib. xviii. 374. And Homer was not singular in his opinion regarding these matters, for all educated people appeal to him in favour of the idea that such practical knowledge is one of the chief means of acquiring understanding.
