ing to Hercules. He it was who made the Via Appia.

[71] The fact of Homer's blindness rests on a passage in the Hymn to
Apollo, quoted by Thucydides as a genuine work of Homer, and which is
thus spoken of by one of the most accomplished scholars that this
country or this age has ever produced: "They are indeed beautiful
verses; and if none worse had ever been attributed to Homer, the Prince
of Poets would have had little reason to complain.

"He has been describing the Delian festival in honor of Apollo and
Diana, and concludes this part of the poem with an address to the women
of that island, to whom it is to be supposed that he had become
familiarly known by his frequent recitations:

[Greek: Chairete d' hymeis pasai, emeio de kai metopisthe
mnesasth', hoppote ken tis epichthonion anthropon
enthad' aneiretai xeinos talapeirios elthon
o kourai, tis d' hymmin aner hedistos aoidon
enthade poleitai kai teo terpesthe malista;
hymeis d' eu mala pasai hypokrinasthe aph' hemon,
Typhlos aner, oikei de Chio eni paipaloesse,
tou pasai metopisthen aristeuousin aoidai.]

Virgins, farewell--and oh! remember me
Hereafter, when some stranger from the sea,
A hapless wanderer, may your isle explore,
And ask you, 'Maids, of all the bards you boast,
Who sings the sweetest, and delights you most?'
Oh! answer all, 'A blind old man, and poor,
Sweetest he sings, and dwells on Chios' rocky shore.'

_Coleridge's Introduction to the Study
of the Greek Classic Poets._

[72] Some read _scientiam_ and some _inscientiam;_ the latter of which
is preferred by some of the best editors and commentators.

[73] For a short account of these ancient Greek philosophers, see the
sketch prefixed to the Academics (_Classical Library_).

[74] Cicero wrote his philosophical works in the last three years of
his life. When he wrote this piece, he was in the sixty-third year of
his age, in the year of Rome 709.

[75] The Academic.

[76] Diodorus and Posidonius were Stoics; Philo and Antiochus were
Academics; but the latter afterward inclined to the doctrine of the
Stoics.

[77] Julius Caesar.

[78] Cicero was one of the College of Augurs.

[79] The Latinae Feriae was originally a festival of the Latins, altered
by Tarquinius Superbus into a Roman one. It was held in the Alban
Mount, in honor of Jupiter Latiaris. This holiday la