an
translation by Cavaliere Angelo Rizzetti was published at Novara in 1894.

"Quis Desiderio . . . ?" (_The Humour of Homer and Other Essays_) was
developed in 1888 from something in a letter from Miss Savage nearly ten
years earlier. On the 15th of December, 1878, in acknowledging this
letter, Butler wrote:

I am sure that any tree or flower nursed by Miss Cobbe would be the
_very_ first to fade away and that her gazelles would die long before
they ever came to know her _well_. The sight of the brass buttons on
her pea-jacket would settle them out of hand.

There was an enclosure in Miss Savage's letter, but it is unfortunately
lost; I suppose it must have been a newspaper cutting with an allusion to
Moore's poem and perhaps a portrait of Miss Frances Power
Cobbe--pea-jacket, brass buttons, and all.

On the 10th November, 1879, Miss Savage, having been ill, wrote to
Butler:

I have been dipping into the books of Moses, being sometimes at a loss
for something to read while shut up in my apartment. You know that I
have never read the Bible much, consequently there is generally
something of a novelty that I hit on. As you do know your Bible well,
perhaps you can tell me what became of Aaron. The account given of
his end in Numbers xx. is extremely ambiguous and unsatisfactory.
Evidently he did not come by his death fairly, but whether he was
murdered secretly for the furtherance of some private ends, or
publicly in a State sacrifice, I can't make out. I myself rather
incline to the former opinion, but I should like to know what the
experts say about it. A very nice, exciting little tale might be made
out of it in the style of the police stories in _All the rear Round_
called "The Mystery of Mount Hor or What became of Aaron?" Don't
forget to write to me.

Butler's people had been suggesting that he should try to earn money by
writing in magazines, and Miss Savage was falling in with the idea and
offering a practical suggestion. I do not find that he had anything to
tell her about the death of Aaron. On 23rd March, 1880, she wrote:

Dear Mr. Butler: Read the subjoined poem of Wordsworth and let me know
what you understand its meaning to be. Of course I have my opinion,
which I think of communicating to the Wordsworth Society. You can
belong to that Society for the small sum of 2/6 per annum. I think of
joining because it is cheap.