Excerpt from Biographical and Critical Essays, Vol. 1 of 2: Reprinted From Reviews, With Additions and Corrections The reason, obvious enough, is given in a sentence from Dunlop's 'history of Fiction, ' quoted by Scott Those minute references immediately lead us to give credit to the whole narrative, since we think they would hardly have been mentioned unless they were true.' Ars est celare artem. The effect would fail if they had a showy character, as if invented for effect. Homer's employment of such details simply proves that he was a master of his art, and it is one of his highest triumphs to have produced on the distinguished statesman and scholar an effect analogous to that which Swift produced on the rude sailor, who declared that he knew Captain Gulliver very well, but that he lived at Queenhithe, not at Wapping. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.