Full text: Vitruvius: The civil architecture of Vitruvius

XXV 
restoring the actual text of the Iliad or Odyssey to its 
pristine condition, either by the insertion of the Aeolic 
digamma, or the application of any other rule derived from 
the sources just mentioned, we shall frequently find that the 
mêtre is violated; in these instances we may be certain that 
the verse has been constructed according to the usage of 
à more modern age. This is not the place to enumerate the 
different modes by which we may be enabled to approximate 
to à knowledge of the pure and genuine text of these poems: 
we may be permitted, however, to observe, in conclusion. 
that the successful execution of an endeavour to restore 
them to their primitive state would prove of inestimable 
value to the lovers of Grecian literature, and to the admirers 
of these noblest productions of human genius. 
In the early stages of civilization, the main object of an 
assembled population would be security; for the attainment 
of which, we may remark the disproportionate and astonishing 
exertions used by various nations in their works designed for 
defence and protection; exertions which, by their more 
polished descendants, have usually been attributed to the 
agency of a supernatural power. Hence the vast labour 
bestowed on the construction of walls, the remains of which 
are so common in different parts of Greece, and which are 
the first, and certainly among the most wonderful specimens 
of building in that country. Of these the walls of Tiryns 
are the most ancient, and perhaps the most celebrated; 
Homer, in the catalogue, gives to the town the characteristic 
epithet of raxéevcal, a clear proof that the walls were calculated 
Il. ij. 559.
	        
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