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Excerpt from The Greek Tradition: Essays in the Reconstruction, of Ancient Thought When Mr. Thomson's fine Studies in the Odyssey appeared, I happened to notice one solemn reviewer who, after four lines of earnest misdescription, concluded by expressing his grief that any University had published such a book. It should have been strangled unborn and its author effectually silenced. Meditating on the point of view disclosed, I remembered that exactly the same thing had been said about one of my own early books. And, on further reflection, I recalled at least three other scholars, now occupying University Chairs or similar positions, whose early writings were welcomed in the same way. There is nothing odd in this. It is only one more reminder to us old and established scholars to keep our minds as alert as we can, and not grow stiff and deaf in our favourite orthodoxies. But the incident made me try to think why I had derived so much pleasure and instruction from a book which other students appeared whole-heartedly to despise. I think the reason probably lies in a certain divergence of view about the proper aims of scholarship. 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.