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A DISSERTATION
UPON THE EPISTLES OF
PHALARIS, THEMISTOCLES,
SOCRATES, EURIPIDES, AND OTHERS;
AND THE FABLES OF ÆSOP,
BY
[1697]
[pp. 55–63]
XV
But to let pass all further arguments from words and language, to me the very matter and business of the letters sufficiently discovers them to be an imposture. What force of wit and spirit in the style, what lively painting of humour, some fancy they discern there, I will not examine nor dispute: but methinks little sense and judgement is shewn in the ground-work and subject of them. What an improbable and absurd story is that of the fifty-fourth [Epistle]! Stesichorus was born at Himera; but he chanced to die at Catana,
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