Page:The religion of Plutarch, a pagan creed of apostolic times; an essay (IA religionofplutar00oakeiala).pdf/173

 the Ciceroni ([Greek: hoi periêgêtai]) had gone through their wonted programme, disregarding our requests that they would cut short their formal narratives and their explanations of most of the inscriptions," the conversation had turned by a series of natural gradations from the interesting objects, that so strongly attracted the attention of visitors, to the medium through which the oracles of the God had been conveyed to humanity. Diogenianus had noted that "the majority of the oracular utterances were crowded with faults of inelegance and incorrectness, both of composition and metre." Serapion, to whom previous reference has been made, and who is here described as "the poet from Athens," will not admit the correctness of this impious indictment. "You are of opinion, then," said he, "that, believing these verses to be the work of the god, we may assert that they are inferior to those of Homer and Hesiod? Shall we not rather regard them as being the best and most beautiful of all compositions, and reconstitute, by the standard which they supply, our own taste and judgment, so long corrupted by an evil tradition?" Boethus, "the geometrician," who has lately joined the Epicureans, uses a neat form of the argumentum ad hominem in refutation of Serapion, paying him a polished compliment at the same time. *