Of Selection by Arthur Quiller-Couch

I am not preaching red Radicalism in this: I am not telling you that Jack is as good as his master: if he were, he would be a great deal better; for he would understand Homer (say) as well as his master, the child of parents who could afford to have him taught Greek. As Greek is commonly taught, I regret to say, whether they have learnt it or not makes a distressingly small difference to most boys' appreciation of Homer. Still it does make a vast difference to some, and should make a vast difference to all.

And yet, if you will read the passage in Kinglake's Eöthen in which he tells -- in words that find their echo in many a reader's memory -- of his boyish passion for Homer -- and if you will note that the boy imbibed his passion, after all, through the conduit of Pope's translation -- you will acknowledge that, for the human boy, admission to much of the glory of Homer's realm does not depend upon such mastery as a boy of fifteen or sixteen possesses over the original. But let me quote you a few sentences: