Excerpt from Homeri Ilias Furthermore, we have only one sure guide in the introduction of these older forms. Etymology may tell us in general terms what is older and bistori cally correct, but it is metre alone which justifies us in' introducing it into Homer. It was from metre alone that Bentle found the traces of the digamma. The question of e resolution of contracted syllables is purely metrical. We can do nothing at all in cases where metre does not betray a change. E mology can tell us the stages through which the nguage has passed, but it cannot pretend to reconstruct com pletely any given stage from one more recent. And thus the date, and even the existence, of numerous forms which we must suppose once to have existed somewhere, are for the reconstruction of the text a problem in which we are absolutely helpless. There may have been infinite changes in the language which we can never know, because they have left no trace in metre. 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.