Tuesday, July 30, 2013
The Finest Story for a Child
Niebuhr, quoted in Francis Lieber, Reminiscences of an Intercourse with George Berthold Niebuhr (London: Richard Bentley, 1835), pp. 73-74:
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What wisdom there is in Homer! With a few omissions, it is the very book for children. I know of no story, except Robinson Crusoe, which fascinates a child so much as Homer. It is all natural, simple, and capable of being understood by a child. And then, how well does he not prepare for all the knowledge of antiquity, without which we cannot now get along! How many thousand things and sayings does the child not understand at once by knowing that great poem. The whole Odyssey is the finest story for a child.
