Mr Bernard Shaw uses the simile in First Aid to Critics (Barbara's Return to the Colors).
P. 51, l. 19. as to wit or genius, Fontenelle, Digression, ed. 1698, p. 195. "Toute la question de la prééminence entre les Anciens et les Modernes étant une fois bien entendue, se réduit à savoir si les arbres, qui étaient autrefois dans nos campagnes, étaient plus grands que ceux d'aujourd'hui. En cas qu'ils l'aient été, Homère, Platon, Démosthène, ne peuvent être égalés dans ces derniers siècles, mais si nos arbres sont aussi grands que ceux d'autrefois, nous pouvons égaler Homère, Platon, et Démosthène."
P. 54, l. 13. Delphos. Temple always uses this spelling, see pp. 136, 137 and 205-8 of this vol.: and compare S. i. 112.
P. 55, l. 1. cotemporaries. Boyle used this form in his Examination (1698): see pp. 200-1 of the Appendix to this vol.
P. 55, l. 14. There is nothing more agreed, &c. Temple's idea that Greek learning came from the East is to be found in Burnet's Sacred Theory, Book II. p. 191, and IV. 103, 151 (ed. 1697), and in Fontenelle.
P. 55, ll. 22, 23. Orpheus, Musaeus, &c. Macaulay in his Essay on Sir William Temple ridicules Temple's lists of ancient philosophers and their voyages. Temple's work does not seem to have been much below the standard of his time. Burnet was at least the equal, in learning, of most of the scholars of his day; and he mentions all the names Temple puts forward, and speaks quite seriously of the travels of Orpheus and Pythagoras. (Sacred Theory, III. p. 10, ed. 1697).
P. 58, l. 14. the new French author, Fontenelle (see above).
