No man, be it observed, will be the worse statesman, lawyer, or physician for not having read Waverley, so that the plea of public utility cannot be urged. […] A Samian named Elpis, having made a voyage to Africa, saw as he was one day on the seashore a huge lion approaching him with his mouth wide open. […] Idas, another lover, having obtained a winged chariot from Poseidôn, carried off the apparently not reluctant maid. […] She was also called Dictynna, a goddess of that name, and of a similar nature, having been perhaps united with her. […] We, however, rather incline to the opinion of its having been originally a philosophic allegory.