Thirlwall and other competent judges have naturally given me much gratification ; for as they must have been well aware of its defects, it is plain that they thought them to be more than compensated by its merits. […] In our eyes it is disgusting from its indelicacy as well as its absurdity ; it approaches the confines of impiety, and at times seems even to pass them. […] The soul, which is of divine origin, is here below subjected to error in its prison the body. […] The interpretation of an allegory is always hazardous : for fancy presided over its birth, and fancy must always have a large share in the attempts made to develope its secret and real nature. […] We, however, rather incline to the opinion of its having been originally a philosophic allegory.