Note 6 — BOOK VIII.
Reading edition
The reader, perhaps, may think I make Iris abuse the goddess of wisdom too much in the Billingsgate style; but if he will peruse Homer, he will find Iris ten times more abusive in Greek, than I could make her in English. Homer, 1. S. lin. 423; Αννοτάτη κύον ἀδδεες [Annotatei kuon addees]. This part of Iris's abuse is not in commission from Jove, it naturally arises from the petulant malignity of the messenger. Gentle reader, if you would avoid endless quarrels, never employ an ill-natured female to deliver an angry message to one of her own sex; for it must be a very angry message indeed that a woman cannot make an addition to.