The subject is comprised in five epistles. In the first, Alciphron, the head of the Epicurean sect at Athens, writes, from Alexandria, to his friend Cleon, in the former city. In the third letter, he relates a love adventure at the Festival. Fascinated by the charms of one of the nymphs of a procession, he is first in despair at losing sight of her, then overjoyed at again seeing her in Necropolis, and finally traces her steps until they are lost near one of the smaller pyramids. And this was intended, and has been received, as a distinction.
All novel conceptions are merely unusual combinations.
It will be said, perhaps, that we can imagine a griffin , and that a griffin does not exist. Not the griffin certainly, but its component parts. It is a mere compendium of known limbs and features of known qualities. Thus with all which seems to be new which appears to be a creation of intellect. It is re-soluble into the old.