It is thus, and thus only, by making Nature his companion wherever he goes, even in the most supernatural region, that the poet, in the words of a very instructive phrase, takes the world along with him. It is true, he must not (as the Platonists would say) humanize weakly or mistakenly in that region; otherwise he runs the chance of forgetting to be true to the supernatural itself, and so betraying a want of imagination from that quarter. His nymphs will have no taste of their woods and waters; his gods and goddesses be only so many fair or frowning ladies and gentlemen, such as we see in ordinary paintings; he will be in no danger of having his angels likened to a sort of wild-fowl, as Rembrandt has made them in his "Jacob's Dream." His Bacchuses will never remind us, like Titian's, of the force and fury, as well as of the graces of wine. His Jupiter will reduce no females to ashes; his fairies be nothing fantastical; his gnomes not "of the earth, earthy." And this again will be wanting to Nature; for it will be wanting to the supernatural, as Nature would have made it, working in a supernatural direction. Nevertheless, the poet, even for imagination's sake, must not become a bigot to imaginative truth, dragging it down into the region of the mechanical and the limited, and losing sight of its paramount privilege, which is to make beauty, in a human sense, the lady and queen of the universe. He would gain nothing by making his ocean-nymphs mere fishy creatures, upon the plea that such only could live in the water his wood-nymphs with faces of knotted oak; his angels without breath and song, because no lungs could exist between the earth's atmosphere and the empyrean. The

Grecian tendency in this respect is safer than the Gothic; nay, more imaginative; for it enables us to imagine beyond imagination, and to bring all things healthily round to their only present final ground of sympathy,—the human. When we go to heaven, we may idealize in a superhuman mode, and have altogether different notions of the beautiful; but till then we must be content with the loveliest capabilities of earth. The sea-nymphs of Greece were still beautiful women, though they lived in the water. The gills and fins of the ocean's natural inhabitants were confined to their lowest semi-human attendants; or if Triton himself was not quite human, it was because he represented the fiercer part of the vitality of the seas, as they did the fairer.

To conclude this part of my subject, I will quote from the greatest of all narrative writers two passages ;-one exemplifying the imagination which brings supernatural things to bear on earthly, without confounding them; the other, that which paints events and circumstances after real life. The first is where Achilles, who has long absented himself from the conflict between his countrymen and the Trojans, has had a message from heaven bidding him reappear in the enemy's sight, standing outside the camp-wall upon the trench, but doing nothing more; that is to say, taking no part in the fight. He is simply to be seen. The two armies down by the sea-side are contending which shall possess the body of Patroclus; and the mere sight of the dreadful Grecian chief-supernaturally indeed impressed upon them, in order that nothing may be wanting to the full effect of his courage

!

and conduct upon courageous men-is to determine the question. We are to imagine a slope of ground towards the sea, in order to elevate the trench; the camp is solitary; the battle ("a dreadful roar of men," as Homer calls it) is raging on the sea-shore; and the goddess Iris has just delivered her message and disappeared.

Αὐτὰρ ̓Αχιλλεὺς ὤρτο, Διῒ φίλος· ἀμφὶ δ ̓ ̓Αθήνη
Ωμοις ιφθίμοισι βάλ ̓ αἰγίδα θυσσανόεσσαν
̓Αμφὶ δέ οἱ κεφαλῇ νέφος ἔστεφε δια θεάων
Χρύσεον, ἐκ δ ̓ αὐτοῦ δαῖε φλόγα παμφανόωσαν.
Ως δ' ὅτε καπνὸς ἰὼν ἐξ ἄστεος αἰθέρ ̓ ἵκηται
Τηλόθεν ἐκ νήσου, τὴν δήϊοι ἀμφιμάχονται,
Οἵτε πανημέριοι στυγερῷ κρίνονται ἄρηϊ

Αστεος ἐκ σφετέρου. ἅμα δ' ἠελίῳ καταδύντι
Πυρσοί τε φλεγέθουσιν ἐπήτριμοι, ὑψόσε δ ̓ αὐγὴ
Γίγνεται ἀΐσσουσα, περικτιόνεσσιν ἰδέσθαι,
Αἴκεν πως σὺν νηυσὶν ἄρεως ἀλκτῆρες ἵκωνται·
Ὣς ἀπ ̓ ̓Αχιλλῆος κεφαλῆς σέλας αἰθέρ ̓ ἵκανε.

Στῆ δ ̓ ἐπὶ τάφρον ἰὼν ἀπὸ τείχεος· οὐδ ̓ ἐς ̓Αχαιοὺς
Μίσγετο μητρὸς γάρ πυκινὴν ὠπίζετ ̓ ἐφετμήν.
̓́Ενθα στὰς ἤϋσ ̓ ἀπάτερθε δὲ Παλλὰς ̓Αθήνη
Φθέγξατ ̓ ἀτὰρ Τρώεσσιν ἐν ἄσπετον ὦρσε κυδοιμόν.
Ὡς δ ̓ ὅτ' ἀριζήλη φωνὴ, ὅτε τ ̓ ἴαχε σάλπιγξ
*Αστυ περιπλομένων δηΐων ὑπὸ θυμοραϊστέων·
Ως τότ' ἀριζήλη φωνὴ γένετ ̓ Αἰακίδαο.
Οἱ δ ̓ ὡς οὖν ἄῖον ἔπα χάλκεον Αἰακίδαο,
Πᾶσιν ὀρίνθη θυμός· ἀτὰρ καλλίτριχες ἵπποι
*Αψ ὄχεα τρόπεον· ἔσσοντο γὰρ ἄλγεα θυμῷ.
'Ηνιόχοι δ' ἔκπληγεν, ἐπεὶ ἴδον ἀκάματον πῦρ
Δεινὸν ὑπὲρ κεφαλῆς μεγαθύμου Πηλείωνος
Δαιόμενον· τὸ δ ̓ ἔδαιε θεὰ γλαυκῶπις Αθήνη.
Τρὶς μὲν ὑπὲρ τάφρου μεγάλ ̓ ἴαχε δῖος ̓Αχιλλεὺς
Τρὶς δ ̓ ἐκυκήθησαν Τρῶες κλειτοί τ ̓ ἐπίκουροι.
̓Ενθὰ δὲ καὶ τότ ̓ ὄλοντο δυώδεκα φῶτες ἄριστοι
̓Αμφὶ σφοῖς ὀχέεσσι καὶ ἔγχεσιν.

-Iliad, lib. xviii. vv. 203–231.

But up Achilles rose, the lov'd of heaven;
And Pallas on his mighty shoulders cast

The shield of Jove; and round about his head
She put the glory of a golden mist,

From which there burnt a fiery-flaming light.
And as, when smoke goes heaven-ward from a town,
In some far island which its foes besiege,
Who all day long with dreadful martialness
Have pour'd from their own town; soon as the sun
Has set, thick lifted fires are visible,

Which, rushing upward, make a light in the sky,
And let the neighbours know, who may perhaps
Bring help across the sea; so from the head
Of great Achilles went up an effulgence.

Upon the trench he stood, without the wall,
But mix'd not with the Greeks, for he rever'd
His mother's word; and so, thus standing there,
He shouted; and Minerva, to his shout,
Added a dreadful cry; and there arose
Among the Trojans an unspeakable tumult.
And as the clear voice of a trumpet, blown
Against a town by spirit-withering foes,
So sprang the clear voice of

acides.

And when they heard the brazen cry, their hearts
All leap'd within them; and the proud-maned horses
Ran with the chariots round, for they foresaw
Calamity; and the charioteers were smitten,
When they beheld the ever-active fire

Upon the dreadful head of the great-minded one
Burning; for bright-eyed Pallas made it burn.
Thrice o'er the trench divine Achilles shouted;
And thrice the Trojans and their great allies
Roll'd back; and twelve of all their noblest men

Then perish'd, crush'd by their own arms and chariots.

Of course there is no further question about the body of Patroclus. It is drawn out of the press, and received by the awful hero with tears.

The other passage is where Priam, kneeling before Achilles, and imploring him to give up the dead body of

Hector, reminds him of his own father; who, whatever (says the poor old king) may be his troubles with his enemies, has the blessing of knowing that his son is still alive, and may daily hope to see him return. Achilles, in accordance with the strength and noble honesty of the passions in those times, weeps aloud himself at this appeal, feeling, says Homer, "desire" for his father in his very "limbs." He joins in grief with the venerable sufferer, and can no longer withstand the look of "his grey head and his grey chin." Observe the exquisite introduction of this last word. It paints the touching fact of the chin's being imploringly thrown upward by the kneeling old man, and the very motion of his beard as he speaks.

"

Ὣς ἄρα φωνήσας, ἀπέβη πρὸς μακρὸν "Ολυμπον
Ερμείας Πρίαμος δ ̓ ἐξ ἵππων ἄλτο χαμᾶζε,
Ἰδαῖον δὲ κατ ̓ αὖθι λίπεν· ὁ δὲ μίμνεν ἐρύκων
Ιππους ἡμιόνους τε γέρων δ ̓ ἐθὺς κίεν οἴκου,
Τῷ ῥ ̓ ̓Αχιλεὺς ἕζεσκε, Διῒ φίλος· ἐν δέ μιν αὐτὸν
Εἆρ ̓, ἕταροι δ ̓ ἀπάνευθε καθείατο· τῷ δέ δύ' οἴω
Ηρως Αὐτομέδων τε, καὶ ̓Αλκιμος ὄζος Αρηος,
Ποίπνυον παρεόντε· (νέον δ ̓ ἀπέληγεν ἐδωδῆς,
Εσθων καὶ πίνων, ἔτι καὶ παρέκειτο τράπεζα)
Τοὺς δ ̓ ἔλαθ ̓ εἰσελθὼν Πρίαμος μέγας, ἄγχι δ' ἄρα στὰς,
Χερσὶν ̓Αχιλλῆος λάβε γούνατα, καὶ κύσε χεῖρας
Δεινὰς, ἀνδροφόνους, αἳ οἱ πολέας κτάνον υἷας.
Ὡς δ ̓ ὅταν ἄνδρ ̓ ἄτη πυκινὴ λάβῇ, ὅστ ̓, ἐνὶ πάτρῃ
Φῶτα κατακτείνας, ἄλλον ἐξίκετο δῆμον,
̓Ανδρὸς ἐς ἀφνειοῦ, θάμβος δ ̓ ἔχει εἰσορόωντας
Ὣς ̓Αχιλεὺς θάμβησεν, ἰδὼν Πρίαμον θεοειδέα·
Θάμβησαν δὲ καὶ ἄλλοι, ἐς ἀλλήλους δὲ ἴδοντο.
Τὸν καὶ λισσόμενος Πρίαμος πρὸς μῦθον ἔειπε·

Μνῆσαι πατρὸς σεῖο, θεοῖς ἐπιείκελ' Αχιλλεῦ,
Τηλίκου, ὥσπερ ἐγὼν, ὀλοῷ ἐπὶ γήραος οὐδῷ.
Καὶ μέν που κεῖνον περιναίεται ἀμφὶς ἐόντες
Τείρουσ', οὐδέ τις ἐστὶν, ἀρὴν καὶ λοιγὸν ἀμῦναι·