The slain, though stranger born,

Had been a pillar of the realm of Troy.

-Iliad 16: Bryant's Translation

Thrice Patroclus climbed

A shoulder of the lofty wall.

-Idem.

A second reason is that the metaphor, inasmuch as it depends for its force upon its suggestiveness, necessarily requires some sympathy on the part of the reader with the conditions of knowledge, thought, and feeling in the age to which it is addressed. We can imagine a time, for instance, in which the following passages, even if they could be conceived, would not be received with much favor. Yet they represent the forms of expression which, at the present time, are the most stirring and popular. Ignorance is the curse of God.

-2 Henry VI., iv., 7: Shakespear.

I tell thee, Jack Cade, the clothier, means to dress the commonwealth, and turn it, and set a new nap upon it.

-2 Henry VI., iv., 2: Idem.

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.

-Troilus and Cressida, iii., 3: Idem.

Here once the embattled farmers stood,

And fired the shot heard round the world.

-Hymn Sung at Completion of the Concord Monument: Emerson.

They take the rustic murmur of their bourg

For the great wave that echoes round the world.

-Idyls of the King, Geraint and Enid: Tennyson.

Autels que la raison en montant submergea

-La Temple, in La Légend des Siècles: Hugo.

A third reason is that, while the ancient figures of speech were prompted often by a desire to express thought adequately, the modern are prompted mainly by a desire to express it æsthetically. For this reason, inas

much as an end aimed at is usually the end attained, modern metaphors like modern paintings are, more often than ancient ones, results of the highest degree of artistic care and skill. Notice the following:

Still as a slave before his lord,

The ocean hath no blast ;

His great bright eye most silently

Up to the moon is cast.

-The Ancient Mariner: Coleridge.

I should make very forges of my cheeks,
That would to cinders burn up modesty,

Did I but speak thy deeds.

The Doria's long pale palace striking out,

From green hills in advance of the white town,

A marble finger dominant to ships,

Seen glimmering through the uncertain gray of dawn.

-Aurora Leigh, 7: Mrs. Browning.

The simile is used mainly when there is only a moderate degree of excitation. When this is great, the mind flies naturally to the metaphor, as a more concentrated form of expression, representing many thoughts in a few words. So Macduff, in the second act of Macbeth, on seeing the dead Duncan, cries out :

Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.
Most sacrilegious murther hath broke ope
The Lord's anointed temple and stole thence
The life o' the building!

Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight
With a new Gorgon.

Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,

And look on death itself! up, up, and see

The great doom's image !—Malcolm ! Banquo!
As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites
To countenance this horror! Ring the bell.

Macb.. Had I but died an hour before this chance

I had lived a blessed time; for from this instant
There's nothing serious in mortality;

All is but toys; renown and grace is dead;
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.

-Macbeth, ii., I: Shakespear.

The same abundant use of metaphorical language will be found in most of Shakespear's scenes representing quarrelling and love, like those, for instance, in Romeo and Juliet. This form, too, as we know, is that adopted in impassioned love lyrics.

From the meadow your walks have left so sweet

That whenever a March-wind sighs

He sets the jewel-print of your feet

In violets blue as your eyes,

To the woody hollows in which we meet
And the valleys of Paradise.

Would start and tremble under her feet,

And blossom in purple and red.

-Maud: Tennyson.

Illustrative, like direct, representation may be used, of

course, for wit and humor.

When Loveless married Lady Jenny,
Whose beauty was the ready penny;
"I chose her," says he, "like old plate,
Not for the fashion but the weight."

-Elegant Extracts.

You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come;
Knock as you please, there's nobody at home.

-Epigram: Pope.

CHAPTER XXII.

PURE REPRESENTATION IN THE POETRY OF HOMER.

How the Phenomena of Nature should be used in Representation-Homer as a Model-His Descriptions are Mental, Fragmentary, Specific, Typical-The Descriptions of Lytton, Goethe, Morris, Southey, etc— Homer's Descriptions also Progressive-Examples-Dramatic Poems should show the same Traits-Homer's Illustrative Representation.

HAVING found now how poetry through pure rep

resentation, whether direct or illustrative, is able to give definite expression to thoughts and feelings, let us take up the second question proposed in Chapter Twentieth, and try to find how an artist desirous of representing his own thoughts and feelings must use the phenomena of nature in order to do this in the most effective way. In answering this question, it is essential that we start with a proper standard. Fortunately, we can get one universally acknowledged to be sufficient for our purpose, in the works of Homer, and this too-to say much less than is deserved-in a sufficiently accurate English translation. So far at least as concerns the passages to be quoted in this discussion, all have been verified by comparing them with the original text. These poems of Homer have stood the tests of centuries, and there are reasons why they have survived them. The consideration which should interest us most in the present connection, is the fact that the poems were produced by a man who spoke directly from the first promptings of nature; a man