346 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



grot, and it flourished with clusters. But four fountains flowed in succession 

 with white water, turned near one another each in different ways; but around 

 there flourished soft meadows of violets and of parsley. There indeed even an 

 Immortal coming would admire it when he beheld, and would be delighted in 

 his mind. Buckley's Translation.) 



An analysis of this passage which points out its beauties will he 

 found also to draw attention precisely to those parts where the au- 

 thor's presence is latent. The smell of the cedar, and the voice of the 

 divine songstress accompanying the music of her loom, are, by the 

 epithets " fragrant" and "sweet," made part of the real or imagined 

 experience of the poet ; while the word e7roixofiiv7j suggests, and just 

 suggests, glimpses that he catches of her form as she moves at her 

 work within the cave. Then he describes the wood that shades her 

 abode, implying, by an epithet, how that too appeals to another sense, 

 joining with the incense that burns close by in a mixture of pleasant 

 smells. Another feature is introduced : there are birds harboring in 

 the branches, and the word evvd^ovro that describes this, by an im- 

 plied comparison with the sleeping-chambers of man, shows a sort of 

 tender way of looking at Nature. It is more than if it were merely 

 said, "There were birds in the branches." Again, the allusion to the 

 sea in the words rfjalvTe OaXdacna epya /xe/u-rfKev is a direct reflection 

 of the poet's, in no way forming part of a description merely meant to 

 call up an actual scene, instead of a particular way of looking at a 

 scene. The same is true of the words that describe the vine, bending 

 with its burden of ripe clusters, of the labyrinth of streams, and the 

 patches of violet and parsley round them ; the accompanying adjec- 

 tives draw attention to beauties the poet has noticed, and Avishes us 

 to notice as well. There is hardly need to point out how the words 

 with which the whole concludes are but an exclamation of wonder 

 and admiration on the part of the poet at the scene he has called up. 



But this is not all, for besides the selection of these various ele- 

 ments there is the mode of their combination into a definite picture, 

 the order in which the images follow one another, and the gradation 

 and transition of ideas which are all part of the art, that is, of the 

 mind of the self of the author. At a distance the senses of sight 

 and smell are first caught by the glimmer of the fire and the fragrance 

 of what is burning in it; as Hermes approaches he hears the sound 

 of the goddess singing at her work ; coming still closer, he has leisure 

 to mark the minute details of the scene the cavern, the grove, and 

 the vine; while the words addvarog -rrep in the concluding lines leave 

 him in amazement, at the beauty of the whole. 



Now, this may sound like hypercriticism, and it would be hyper- 

 criticism if it were meant that all these points were before the mind 

 of the poet, forming part of an intentional study of effect. On the 

 contrary, the implication is the direct reverse. It is because Homer 

 was such or such a man, because he had been in the habit of regard- 



