1 36 On the Machinery of the 



danger, when deserted by their heavenly as- 

 sistants. 



Hector is certainly a favourite character 

 Y^ith Homer, both as a w^arrior and a man, 

 lie is, indeed, in every view, the most illus- 

 trious hero of the Iliad. From the gallantry of 

 his spirit, he challenges the bravest knight of 

 Greece to the combat. Ajax steps forth from 

 the Grecian ranks to meet him. He is appalled 

 at the tremendous figure of his antagonrist, but, 

 though disdaining to fly, and summoning to 

 the encounter both the soul and the resistance 

 of a hero, he sunk under the blow of an 

 immense stone, hurled from the brawny arm 

 of Ajax, and must have perished, but for the 

 intervention of Apollo, who, in the form of a 

 Vulture (a sublime representation to be sure 

 of such a god I) had been contemplating the 

 combat. Homer, if he had pleased, could 

 have rendered his hero victorious, by the more 

 active and timely intervention of the same 

 favouring deity. Hector is not disgraced, but 

 he is conquered. Such is the combat of men, 

 sustained only by the energies of man. But 

 Hector is indeed disgraced, when in the 

 combat with Patroclus he conquers, and his 

 disgrace arises from the interposed assistance 

 of a god, one of the puppets of this childish 

 machinery. There is nothing in the preceding 

 3 



