138 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



idealistic because we remember Don Quixote ; and in the 

 greatest of Books we have the final instance of what human 

 conduct should be, and also the final tragedy of what virtue 

 may come to, for ever set before us to warn us lest we think 

 that merit may have any other reward but itself. Here in the 

 great cathedral which is man's spirit each of these books is a 

 chapel by itself ; beautifully adorned, lit by wonderful lights 

 from heaven, and existing for ever in a sacred silence which 

 is never forgotten by those who have once experienced it. 



At first the unthinking may not be quite willing to attach 

 such attributes to some of these books and may imagine that 

 they were written (like the other books mentioned above) merely 

 to amuse. But the difference becomes clear when we search 

 for the soul of the writer within his own words and deeds — for 

 every scene which he presents to us is a deed of his life performed 

 with infinite pain and labour. It is the didactic intention 

 which makes one great difference. Consider carefully the in- 

 tention behind the books of Homer. The Iliad is a picture 

 of the genius of Force, set out before us to warn us of its evils 

 and to instruct us as to how nature often compels us. In order 

 to picture Force properly, the work begins by showing its great 

 failing, namely unreasonable wrath — the whole world made to 

 suffer ; and then Force returns to his proper function in conse- 

 quence of a noble but equally unreasonable grief. This is in 

 fact a primordial lesson to humanity, when it exists principally 

 under the government and influence of Force. But there is 

 more in the allegory than this, because the figure of Achilles 

 is not only that of force but also of what we call genius ; and is 

 indeed almost the embodiment of the original god Dionysus 

 before he took to wine. On the other hand, the Odyssey is a 

 great allegory of high but normal human intelligence ; and in 

 order to form the picture Homer plunged Ulysses in difficulty 

 after difficulty that by his wisdom, cunning, and virtues he 

 might be able finally to emerge. This again was a prime lesson 

 to humanity ; and the Greek tragedies gave us apologue after 

 apologue with similar high meanings. 



In quite another wave of civilisation Dante wrote another 

 parable, the function of which it was to impress something 

 that the Greeks had not fully impressed, the sense of a more 

 matured moral obligation. We see similar design in every one 

 of the greater books of Shakespeare — in Macbeth, ambition ; 



