day when Virgil lives as truly as he lived 

 in Dante's imagination, and, like Boccaccio, 

 they light a fire at his tomb which years do 

 not quench. 



Who that has ever gone through the 

 experience will forget the hour when he 

 discovered the Greeks in Homer's pages, 

 and felt for the first time the grand impulse 

 of that noble race stir his blood and fill his 

 brain with the far-reaching aspiration for a 

 life as rich as theirs in beauty, freedom, and 

 strength ! It is told of an English scholar 

 that he devoted his winters to the " Iliad " 

 and his summers to the " Odyssey," read- 

 ing each several times every year. One 

 could hardly reconcile such self-indulgence 

 with the claims of to-day on every man's 

 time and strength ; but I have no doubt all 

 Grecians have a secret envy for such a 

 career. The Old- World charm of the 

 " Odyssey " is one of the priceless posses- 

 sions of every fresh student, and to feel it 

 for the first time is like discovering the sea 

 anew. It is, indeed, the Epic of the Sea; 

 the only poem in all literature which gives 

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