THE NEW THEORY OF ACHILLES'S SHIELD. 331 



Homer, reciting a long and elaborate poem of his 

 own composition, occasionally varying the order of 

 events, or adding new episodes, extemporized as the 

 song proceeded, would exhibit the peculiarity in- 

 variably observed in the "improvisator," of using, 

 more than once, expressions, sentences, or passages, 

 which happened to be conveniently applicable. The 

 art of extemporizing depends on the capacity for com- 

 posing fresh matter while the tongue is engaged in 

 the recital of matter already composed. Any one who 

 has watched a clever improvisator cannot fail to have 

 noticed that, though gesture is aptly wedded to words, 

 the thoughts are elsewhere. In the case, therefore, of 

 an improvisator, or even of a rhapsodist reciting from 

 memory, the occasional recurrence of a well-worn 

 form of words serves as a relief to the strained inven- 

 tion or memory. 



We have reason, then, for supposing that if Homer 

 had, in his earlier days, composed a poem which was 

 applicable, with slight alterations, to the story of the 

 " Iliad," he would endeavor, by a suitable arrangement 

 of the plan of his narrative, to introduce the lines 

 whose recital had long since become familiar to him. 



Evidence of design in the introduction of the 

 " Shield of Achilles " certainly does not seem wanting. 



Book II. To what purpose would the mere writer of poetry pray for 

 an increase of his physical powers ? Nothing could be more proper, 

 says Gladstone, if Homer were about to write ; nothing less proper if he 

 were engaged on a written poem. 



