90 March Beautiful Grouping. 



into the bottom of it, where they were huddled in tem- 

 porary confusion, then calling them by their names got 

 them into order and bravely ploughed his way out again. 

 This he repeated till the sides of the hole were as well 

 ploughed as any other part of his little field, and the 

 groupings of his eight oxen when they got into it, with 

 their grandly strenuous labor as they were getting out 

 of it, were well worth the study of an animal-painter. 

 The clear early sunshine cast them into strong light and 

 shadow, and the creamy white of the oxen was splendid 

 against the dark reds and yellows of the earth. 



That word ' splendid' which I have used just now, 

 without especially thinking about it, reminds me of the 

 right and accurate employment of the same word by 

 Virgil with reference to a ploughshare. His ' sulco at- 

 tritus (incipiat) splendescere vomer ' is just one of those 

 touches which show an artist's sense of what has been 

 called the poetry of common things. Anybody can see 

 that the Shah's diamonds are splendid, and perhaps the 

 most essentially vulgar minds are the most likely to be 

 strongly impressed by a splendor so much associated 

 with great pecuniary value ; but only an artist or poet 

 would notice the shining of a common agricultural im- 

 plement. And yet few things in the world are more 

 resplendent than a well-used ploughshare as it catches 

 the glory of the sunshine ; and it may be doubted whether 

 even the glitter of martial steel can awaken more poetical 

 associations. It is a fine sight to see a flash of sunshine 

 run along a restless line of bayonets, or on the burnished 

 helmets of some emperor's regiment of guards ; but a 



