II. THE SWALLOW. 89 



at the whole of nature in due comparison, and 

 with universal candour and tenderness. 

 . 78. At the whole of nature, I say, not at 

 j«/^r-nature — at what you suppose to be 

 above the visible nature about 3'ou. If you 

 are not inclined to look at the wings of birds, 

 which God has given you to handle and to see, 

 much less are you to contemplate, or draw 

 imaginations of, the wings of angels, which you 

 can't see. Know your own world first — not 

 denying any other, but being quite sure that 

 the place in which you are now put is the 

 place with which you are now concerned ; and 

 that it will be wiser in you to think the gods 

 themselves may appear in the form of a dove, 

 or a swallow, than that, by false theft from the 

 form of dove or swallow, you can represent the 

 aspect of gods. 



79. One sweet instance of such simple con- 

 ception, in the end of the Odyssey, must surely 

 recur to your minds in connection with our 

 subject of to-day, but you may not have 

 noticed the recurrent manner in which Homer 

 insists on the thought. When Ulysses first 

 bends and strings his bow, the vibration of the 

 chord is shrill, " like the note of a swallow." 



