HOMER A SPOETSMAN. 213 



any thing, can thus seize on the salient features, and so 

 with a word or a touch, give reality and life. 



" As w^hen the hound has put up a stag and follows 

 him, roused from his bed, through mnding valley and 

 through the bushes, and although he liides and ducks 

 down among the shrubs, the hound — tracking animal! 

 — still keeps running round, till he has found the slot, 

 so " &c. 



Who that has lived in the forest will not at once 

 recognise a comrade in the author of these words ? As 

 an old stag steals away when roused by some unusual 

 noise in the neighbourhood of his haunt, he will stop 

 from time to time to listen, and will hide himself in 

 the thick covering of a thicket, listening the while with 

 breathless attention if the sounds recede or approach. 

 If the hiding-place be good, he will peer from between 

 the leaves with his large eyes and watch you coming 

 near, and deeming himself secure from being observed, 

 will let you pass close to his retreat without stirring. 

 And if your movements give him no cause for mistrust, 

 there will he remain listening, gazing, breathless ; as im- 

 movable as the sod on which he stands. 



at the end of Well "Wallc, Hampstead, when a ladj whom he met said, 

 " Well, Mr. Constable, I only wish to be able to make such a drawing 

 as that ; I do not want to do more, or make something more finished : 

 a sketch like that would quite satisfy me," "That is all very well, 

 Madam," Constable replied; "but in order to make a sketch such as 

 you wish, you must be able to do what I can do besides." 



P .3 



