HOMER A SPORTSMAN. 219 



volume of poems continual allusions made to a certain 

 art, which not every one is supposed to be intimately 

 acquainted with ; and, moreover, all breathing the same 

 spirit and betraying the same knowledge, the natural 

 conclusion would be that these owed their existence to 

 a single mind, to the mind displaying just such par- 

 ticular bent. 



This individual opinion is given for as much as it is 

 worth. I am aware the point of view here taken 

 whence to form an opinion about a classical work, is 

 quite a new one ; but it is neither the better nor the 

 worse on that account. It may possibly assist the more 

 learned critic at a point where he finds himself at fault ; 

 it may chance to supply a link where there is a break 

 in the chain of literary or archaiological evidence. A 

 trifle, if it be seen by one — even the most uncultivated 

 — who understands the technical peculiarity, and knows 

 what inference is to be drawn from it, may throw sudden 

 light on a subject, and clear up that v/hich before was 

 shrouded in mystery. 



When Charles II. was escaping to the coast, his dis- 

 guise carried him safely through every danger, and the 

 sharp-witted found nothing suspicious about the two 

 travellers on horseback. But in the account they gave 

 of themselves, it did strike the village blacksmith who 

 shod one of the horses as contradictory, that the steed 



