VII 



A MALFOBMED GIANT ^ 



"TAE QUINCE Y somewhere remarks that the 

 -^^^ Eoman mind was great in the presence of 

 man, never in the presence of nature. I am not 

 going to undertake to say whether or not this obser- 

 vation is wholly true. Undoubtedly there is truth 

 in it. I remember Gibbon says that to the Ro- 

 mans the ocean was an object of terror rather than 

 of curiosity, and that that warlike people was never 

 "actuated by the enterprising spirit which had 

 prompted the navigators of Tyre, of Carthage, and 

 even of Marseilles to enlarge the bounds of the 

 world, and to explore the most remote coasts of the 

 ocean." But empire upon the land came easy to 

 the Roman. He was great in war, in government, 

 in jurisprudence, and in the administration of all 

 human affairs. 



De Quincey's distinction came to my mind in 



1 Perhaps I ought to apologize to my reader for the polem- 

 ical tone of the latter part of this essay. It "vvas written many 

 years ago in reply to an able critic, the late William D. O'Connor, 

 who had resented my epithet of "mad-dog " as applied to Victor 

 Hugo's nature, and I find it impossible to change it now. As a 

 protest against the glaring vice of Hugo's art I think it well 

 enough; I would only change its vehement and controversial 

 tone and temper. 



