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tages of low or middling stature, which thus requires the 

 highest display of intellectual endowments not to be 

 looked down on ; whilst, on the other hand, the advan- 

 tages of standing ' sis foot high,^ especially if we can 

 ' look six inches higher/ are so incontestable, that the 

 maternal vow for a tall son is as fervent and warm as 

 that for a comely daughter. If we glance back to Tro- 

 jan times, we are not surprised to find mere stature ap- 

 praised higher than almost any other qualification. The 

 heroes of the Iliad — shall we hide it to live, or exeleu- 

 therostomize* it and die? — are for the most part boors 

 in manners, sordid in motive, dull in apprehension, self- 

 ish in sentiment, utterly ignoble in conduct : fine speci- 

 mens it may be for David to paint, for Buffon to describe, 

 for fools to admire, and for milliners to doat on, but 

 wide of that standard which responsible agents may 

 safely laud, or aspire to emulate;t what then has handed 



* 'E^cKevBepoa-TOfiS), 'I profess my sentiments boldly,' or speak 

 out, as iMtTier did. 



t The ancients measured heroism much more by the carpen- 

 ter's rule than by any moral standard. If it were asked in what, 

 save superior height and bearing, homooratic Ajax excelled that 

 ' scurvy knave' Thersites, it would be difficult to say ; in scurrility, 

 brutal implacability,, and selfishness, he might surpass that ill- 

 favoured dwarf, but not in any of those nobler attributes which 

 we are taught to value. The code of ethics in the Greek camp 

 was very much what Agamemnon represents it to Ulysses : ' Lo ! 

 each man labours all things for himself,' to which each man's 

 ready answer would have been the same with that chief's reply : 

 'And than for self what better he, I prayP' ' This may be a very 

 common sentiment, but it certainly is not heroic. ' Live with 

 your enemy as a friend, and with your friend as though he may 

 one day be your enemy,' is a detestable maxim, assigned in modern 

 times to Eochefoucauld, as it was in ancient days to Bias ; ' but 

 whoever was the author of it,' says Cicero, ' such a sentiment 

 could only proceed from the heart of a villain, — ^impuri oujusdam 



' 'Ay. 'H ndvff ofioia iras avfip avra mvei. 

 'Ob. Ta yap jie puhXov cIkos f; 'jxavTm wovelv ; 



