fluence of both precept and example such within were perfectly splendid. But I am lapses were not prevented. To arrest saying rather too much about this courtthe falling away, they, the clergymen, de- ship. Poor Gertrude was decidedly out voted themselves, hearts and souls, to of health, lost her fresh look and her following and recommending the sports, rounded form: the kind inquiries to and practising the vices, so that men which she was subjected vexed her, and could see their works. The stiff-necked struck a chill to her mother's heart. parishioners, instead of walking in the Pound had prescribed and supplied some way of their pastors, ran after the Dis- abominable mixture which he called a senters, 1ather to show how little feeling tonic, also a box of pills. The two tothey had in common with their own gether were enough to produce serious clergy, than because ranting and howling disease in a healthy person, and to hurry and cushion-thumping were to their lik- a patient towards the grave. One or two ing. But the rising generation of par- friends, more clear-sighted than the sons naturally enough supposed that apothecary, recommended an excursion, there was something positively attractive which he never would have suggested; in the Dissenting style when so many but of this Gertrude wouldn't even hear seemed to approve it; and so they vied at present, though she thought perhaps with each other in simplifying their she might be more disposed to travel in churches, their services, and their attire, the summer. I don't know what odd fanand in debasing their style of preaching. cies didn't occur to her now. Protestant Lydia's leading move, which we may call nunneries were beginning to be heard of; the preparation for her attack, was a gen- and she thought she would like to start a eral intimation that she was "becoming little society of sisters of the broken heart, serious." She adopted a bonnet which or something of that sort, who would do projected about three inches beyond the an incalculable deal of good, and be a real point of her nose, withdrew a good deal blessing to mankind. She wasn't quite from carnal amusements, attended meet- clear what their line would be, but she ings of the Bible and other benevolent had nearly made up her mind about the societies, took great interest in missions, bonnet of the order, a sketch of which and was deeply affected at some passages lay for long between the leaves of her in Norcott's sermons, which forced her blotting-book. And even yet, that stupid to raise her eyes to the preacher, uncon- fellow Hardinge would sometimes, by a scious of the fact that they were running thoughtless word or action, dispel for a over. She likewise discovered a great time all the resignation, and renew the passion for art, especially for oil-paint- whispers of hope, even if the whispers ings. But I wish it to be understood that were so low as to be almost inaudible. Lydia did not start off suddenly from her Admiral Tautbrace, having perceived that old path to walk in wisdom's ways. It the mention of the flag had not been was done gradually and cleverly, so that without its effects on Mrs. Fulford, took by-and-by, when the time had come for care to refer very frequently to that piece her timidly to seek spiritual advice from of bunting and its prospects. It had not the curate on one or two points, there" gone up" yet, and it had grieved Tom was nothing in her doing so to excite suspicion. Lydia did, moreover, some noble deeds of charity; and although her right hand was profoundly ignorant of the benefactions of her left, and vice versa, the secrets of both palms somehow were revealed to Norcott. When a young clergyman begins to think of matrimony, it is comfortable to know that the object of his regard is already very much what in his opinion a clergyman's wife ought to be! There was a nice docility, too, about Lydia; she was willing to be guided by the opinions of a person whom she respected. Her features were expressive certainly, and she managed their play with great judgment. It was only lately that Norcott had become alive to the fact that her eyes when lighted up by the soul

Mainsplice to the heart to say that the First Lord had been compelled (much against his private inclination) to bestow the South American command on another officer whose claim it was impossible to overlook. (Mainsplice did not mention that this deserving officer could influence three votes in the House of Commons; and that the last division, on a question of confidence, had been what he called a [something] near thing, by George !) Tautbrace, however, would be borne in mind, and something else would be sure to turn up before long. You couldn't call Tautbrace by any means an old man, Mrs. Fulford thought he still possessed all the energy of youth; whatever his years were, was ready to take a command at a day's notice, was most distinguished in

his profession, and would certainly have | useless for pickin' up one's fewd, besides a title some day. (This last idea the Ad- woundin' of the gums and tongue; and miral had cleverly insinuated.) Of course, trapesin' over rich carpets and amongst Mrs. Fulford perceived that Tautbrace fine furnitur that a body dare not tech for aspired to the honour of being her sonin-law; and although she rather hesitated about actively favouring his suit, she couldn't help reflecting sometimes that if things should take that turn, it might prove a tolerable dispensation.

had in times past looked upon as his greatest social achievement, so wounded that gallant spirit, that he was fain to compose his mind by drinking steadily for three days and three nights, during which period he revealed to his familiars how "a dirty little puppy of a mechanic ought to be treated.

fear of dirtyn' of 'em." This was very unlike the feeling of her son, who believed that nothing had been, or ever would be, so made as to be worthy of being used by him. He furthered his plans very much by giving expensive dinners Ben Saunders, more and more intent to such young men as he could persuade on effecting a rise in the world, and play- to partake of them; and I think I recoling the great part assigned to him by fate, lect that many of those who declined his did not make himself more popular with hospitality at first were wooed by the people of his own class by his very good report of the meat and drink, and openly exposed pretensions. He did not by the advice that Ben lost money at care much for that, though; for he found cards like a lord at Crockford's. Like that fortune had been favouring him in many another rising man, he became inmore ways than he had till now been sultingly cool to some of his old friends. aware of she had not only suggested a The distant and condescending salutagreat ambition, but had bestowed some tion which he one day gave the militia very important means of gratifying it. sergeant-major, whose acquaintance he When the amount of the property left by his father came to be ascertained, it was found greatly to exceed the estimates of it made just after his death. The old builder had been industrious, shrewd, and frugal; his private expenditure had been a mere nothing in comparison of his income; consequently year by year he had been accumulating money, which he had put out to increase here and there, always discreetly. The deposits and investments coming to light week by week (for, as has been said, his accounts and memoranda were not of the most enlightening; moreover, his will disposed of his property in bulk almost) amounted to a hand- THE famous Episode of the Shield of some sum, the income derivable from Achilles in Homer is in its conception which, added to the profits of the busi- alike daring and simple, in its execution ness, sufficed for a good deal of indul-alike complete and gorgeous, from the gence. Under pretence that his mother's spirits would never revive as long as memory should be kept awake by the daily sight of things connected with the past, Ben persuaded her to go for change of air and scene to a house situated some little way in the country, a very different residence from their old one. He announced it as a temporary arrangement, but they never returned to the old house near the building-yard. It need hardly be added, that with the new abode a new style of living was adopted, not in the best of taste, but comprehending indulgences never dreamt of in old days. Only under vehement protest did Mrs. Saunders consent to these revolutions: if she had found herself as rich as Croesus, she would have considered it a presumption for "the likes of her" to be "eatin' with a silver fork, made for show, and quite

From The Contemporary Review. THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES. PREFACE.

nature of the topics, and the telling sharpness of outline with which they are presented. The employment of a Divine personage as the artificer of the Shield seems to show that the design went far beyond anything which the eyes of his countrymen had been wont to view, and was in effect conceived in the mind of the Poet, not founded as a whole upon experience, and not representative of, but very much more advanced than, the Art of the period in which he lived.

This introduction of the god has the advantage, too, of enabling the Poet, without extravagance, to push to its furthest limit the vis vivida, the living and life-giving power, of his genius, and not only to introduce successions of events into one and the same scene, but to endow the things and persons represented with other incidents of vitality; as when,

the upturned earth darkens behind the plough, and we are made to see the actual progress of the dragging of the slain out of the battle.

with this exception, there is hardly anywhere the description of a pure mental emotion. It is sometimes well to employ statistics in aid of criticism. Let us test The Art of the Shield is in thorough the Shield by the number of its epithets. consonance with the spirit of the Homeric I have counted them, endeavouring to sepPoems; that is to say, its basis is thor- arate between those which belong to the oughly human, thoroughly objective, and quid from those which belong to the quale. thoroughly realistic. It does not seek The latter alone, I apprehend, are epiaid from the unseen; from the converse thets proper: and I cannot reckon of of man with his own spirit; from ideal these more than sixty-eight in one hunconceptions; or even from history or dred and eighteen lines: a number surlegend. Human interest in the actual prisingly small, when it is remembered known human life, with its terrestrial that the whole consists of strictly deabode, its pursuits, its simple institutions, scriptive poetry.* its vicissitudes, is the keynote of the whole.

For us and for our time, it may seem that realistic means prosaic; and for corroborative emblems of this proposition may be chosen some of our statues in coat, waistcoat, and trowsers; some of our highly conventional painting; and the large measure in which our poetry, since the days of Scott and Crabbe, has quitted this field, like an animal flying from some recurrence of the glacial period in these latitudes to seek a more congenial clime. It is the voice of humanity, no longer young, which says to us,—

The things which I have seen I now can see no more,

But what is flat and stale to us was intensely poetical to the youth of our world. The cup which we have drunk was but just presented to its lips. The bloom was yet on the grape, the aroma yet in the draught. The first perception of the forms of beauty seems to have a life and force for the race, as well as for the individual, which is peculiar to itself, and which cannot be retained. We may be thankful that some of it, at least, has been precipitated into palpable and lasting forms for our behoof.

It appears to me, indeed, that the genuine realism of Homer not only is observable in this famous episode, but even reaches its climax here. Never was outward Factso glorified by the Muse. Nowhere in poetry, to my knowledge, is there such an accumulation of incidents without crowding. The king is glad as he watches his reapers and his crop; but

• Wordsworth, "Ode on the Recollections of Childhood."

There is, however, one point in which, above all others, the Shield of Achilles is distinguished by its daring form from most, if not all, other poetical representations of a work of art. It is the degree in which it is charged with life and activity. Of the twelve pictures descriptive of scenes familiar to the eye, almost every one contains a narrative; and this narrative is made to pass before the eye with a vivid rapidity which is alike enchanting and impressive. There is but a single exception, and it is admirably chosen the sheep at pasture give us a piece of still life, with a subject most appropriate to the mode of representation. Even the description of the heavens is animated with the spirit of movement. Orion is watched, or waited on, by the Bear. And the moon is a filling or waxing moon. So I have translated it, in opposition to Pope and to high lexicographical authorities, after consideration, and with confidence. The genius of the present participle (novoav), to say the very least, seems to warrant that mode of rendering. But pictorially, I find it hard to believe that Homer meant to place a little round moon in competition with a large round sun. And, so far as poetry is concerned, it is surely in the spirit of this most animated episode to represent the moon as growing rather than as stationary in figure. We cannot fail to observe how much more this is in

keeping with the Poet's treatment of the Sun. Here he has no change of shape to call in aid : so he touches him with the spark of life in another form, by calling him the unwearying Sun. This phrase at once brings before the mind his daily journey, how he climbs and then descends the heaven.

The epithets in the corresponding episode of the neid, compared with the number of lines, scem to be nearly twice as many.

Upon the whole, I would venture to submit it, for the consideration of those who have a more extensive and accurate command of poetical literature than my self, whether any poet of any age has been so hardy and so powerful as Homer in the imaginative handling of material objects of Art for the purposes of Poetry? This hardiness and power of Homer unquestionably reach their climax in the "Shield."

bronze, resulting from a mixture of tin and copper; but it is a question whether the mixed metal yielding the dark colour is intended, or the dark colour only. Nowhere else in Homer is there a reference to the making of a mixed metal. In general, to say the least, the workmanship of the Shield is employed upon the several metals, single and uncombined; and it is probable that the Poet meant, by their free intermixture, to aim at the ef fect of colour.* This likelihood is confirmed by his repeated use of the word Tokio, to variegate, which seems to be taken from the sister art of embroidery, and which is applied with a peculiar propriety to the most brilliant of all the representations, that of the Dance at the close.

It has already been noticed that legend does not enter into the representations of the Shield. The short roll of nascent Greek history or tradition had already, at the epoch of the Trojan War, yielded at least two great enterprises of historical interest to posterity; the voyage of the ship Argo, and the War of the Seven against Thebes. But it was only thus The reader, even in a translation, canmaking its beginning; it perhaps was not fail to observe the highly archaic neither rich and full enough, nor as yet picture of life, presented by the scenes familiar enough to the mass, to make it upon the Shield. The scene of the trial more suitable for representations like respecting the fine for homicide belongs that on the Shield, than the purely unat-to a stage of society anterior to law, tached and impersonal representations though forms of polity have begun to exwith which it is filled. ist; and when corruption, by the receipt

It may be also that the Eastern charac- of gifts other than the acknowledged pubter, still attaching to the god-artificer lic premium for superior judgment, (doroHephaistos, would have presented an in-dokia,) had not yet come in. That of the congruity in the treatment of purely national legends, which is not felt where the delineation of life, though thoroughly Greek, is still general, and where much of the subject-matter presented was probably common to Greece and to the Syrian and Assyrian East.

harvest, where the master of the reapers is also the King, is yet nearer the patriarchal stage; but some difference is to be expected between the country and the town; which are distinct from one another in the Shield as they are also in the Iliad. In no particular do the manVirgil, on the other hand, has with per-ners of the Shield appear to differ from fect propriety adopted the basis of history those of the Poems generally: they are and legend for his otherwise derivative certainly not less primitive. representation of the Shield of Æneas. In the main it may be said, as to the But perhaps we are warranted in say-subject-matter of the episode, that the ing that the entire absence of tradition from the Homeric Shield not only accords with the recency of Greek national or quasi-national existence, but also with the belief that Art had not yet become, so to speak, endemic in Greece; as we may feel certain that the intense patriotism, which pervades the Iliad, would at a very early stage of development have impressed upon Greek art a national character by the free use of legend for the purpose.*

The materials used in the composition of the Shield deserve notice. The metals cast into the furnace are copper, tin, gold, and silver; and in one passage we find what may be a reference to kvavos, or

I may refer to Mr. A. S. Murray on the Homeric Question, CONTEMPORARY REVIEW, January, 1874, p.

239.

Poet represents, upon the surface offered by the great defensive weapon of the Warrior, first, through its outline, a figure of the universe, such as he conceived it ; secondly, a collection of all those scenes and events of human life, which were at once the most stirring, the most familiar, and the most important.

A question may be raised, whether we ought to conceive of the form of the Shield as oblong, or as round. This is not the place for a discussion on the subject: no epithet is used, in the description of the process of manufacture, which determines it; but I have taken the Shield to be oblong; and I may observe

See Pope's Observations on the Shield, following his 18th book. But he goes greatly beyond what I have stated.

↑ Il. xxiii. 835.

that Pope, who treats it as round, in reli- | yet become a characteristic or familiar ance apparently upon an erroneous ren- feature of Greek life. We hear nowhere dering of a word (vrus), assumes for it a of a trading-ship, except in connection diameter of no less than four feet.* with the Phoenicians.

It is probable that the boss in the middle was meant, in the Poet's mind, to afford space and a suitable shape for the representation of the vault of heaven.

The scenes wrought upon the Shield are as follows:

1. The Earth, Sea, and Heavenly bodies.

2. In a city at peace, we have

a. Marriage processions and festiv-
ities:

b. A judicial suit, tried by the peo-
ple, under the presidency of
the Elders.

3 In a city at war,

a. A scene before the ramparts:
b. An ambush and surprise:
c. A bloody fight.

4. The ploughing of a field.

5. The harvest, and the meal in prepa