g to the age of chivalry, and are the efflorescence of
that strange but lofty aspiration of the human mind. Above all, there is a
moral grandeur in the poem, a continued unity of interest, owing to a
sustained elevation of purpose--a forgetfulness of self in the great cause
of rescuing the holy sepulchre, which throws an air of sanctity around its
beauties, and renders it the worthy epic of Europe in its noblest aspect.

Notwithstanding these inimitable beauties, the _Jerusalem Delivered_ never
has, and never will make the impression on the world which the _Iliad_ has
done. The reason is, that it is not equally drawn from nature; the
characters are taken from romantic conception, not real life. The chiefs
who assemble in council with Godfrey, the knights who strive before
Jerusalem with Tancred, have little resemblance either to the greyhaired
senators who direct human councils, or the youthful warriors who head
actual armies. They are poetical abstractions, not living men. We read
their speeches with interest, we contemplate their actions with
admiration; but it never occurs to us that we have seen such men, or that
the imagination of the poet has conceived any thing resembling the
occurrences of real life. The whole is a fairy dream--charming,
interesting, delightful, but still a dream. It bears the same resemblance
to reality which the brilliant gossamer of a snow-clad forest, glittering
in the morning sun, does to the boughs when clothed with the riches and
varied by the hues of summer. It is the perfection of our conceptions of
chivalry, mingled with the picturesque machinery of antiquity and romantic
imagery of the East, told with the exquisite beauty of European
versification. But it is a poetical conception only, not a delineation of
real life. In Homer, again, the marvellous power of the poet consists in
his deep insight into human character, his perfect knowledge of the human
heart, and his inimitable fidelity of drawing every object, animate or
inanimate. Aristotle said that he excelled all poets that ever appeared in
"[Greek: diagnoia]." Aristotle was right; no one can study the _Iliad_
without feeling the justice of the observation. It is the penetration,
the piercing insight of the Greek bard, which constitute his passport to
immortality. Other poets may equal him in variety of imagination; some may
excel him in melody of versification or beauty of language: none will
probably ever approach him in delineatio