ugh; her paroxysm
in consequence, and final consolation.

I.

The first portion of the Book, as above given, is by all means the
greatest in conception and in execution as well as the longest. As
already indicated there are three kinds of writing in it, yet fused
together into unity, which makes it a most varied, yet profoundly
suggestive piece of Art. The simple idyllic, domestic strain of
ordinary real life we hear at the start in the reception and
recognition of Telemachus at Sparta; the scene lies in the sunshine of
a serene existence, yet after mighty tempests. Thence we pass into the
heroic world of Troy out of Greece and the Present, and listen to an
epical story of heroism told by Menelaus and Helen, of the Hero
Ulysses; finally we are brought to Egypt, and hear a prophecy
concerning the same Hero, who is now the subject of the Fairy Tale. In
other words, in this portion of the Fourth Book we observe a change of
scene to three localities--Greece, Troy, Egypt, which correspond to
Present, Past, and Future, and which attune the soul respectively to
Sorrow, Reminiscence, Prophecy. In accord with this variety of place
and circumstance is the variety of literary form already noted: the
ordinary Descriptive Tale of the Present, the Heroic Story of the Past,
and the Fairy Tale imaging what is distant in space and time.

1. As Telemachus arrives, he notes the outer setting to this noble
picture of Menelaus and Helen. There is the magnificent palace with
many costly ornaments of "bronze, gold, silver, amber and ivory;" it
has the ideal of Greek architecture, not yet realized doubtless, still
it suggests "the Hall of Olympian Zeus" to the admiring Telemachus. The
new-comers happen upon a wedding-festival, which connects the place and
the occasion with the Trojan war and its Hero Achilles, whose son is
now to marry Helen's daughter, betrothed to him while at Troy. Moreover
it is a time of joy, which brings all before us at first in a festal
mood.

Nor must we pass by that astonishing utterance of Menelaus to his
servant who proposed to turn away the guests: "Thou prattlest silly
things like a child, verily have we come hither partaking of the
hospitable fare of other men." Therefore we ought to give that which we
have received. One likes to note these touches of humanity in the old
heathen Greek; he too knew and applied the Golden Rule. The wisdom of
life here peers forth in the much-traveled Menelaus; suffering has