a house built upon a plan comparatively
narrow, and subsequently enlarged by successive additions. The
first book, together with the eighth, and the books from the
eleventh to the twenty-second inclusive, seem to form the primary
organisation of the poem, then properly an _Achilleis_: the
twenty-third and twenty-fourth books are additions at the tail of
this primitive poem, which still leave it nothing more than an
enlarged _Achilleis_: but the books from the second to the seventh
inclusive, together with the tenth, are of a wider and more
comprehensive character, and convert the poem from an _Achilleis_
into an _Iliad_. The primitive frontispiece, inscribed with the
anger of Achilles and its direct consequences, yet remains, after
it has ceased to be co-extensive with the poems. The parts added,
however, are not necessarily inferior in merit to the original
poem: so far is this from being the case, that amongst them are
comprehended some of the noblest efforts of the Grecian
epic."--(Vol. ii. p. 230.)

To many persons the undisputed fact that the Homeric poems were composed
to be recited, not read, has appeared a convincing proof that they could
not have originally assumed the form in which they are known to us. For
setting aside the difficulty of preserving by the aid only of memory,
and the still greater difficulty of _composing_ a long poem without help
of the manuscript, to keep _secure_ the part already completed, what
motive, it has been said, could induce the poet to undertake so great
and so superfluous a labour? Why indite a poem so much longer than could
be recited on any one occasion, and which, _as a whole_, could never be
appreciated? But we would suggest that it is not necessary to suppose
that the poet commenced his labours with the project in view of writing
a long epic, in order to believe that we possess these two great poems
very nearly in the original form in which they were composed. If it were
the task of the poet or poets to supply a number of songs on the
adventures of a popular hero, or the achievements of some famous war,
such number of songs _must_ assume a certain consecutive order, the one
will necessarily grow out of the other. Let any one reflect for a moment
how the work of composition proceeds, and he will perceive that it would
be impossible for a poet to take any one such subject as the siege of
Troy, or t