different scene, to figure to
himself a mortal hero, with waving crest, glittering in polished brass,
advancing erect in his war-chariot, hurling his lance that misses his
foe; and in return transpierced by that of his antagonist, falling
backwards to the ground in his resounding arms, and groaning out his
soul in the bloody dust. The truth is, that when you are called upon to
see and to hear _within the mind_, you rejoice in the capacities of
seeing and hearing that are thus unfolded in you, infinitely surpassing
similar capacities which you possess in your bodily eye and ear; and
therefore the stronger the demands that are made, the more readily even
do you comply with them; and in this way, in part, we must understand
the character that is impressed upon the _Iliad_, and the temper of mind
in the hearer answering to the character. It is one of infinite liberty.
The mind of the poet seems to be released from all bonds and from all
bounds; and the temper in the hearer is the same. Another character,
proper to Epic poetry, judging after its great model, the _Iliad_--is
_universality_. In the direct narrative, we have gods and men, heaven,
earth, sea, for seats of action--and, for a moment, a glimpse of hell.
Recollect whilst the conflagration of war is raging, how the poet has
found a moment, at the Scaean Gate, for the touching picture of an heroic
father, a noble mother, and a babe in arms, scared at his father's
dazzling and overshadowing helmet, who smiles, puts it from his head
upon the ground, and lifts up the boy, with a prayer to Jove. Sacrifices
to the gods, games, funeral rites, come in the course of the relation;
and because the scene of the poem is distracted with warfare, the great
poet has found, in the Vulcanian sculptures on the shield of Achilles,
place for images of peace--the labours of the husbandman; the mirthful
gathering in of the vintage with dance and song; the hymeneal pomp led
along the streets. And in the similes, what pictures from animal life
and manners! And then our enchantment is heightened by a prevailing
duplication. Throughout, or nearly so, the transactions that are
presented in the natural, are also presented in the supernatural. Thus
we have earthly councils, heavenly councils; warring men, warring gods;
kings of men, kings of gods; mortal husbands and wives, and sons and
daughters; immortal husbands and wives, and sons and daughters. Palaces
in heaven as on earth. The sea, in a mann