of the poem tedious or unsuited to their taste, will appreciate descriptions of Nature that are true for all time, and never long enough to weary or severely task the attention.

Homer may, I think, be called the Father of simile; for, whatever date we assign to the Homeric poems, their author will remain the earliest Greek poet who has elaborated the simile; and from him, in matter or manner, those that came after have directly or indirectly borrowed. Hence his similes are of peculiar interest; and they seemed to be worth grouping together and illustrating from other and later poets, especially from our own.

Metaphor, simile, and the like ornaments, belong to all poetry. Indeed they seem to be not only ornaments, but of its very essence. With metaphors even prose cannot long dispense, and poetry not at all. Simile is something more deliberate; being a formally instituted comparison, an illustration of the scene or action before us by some other scene or action. It finds its place chiefly in epic and descriptive poetry; where by the transference of the reader's imagination to a different scene it is often a pleasing relief: whereas in the drama it is not wanted;

and accordingly similes, or at least elaborate similes, are there seldom found.

In the Iliad of Homer the similes are as thickly scattered as in any poet: there is an average of between seven and eight to each book. The form of the Homeric simile is generally the same. The commonest outlines are "As when......So", "As......So": occasionally it is as the following: "They stood like to clouds which.. which............So stood they." And once we find this: "Not so loud roars the wave......As was the noise of the onset." But if there is small variety in form, there is great variety in matter. The elements and forces of nature in different aspects; winds, waters, fire, storm, calm; animals, birds, beasts, fishes; scenes of human life, warlike, peaceful, public, private; even the homeliest and commonest employments— all furnish Homer with images. And though he be describing the actions of heroes and gods, he does not hesitate to take a homely, nay, it may be, to modern apprehension a low and vulgar image, if it strikes him as clear and forcible: as for instance where Apollo is compared to a child building sand-castles on the shore, or Ajax to an obstinate ass.

In Homer's similes there is one striking point of likeness to the matter in hand; this determines the poet's choice of the illustration. He then works out the picture, often with most elaborate details, which bring it vividly before the reader, but have little or no bearing upon the thing illustrated. As Professor Blackie well puts it, "the Homeric similes seldom rest contented, as our modern similes do, with flashing out the one point of analogy required for the occasion, but generally indulge in painting out the picture, for the pure imaginative luxury of looking at the object in its completeness." These details must not be pressed as simile useless pains have sometimes been spent in trying to find in the action which the poet is illustrating counterparts for the small particulars of the simile. In this matter. Heyne, to my mind, is a most clearsighted and sensible interpreter of Homer. He has a keen eye for hitting on the true point of likeness, and avoids refining on fancied resemblances in details merely ornamental.

A glance at almost any simile will shew Homer's characteristic manner of enlarging the picture. Take, for instance, S. 141. The contrast of colour between the fair

skin and red blood is imaged by the contrasted colours in ivory artificially stained with crimson. But, in order vividly to present to his hearer's mind this sort of work, Homer specializes it as a cheek-piece for a horse, an ornament which a king might covet. Or take λ. 473, where, though the comparison is double, the details must not be pressed too far; indeed some particulars in the illustration—as is pointed out in the note on that passage-are quite opposite to the result in the thing illustrated.

"Secure of the main likeness Homer makes no scruple to play with the circumstances," says Pope. And readers of Homer who bear this in mind will not complain that his similes are unlike their originals, unless they unreasonably exact that simile shall be simile, allegory allegory, and parable parable, down to the minutest details.

The Homeric simile being such, it will be interesting to notice how far poets of other ages and countries resemble or differ from the Greek bard in their use of the simile. And it is here not to imitations or close parallels that I would draw attention—these have been placed in the notes; -but rather to the general manner and style.

The most ancient poetry from which I can draw examples of the simile is the Hebrew poetry of the Old Testament. Of this, some is certainly before Homer, some coeval with him, some later. Now between the comparisons of the Hebrew writers and those of Homer, there is in one respect a striking likeness, in another a striking unlikeness.

The likeness is in the boldness with which the homeliest illustrations from common and domestic life are introduced. The unlikeness in the shortness and the unadorned plainness of the Hebrew comparisons. "They do not often (I quote Bishop Lowth) enlarge copiously by many adjuncts a single comparison, but rather heap together several comparisons parallel or cognate, each one of which they give briefly and plainly."

And first as to the use of homely and familiar images. This feature, common to the Biblical poetry and Homer, might be illustrated by examples to any extent. Images from ploughing, sowing, reaping; from all the details of Eastern agricultural life, will occur to every one. Common arts and manufactures often suggest images; nay, even the most ordinary household work. For instance in 2 Kings