he
opposite fact,--the image of the green mounds that do not change, and
the white and written stones that do not pass away; and thence to
follow out also the associated images of the calm life with the quiet
grave, and the despairing life with the fading foam:

Let no man move his bones.

As for Samaria, her king is out off like the foam upon the water.

But nothing of this is actually told or pointed out, and the
expressions, as they stand, are perfectly severe and accurate, utterly
uninfluenced by the firmly governed emotion of the writer. Even the
word 'mock' is hardly an exception, as it may stand merely for
'deceive' or 'defeat', without implying any impersonation of the
waves.

Sec. 12. It may be well, perhaps, to give one or two more instances to
show the peculiar dignity possessed by all passages which thus limit
their expression to the pure fact, and leave the hearer to gather what
he can from it. Here is a notable one from the Iliad. Helen, looking
from the Scaean gate of Troy over the Grecian host, and telling Priam
the names of its captains, says at last:

I see all the other dark-eyed Greeks; but two I cannot
see,--Castor and Pollux,--whom one mother bore with me. Have
they not followed from fair Lacedaemon, or have they indeed
come in their sea-wandering ships, but now will not enter
into the battle of men, fearing the shame and the scorn that
is in Me?

Then Homer:

So she spoke. But them, already, the life-giving earth
possessed, there in Lacedaemon, in the dear fatherland.

Note, here, the high poetical truth carried to the extreme. The poet
has to speak of the earth in sadness, but he will not let that sadness
affect or change his thoughts of it. No; though Castor and Pollux be
dead, yet the earth is our mother still, fruitful, life-giving. These
are the facts of the thing. I see nothing else than these. Make what
you will of them.

Sec. 13. Take another very notable instance from Casimir de la Vigne's
terrible ballad, _La Toilette de Constance_. I must quote a few lines
out of it here and there, to enable the reader who has not the book by
him, to understand its close.

Vite, Anna, vite; au miroir
Plus vite, Anna. L'heure s'avance,
Et je vais au bal ce soir
Chez l'ambassadeur de France.

Y pensez-vous, ils sont fanes, ces noeuds,
Ils sont d'hier, mon Dieu, comme tout passe!
Que du resea