inus preferred the Iliad._ "Whereas in the _Iliad_, which was
written when his genius was in its prime, the whole structure of the poem
is founded on action and struggle, in the _Odyssey_ he generally prefers
the narrative style, which is proper to old age. Hence Homer in his
_Odyssey_ may be compared to the setting sun; he is still as great as
ever, but he has lost his fervent heat. The strain is now pitched in a
lower key than in the 'Tale of Troy Divine': we begin to miss that high
and equable sublimity which never flags or sinks, that continuous current
of moving incidents, those rapid transitions, that force of eloquence,
that opulence of imagery which is ever true to Nature. Like the sea when
it retires upon itself and leaves its shores waste and bare, henceforth
the tide of sublimity begins to ebb, and draws us away into the dim region
of myth and legend. In saying this I am not forgetting the fine
storm-pieces in the _Odyssey_, the story of the Cyclops, and other
striking passages. It is Homer grown old I am discussing, but still it is
Homer." On the Sublime, IX, trans. Havell.

_no kind of traffic_. Cf. "Tempest," ii, 1, 148.

_The generations were prepared_. Wordsworth's "Excursion," VI, 554.

_the unapparent deep_. "Paradise Lost," VII, 103.

P. 116. _know to know no more_. Cowper's "Truth," 327.

_They toiled not_. Matthew, vi, 28.

_In them the burthen_. Wordsworth's "Lines Composed above Tintern Abbey."

_such as angels weep_. "Paradise Lost," I, 620.

P. 117. _In either hand_. XII, 637.

POPE

This selection begins with the second paragraph of the fourth lecture on
the "English Poets."

P. 118. _The question whether Pope was a poet_. Hazlitt had written a
paper in answer to this question in the Edinburgh Magazine for February,
1818 (Works, XII, 430-432), from which the following paragraphs down to
"Such at least is the best account" are copied. The question had been
previously answered by Dr. Johnson with the same common sense as by
Hazlitt: "It is surely superfluous to answer the question that has once
been asked, Whether Pope was a poet? otherwise than by asking in return,
If Pope be not a poet, where is poetry to be found? To circumscribe poetry
by a definition will only shew the narrowness of the definer, though a
definition which shall exclude Pope will not easily be made." ("Life of
Pope," ed. B. Hill, III, 251). In their edition of Pope (II, 140), Elwin
and Courthope express the opini