rt in the soul of Ulysses. Does he
not show within himself a deep scission--between his desire to return
and his deed? At any rate he is borne forward; when he sought to round
Maleia, the southern point of Greece (now Cape St. Angelo), and sail
home to Ithaca, he was carried out to sea by the winds, beyond the
Island Cythera, across the main toward the coast of Africa. Thus he is
swept outside the boundaries of Hellas proper into a region dimly
known, half-mythical; he cannot make the sharp turn at Maleia, inside
the Greek world; he must go beyond it and there reach his final
experience. Not simply physical is this description, else it would be a
mere statement in geography; it is also spiritual and hence rises into
poetry.

II.

Next is the land of the Lotus-eaters, where Ulysses and his companions
arrive, after being driven helplessly "across the fishy deep" for nine
days (this is a favorite number in Homer) by the hostile winds. The
Lotus-eaters, "whose food is flowers" use no violence, but reach to the
new-comers their plant, the lotus, to satisfy hunger. Whoever has once
tasted of that pleasant food, straightway forgets home and the Return,
and wishes to live always among the Lotus-eaters. The will is broken,
all activity is sapped; the land of idlers it is, relaxed in a sensuous
dream life, in which there is a complete collapse of volition.

Now the point is to connect this country with the Ciconians, or rather
to see this internal condition evolving itself out of the preceding
one. For the line of conjunction must be within, of the spirit;
physically the two countries are far enough apart. In the first case,
we have noted a state of external violence, which really means a
destroying of the will. The Greeks assailed a quiet people, assailed
its will; then they were beaten and driven off, they had their negative
deed served up to themselves. Now what? There follows an internal
collapse of the will, a logical result of their own conduct, which is
hinted by their being drifted about on the seas, apparently quite
helpless. No wonder that, when they touched land again, and obtained
some food, they desired to stay there, and eat of the lotus. Yet it is
the consequence of their own act; that wanton destruction of the
Ciconian will is at bottom the destruction of their own will; they are
really assailing their own principle--a fact which is to be brought
home to them by a long and bitter experience.

But there is o