use of Ulysses on the
other. The second portion lifts the young hero into a vision of
divinity, and should lift the reader along with him. Previously Pallas
had, as it were, descended into Telemachus, but now he rises of himself
into the Goddess. Clearly he possesses a new power, that of communion
with the Gods. These two leading thoughts divide the Book into two
well-marked parts--the first including lines 1-259, the second
including the rest.

I.

The Assembly of the Ithacans presupposes a political habit of gathering
into the town-meeting and consulting upon common interests. This usage
is common to the Aryan race, and from it spring parliaments,
congresses, and other cognate institutions, together with oratory
before the People. A wonderful development has come of this little
germ, which we see here still alive in Ithaca, though it has been
almost choked by the unhappy condition of things. Not since Ulysses
left has there been any such Assembly, says the first speaker, an old
man drawing upon his memory, not for twenty years; surely a sign of
smothered institutional life. The first thing which Telemachus in his
new career does is to call the Assembly, and start this institutional
life into activity again. Whereof we feel the fresh throb in the words
of the aged speaker, who calls him "Blessed."

Now the oratory begins, as it must begin in such a place. The golden
gift of eloquence is highly prized by Homer, and by the Homeric People;
prophetic it is, one always thinks of the great Attic orators. The
speakers are distinctly marked in character by their speeches; but the
Assembly itself seems to remain dumb; it was evidently divided into two
parties; one well-disposed to the House of Ulysses, the other to the
Suitors. The corruption of the time has plainly entered the soul of the
People, and thorough must be the cleansing by the Gods. Two kinds of
speakers we notice also, on the same lines, supporting each side; thus
the discord of Ithaca is now to be reflected in its oratory. Three sets
of orators speak on each side, placing before us the different phases
of the case; these we shall mark off for the thought and for the eye of
the reader.

1. After the short opening speech of the old man, AEgyptius, the heart
of the whole movement utters itself in Telemachus, who remains the
chief speaker throughout. His speech is strong and bold; from it two
main points peer forth. The first is the wrong of the Suitors, who wi