gn, such harmony of coloring, and such
consistency of character, that he is ready to give up his theories,
and to be angry with himself for doubting the common faith in the
personality of Homer.

Professor Felton, in his excellent edition of the "Iliad," thus
remarks in the preface: "For my part, I prefer to consider it, as we
have received it from ancient editors, as one poem, the work of one
author, and that author Homer--the first and greatest of minstrels. As
I understand the 'Iliad,' there is a unity of plan, a harmony of
parts, a consistency among the different situations of the same
character, which mark it as the production of one mind; but of a mind
as versatile as the forms of nature, the aspects of life, and the
combinations of powers, propensities and passions in man are various."
In these views, the literary world now very generally concurs.

"The hypothesis to which the antagonists of Homer's personality must
resort implies something more wonderful than the theory which they
impugn. They profess to cherish the deepest veneration for the genius
displayed in the poems. They agree, also, in the antiquity usually
assigned to them; and they make this genius and this antiquity the
arguments to prove that one man could not have composed them. They
suppose, then, that in a barbarous age, instead of one being
marvelously gifted, there were many; a mighty race of bards, such as
the world has never since seen--a number of miracles instead of one.
All experience is against this opinion. In various periods of the
world great men have arisen, under very different circumstances, to
astonish and delight it; but that the intuitive power should be so
strangely diffused, at any one period, among a great number, who
should leave no successors behind them, is unworthy of credit. And we
are requested to believe this to have occurred in an age which those
who maintain the theory regard as unfavorable to the poetic art! The
common theory, independent of other proofs, is _prima facie_ the most
probable. Since the early existence of the works can not be doubted,
it is easier to believe in one than in twenty Homers."--_Talfourd._

OPENING ARGUMENT OF THE ILIAD.

(_By Homer._)

Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring
Of woes unnumbered, heavenly goddess sing!
That wrath which hurl'd to Pluto's gloomy reign
The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain;
Whose limbs, unburied on the naked shore,
De