"Saunders's boey do 'ee mean?" "Yes; the fellow's father was a respectable man, so I thought I wouldn't be so sharp as I intended, but speak to him mildly, as a parson or one of those people would."

"He isn't a used to sich tenderness as that. Should'n wonder now ef a never seed 'twas lovin'-kindness at all. Folks be so contrairy."

"That may be, Jack; I've often and often found that the case, but I've got used to it, and don't expect anything better. A man that expects to be appreciated will be disappointed. It's a bad world, old man a dashed ungrateful world."

"All ignorance, my dear; they doesn't knaw when they'm a spoke to in that pleasant way that 'tis all for their own good."

|tory testimonials of Mr. Norcott, and ascertained that two of his cousins were members of Parliament (one of them a small official), also that he had a bishop for his uncle by marriage, and that there was a living in the family, no longer confined herself to tentative operations, but formally invested that young man, and sat down before him, assailing him vigorously with all the weapons of which the attack was in that day cognisant. But some innocent objector may remark, "How could curates be attacked in those days? There was no confession, no decorating of churches at all seasons of the year, no working of altar-cloths, no embroidering of stoles, no prostrations, no choirs, no schools, even, calculated to aid such designs!" Thou fool; presumest thou in thy small scale of sense to weigh thy opinion, founded on the exAfter this occurrence the spring ad-perience of a few years probably of a vanced at Wetton without incident generation at most — against the eternal worthy of special mention, although time instincts of spinsterhood expectant here was, of course, preparing events and sur- on earth? Because the modern method prises. As to the characters in this nar- of operating was not applicable to those rative, they were quietly working away, days, is that a reason why there should or being borne, towards their destinies. have been no operation at all? If a modLieutenant Hardinge was making the ern curate in his raffish wideawake, his most of the days that remained of his starched band, his bombasine waistcoat, country sojourn, sporting, visiting, but and his straight-cut surtout, got up in not making love, I am afraid. The imitation, as far as he dares, of a popish young fellow went to Colkatton now and priest, be, in that he is a bachelor, an then with a mind perfectly easy as to the object of competition, why should not an terms on which the acquaintance there ancient curate have been equally so, alwas maintained, and never for an in-though his ambition was to form himself stant suspecting the flushes, tremors, upon the model of a Methodist preacher? palpitations, meditations, and tears to Know well, that this relation is not for which his visits-nay, his looks, words, an age but for all time, and that whereand gestures gave rise. Although he soever a curate (unencumbered) iş, there had disappointed the matrimonial expec- will gentlewomen of a certain type be tations of Wetton, he was there regard-gathered together. In the days of Miss ed as an unaffected, good-natured, rather Tarraway's youth, Dissent was prevapleasant fellow. His want of liveliness lent in the West of England, and zealous was set down to a reflecting mind and young clergymen beholding this result professional study. "A fine honourable supposed it to be produced by someyoung fellow, and a thorough soldier, I thing effective in the snuffle, the whine, can assure you," was the testimony re- the uncompromising doctrine, the exgarding him of the doctor of the militia, ceeding plainness of worship, of attire, who, except for the three weeks during and of speech; and they too, being amwhich the regiment was occasionally em- bitious of winning souls, governed thembodied, practised in the town as an ordi- selves accordingly, as our officials have nary surgeon, and assumed, and was al-it. They probably were not aware that lowed, to be the highest resident military authority. Hardinge had come short of the stereotyped country town idea of a young officer, all dash, brilliancy, and extravagance, and so rather disappointed the place at his advent; but when the time of his departure approached, Wetton found that it was sorry to lose him. Miss Tarraway, having obtained satisfac

the popularity of the Dissenters was simply a measure of the unpopularity of the Church of England in those parts, as represented by its older and beneficed clergy. Those last-named public-spirited ministers had perceived that the people were in danger of becoming comparatively indifferent to field-sports, and of abandoning some flagrant vices, if by the in

fluence of both precept and example such, within were perfectly splendid. But I am lapses were not prevented. To arrest saying rather too much about this courtthe falling away, they, the clergymen, de- ship. Poor Gertrude was decidedly out voted themselves, hearts and souls, to of health, lost her fresh look and her following and recommending the sports, rounded form: the kind inquiries to and practising the vices, so that men which she was subjected vexed her, and could see their works. The stiff-necked struck a chill to her mother's heart. parishioners, instead of walking in the Pound had prescribed and supplied some way of their pastors, ran after the Dis- abominable mixture which he called a senters, rather to show how little feeling tonic, also a box of pills. The two tothey had in common with their own gether were enough to produce serious clergy, than because ranting and howling disease in a healthy person, and to hurry and cushion-thumping were to their lik- a patient towards the grave. One or two ing. But the rising generation of par- friends, more clear-sighted than the sons naturally enough supposed that apothecary, recommended an excursion, there was something positively attractive which he never would have suggested; in the Dissenting style when so many but of this Gertrude wouldn't even hear seemed to approve it; and so they vied at present, though she thought perhaps with each other in simplifying their she might be more disposed to travel in churches, their services, and their attire, the summer. I don't know what odd fanand in debasing their style of preaching. cies didn't occur to her now. Protestant Lydia's leading move, which we may call nunneries were beginning to be heard of; the preparation for her attack, was a gen- and she thought she would like to start a eral intimation that she was "becoming little society of sisters of the broken heart, serious." She adopted a bonnet which or something of that sort, who would do projected about three inches beyond the an incalculable deal of good, and be a real point of her nose, withdrew a good deal blessing to mankind. She wasn't quite from carnal amusements, attended meet- clear what their line would be, but she ings of the Bible and other benevolent had nearly made up her mind about the societies, took great interest in missions, bonnet of the order, a sketch of which and was deeply affected at some passages lay for long between the leaves of her in Norcott's sermons, which forced her blotting-book. And even yet, that stupid to raise her eyes to the preacher, uncon- fellow Hardinge would sometimes, by a scious of the fact that they were running thoughtless word or action, dispel for a over. She likewise discovered a great time all the resignation, and renew the passion for art, especially for oil-paint- whispers of hope, even if the whispers ings. But I wish it to be understood that were so low as to be almost inaudible. Lydia did not start off suddenly from her Admiral Tautbrace, having perceived that old path to walk in wisdom's ways. It the mention of the flag had not been was done gradually and cleverly, so that without its effects on Mrs. Fulford, took by-and-by, when the time had come for care to refer very frequently to that piece her timidly to seek spiritual advice from of bunting and its prospects. It had not the curate on one or two points, there" gone up" yet, and it had grieved Tom was nothing in her doing so to excite suspicion. Lydia did, moreover, some noble deeds of charity; and although her right hand was profoundly ignorant of the benefactions of her left, and vice versa, the secrets of both palms somehow were revealed to Norcott. When a young clergyman begins to think of matrimony, it is comfortable to know that the object of his regard is already very much what in his opinjon a clergyman's wife ought to be! There was a nice docility, too, about Lydia; she was willing to be guided by the opinions of a person whom she respected. Her features were expressive certainly, and she managed their play with great judgment. It was only lately that Norcott had become alive to the fact that her eyes when lighted up by the soul

Mainsplice to the heart to say that the First Lord had been compelled (much against his private inclination) to bestow the South American command on another officer whose claim it was impossible to overlook. (Mainsplice did not mention that this deserving officer could influence three votes in the House of Commons; and that the last division, on a question of confidence, had been what he called a [something] near thing, by George !) Tautbrace, however, would be borne in mind, and something else would be sure to turn up before long. You couldn't call Tautbrace by any means an old man, Mrs. Fulford thought he still possessed all the energy of youth; whatever his years were, was ready to take a command at a day's notice, was most distinguished in

his profession, and would certainly have a title some day. (This last idea the Admiral had cleverly insinuated.) Of course, Mrs. Fulford perceived that Tautbrace aspired to the honour of being her sonin-law; and although she rather hesitated about actively favouring his suit, she couldn't help reflecting sometimes that if things should take that turn, it might prove a tolerable dispensation.

useless for pickin' up one's fewd, besides woundin' of the gums and tongue; and trapesin' over rich carpets and amongst fine furnitur that a body dare not tech for fear of dirtyn' of 'em." This was very unlike the feeling of her son, who believed that nothing had been, or ever would be, so made as to be worthy of being used by him. He furthered his plans very much by giving expensive dinners to such young men as he could persuade to partake of them; and I think I recollect that many of those who declined his hospitality at first were wooed by the good report of the meat and drink, and by the advice that Ben lost money at cards like a lord at Crockford's. Like many another rising man, he became insultingly cool to some of his old friends. The distant and condescending salutation which he one day gave the militia

had in times past looked upon as his greatest social achievement, so wounded that gallant spirit, that he was fain to compose his mind by drinking steadily for three days and three nights, during which period he revealed to his familiars how "a dirty little puppy of a mechanic " ought to be treated.

From The Contemporary Review. THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES. PREFACE.

Ben Saunders, more and more intent on effecting a rise in the world, and playing the great part assigned to him by fate, did not make himself more popular with people of his own class by his very openly exposed pretensions. He did not care much for that, though; for he found that fortune had been favouring him in more ways than he had till now been aware of-she had not only suggested a great ambition, but had bestowed some very important means of gratifying it. sergeant-major, whose acquaintance he When the amount of the property left by his father came to be ascertained, it was found greatly to exceed the estimates of it made just after his death. The old builder had been industrious, shrewd, and frugal; his private expenditure had been a mere nothing in comparison of his income; consequently year by year he had been accumulating money, which he had put out to increase here and there, always discreetly. The deposits and investments coming to light week by week (for, as has been said, his accounts and memoranda were not of the most enlightening; moreover, his will disposed of his property in bulk almost) amounted to a hand- THE famous Episode of the Shield of some sum, the income derivable from Achilles in Homer is in its conception which, added to the profits of the busi- alike daring and simple, in its execution ness, sufficed for a good deal of indul-alike complete and gorgeous, from the gence. Under pretence that his mother's spirits would never revive as long as memory should be kept awake by the daily sight of things connected with the past, Ben persuaded her to go for change of air and scene to a house situated some little way in the country, a very different residence from their old one. He announced it as a temporary arrangement, but they never returned to the old house near the building-yard. It need hardly be added, that with the new abode a new style of living was adopted, not in the best of taste, but comprehending indulgences never dreamt of in old days. Only under vehement protest did Mrs. Saunders consent to these revolutions: if she had found herself as rich as Croesus, she would have considered it a presumption for "the likes of her" to be "eatin' with a silver fork, made for show, and quite

nature of the topics, and the telling sharpness of outline with which they are presented. The employment of a Divine personage as the artificer of the Shield seems to show that the design went far beyond anything which the eyes of his countrymen had been wont to view, and was in effect conceived in the mind of the Poet, not founded as a whole upon experience, and not representative of, but very much more advanced than, the Art of the period in which he lived.

This introduction of the god has the advantage, too, of enabling the Poet, without extravagance, to push to its furthest limit the vis vivida, the living and life-giving power, of his genius, and not only to introduce successions of events into one and the same scene, but to endow the things and persons represented with other incidents of vitality; as when

The epithets in the corresponding episode of the • Wordsworth, "Ode on the Recollections of Child- Eneid, compared with the number of lines, seem to be hood." nearly twice as many.

Upon the whole, I would venture to submit it, for the consideration of those who have a more extensive and accurate command of poetical literature than myself, whether any poet of any age has been so hardy and so powerful as Homer in the imaginative handling of material objects of Art for the purposes of Poetry? This hardiness and power of Homer unquestionably reach their climax in the "Shield."

It has already been noticed that legend does not enter into the representations of the Shield. The short roll of nascent Greek history or tradition had already, at the epoch of the Trojan War, yielded at least two great enterprises of historical interest to posterity; the voyage of the ship Argo, and the War of the Seven against Thebes. But it was only thus making its beginning; it perhaps was neither rich and full enough, nor as yet familiar enough to the mass, to make it more suitable for representations like that on the Shield, than the purely unattached and impersonal representations with which it is filled.

It may be also that the Eastern character, still attaching to the god-artificer Hephaistos, would have presented an incongruity in the treatment of purely national legends, which is not felt where the delineation of life, though thoroughly Greek, is still general, and where much of the subject-matter presented was probably common to Greece and to the Syrian and Assyrian East.

bronze, resulting from a mixture of tin and copper; but it is a question whether the mixed metal yielding the dark colour is intended, or the dark colour only. Nowhere else in Homer is there a reference to the making of a mixed metal. In general, to say the least, the workmanship of the Shield is employed upon the several metals, single and uncombined; and it is probable that the Poet meant, by their free intermixture, to aim at the effect of colour.* This likelihood is confirmed by his repeated use of the word Tokiw, to variegate, which seems to be taken from the sister art of embroidery, and which is applied with a peculiar propriety to the most brilliant of all the representations, that of the Dance at the close.

The reader, even in a translation, cannot fail to observe the highly archaic picture of life, presented by the scenes upon the Shield. The scene of the trial respecting the fine for homicide belongs to a stage of society anterior to law, though forms of polity have begun to exist; and when corruption, by the receipt of gifts other than the acknowledged public premium for superior judgment, (dorodokia,) had not yet come in. That of the harvest, where the master of the reapers is also the King, is yet nearer the patriarchal stage; but some difference is to be expected between the country and the town; which are distinct from one another in the Shield as they are also in the Iliad. In no particular do the manVirgil, on the other hand, has with per-ners of the Shield appear to differ from fect propriety adopted the basis of history those of the Poems generally: they are and legend for his otherwise derivative certainly not less primitive. representation of the Shield of Æneas. In the main it may be said, as to the But perhaps we are warranted in say-subject-matter of the episode, that the ing that the entire absence of tradition from the Homeric Shield not only accords with the recency of Greek national or quasi-national existence, but also with the belief that Art had not yet become, so to speak, endemic in Greece; as we may feel certain that the intense patriotism, which pervades the Iliad, would at a very early stage of development have impressed upon Greek art a national character by the free use of legend for the purpose.*

The materials used in the composition of the Shield deserve notice. The metals cast into the furnace are copper, tin, gold, and silver; and in one passage we find what may be a reference to kúavos, or

I may refer to Mr. A. S. Murray on the Homeric Question, CONTEMPORARY REVIEW, January, 1874, p. 239.

Poet represents, upon the surface offered by the great defensive weapon of the Warrior, first, through its outline, a figure of the universe, such as he conceived it ; secondly, a collection of all those scenes and events of human life, which were at once the most stirring, the most familiar, and the most important.

A question may be raised, whether we ought to conceive of the form of the Shield as oblong, or as round. This is not the place for a discussion on the subject: no epithet is used, in the description of the process of manufacture, which determines it; but I have taken the Shield to be oblong; and I may observe

See Pope's Observations on the Shield, following his 18th book. But he goes greatly beyond what I have stated. ↑ II. xxiii. 835