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THE ODYSSEY.

of sophistry—another, that it is the inscrutability of truth, ever escaping from the seeker's grasp; while others, again, see in Proteus the versatility of nature, the various ideals of philosophers, or the changes of the atmosphere. From such source had the king learnt the terrible end of his brother Agamemnon, and the ignoble captivity of Ulysses; but for himself, the favourite of heaven, a special exemption has been de-creed from the common lot of mortality. It is thus that Proteus reads the fates for the husband of Helen:—

"Thee to Elysian fields, earth's farthest end,Where Rhadamanthus dwells, the gods shall send; Where mortals easiest pass the careless hour;No lingering winters there, nor snow, nor shower, But ocean ever, to refresh mankind, Breathes the shrill spirit of the western wind."

The grand lines of Homer are thus grandly rendered by Abraham Moore. Homer repeats the description of the Elysian fields, the abode of the blest, in a subsequent passage of the poem, which has been translated almost word for word—yet as only a poet could translate it—by the Roman Lucretius. Mr Tennyson has the same great original before him when he makes his King Arthur see, in his dying thought,

"The island-valley of Avilion, Where falls not hail nor rain nor any snow, Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies Deep-meadowed, happy, fair with orchard lawns, And bowery hollows crowned with summer sea."

The calm sweet music of these lines has charmed

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