The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-28 00:00:00

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LITERATURE.

Ancient Classics for English Readers.
Homer's Iliad and Homer's Odyssey.
William Blackwood and Sons.

Specimen volumes these two are, but as such they
are—we may assert it confidently at once—all suffi-
cient. They are introductory to a new series of
educational works—Nl orks of themselves introductory
to all ancient literature. The appearance of a set of
educational looks of l recisely this character could
not pessibly be more opportune. At the very time
when the physical sciences and modern languages
are giving —not the a all, but—the go-by to some
among the choicest masterpieces of all literature,
to the great authors of ancient Greec,i and of
ancient Rome, it is, in a very especial way, desir-
able that sorae endeavour should be made systema-
tically to ensure a familiarity with the glories of
lettered Paganism in the minds of those who will
otherwise run a very imminent risk of foregoing al-
together any acquaintance whatever with the noblest
authors of antiquity. An enterprise exactly calcu-
lated to meet the rising want of the age is here there-
fore inaugurated, most acceptably, under the respec-
tive auspices of an editor as ripe in scholarship as
the Rev. W. Lucas Collins, and of publishers as
sagacious as the Messrs. Blackwood of London and
Edinburgh. "Ancient Classics for English Readers"
will be edited, as a whole series, by the Rev.
Lucas Collins. As indicative of the char-
acter of the scheme thus projected, the
editor of the entire series has himself very judiciously
produced the two first volumes. To himself and to
other contributors, the public will be indebted for
other works by which these initial books, or rather
booklets, will be followed. Fittingly enough, the first
two masterpieces of antique poetry, thus introduced
to non-classical English Readers, are the two
grand epic narratives of Homer the Iliad
and the Odyssey. The first, the most heroic,
narrative ever penned. The second, the most
enthralling record of marvellous and romantic ad-
ventures. Than Homer's record of " the Tale of
Troy Divine" there is nothing grander or majestic in
all literature. Than his description of the vicissi-
tudes of the wanderer Uly,ses, there is nothing more
enthralling in all the treasures of fiction. The story
of Ulysses or of Odysseus has about it all the glamour
of an Arabian Nights' Entertainment. Its incidents
are as attractive and as prefundly interesting as any
that have ever been described by the most sensa-
tional novelist or by the most wildly imaginative
romanciSt. No two narratives therefore could be in
any way more peculiarly well calculated to catch the
fancy and captivate the attention of the most care-
less student whether of ancient Or of modern litera-
ture. Beginning with the beginning, the editor of
the whole series, the author of these two volumes, has
also
-begun with the best—with the greatest master-
piece of ancient Literature, and with about the two
most enthralling and exciting histories that have
ever yet been related. The design kept in view in
each instance is that of explaining adequately, for
mere general readers, who the great writers of
antiquity were, and what it is they have written—
who HomER was, for example, and what it is
that he has sung, first of all in the Iliad,
and afterwards in the Odyssey. Succinctly, the
outline of each story is traced, the facts recorded
are defined, and the whole is very carefully "checked
by the results of modern investigations." Not only
this, but the works themselves—the " Iliad," for ex-
ample, and the "Odyssey "—are presented to the
English reader's view piecemeal, that is to say, by
the presentation of their more striking passages, in
the shape of a selection, here and there, incidentally,
from several of the more approved English transla-
tions. In this way it will be seen at a glance that
the animated and scholarly prose descriptions here
given by the Rev. Lucas Collins, now of the "Iliad,"
now of the " Odyssey," are inte:spersed with the
choicest fragments from the rhythmical readings of
Homer into English verse by Alexander Pope, by
William Cowper, by Dr. Maginn, by Lord Derby, by
Mr. \Vorsley, by Sotheby, and by others we wish we
could have added, very frequently also by one of the
most Homeric of all the English translators, old
George Chapman, whose rugged genius Mr. Collins
apparently altogether fails to appreciate. Reading
these two little books, each of which extends over
but very little More than one hundred pages of the
prettiest pocket volume, the non-classical reader can
never after affect an ignorance of themes with which
it would be a crying shame if any intelligent person
of the most ordinary education were not in some
way or another more or lesii familiarly acquainted.
The appetite will then grow with what it feeds on.
But, even supposing, for the sake of argument, that
it did not—this taste of antiquity is surely and quite
obviously better than no taste of it at all. Our con-
viction is, however, that the majority of Mr. Col-
lins' readers will turn at any rate to the translators,
if debarred from all thought or hope of ever turning
directly to the originals. Herodotus, the Father of
History, is promised, we are glad to see, in the next
volume, now immediately forthcoming—and after
Herodotus, we have the fair prospect, now, book by
book, of similar epitomes of Virgil, Horace, Cicero,
Juvenal, lEschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristo:
phanes, Terence, Salim', Livy, Caesar, Tacitus,
Anacreon, Lucretius, and others of the great authors
of Pagan antiquity. •

The Immortals; or, Glinzpses of Paradise. By Nicho
las Michell. One Vol. 'Pp. 224. W. Tegg.

Another Poem from the hand of Nicholas Michell.
Already he has produced five others more or
less remarkable. The " Ruins of Many Lands"—
" Pleasure," in Seven Books—" Sibyl of Cornwall"
—" The Homeward Bound"—and " The Poetry of
Creation" a work (this one last mentioned), in a
great measure analo&ous to the one he bas just now
completed under the more fanciful description of
The Immortals." It is one of our more agreeable
remembrances that, in these same columns, we were
among the very first to recognise the poetic gifts of
the writer of these six volumes of harmonious
verse and of delicate and elevated imagination. This
recognition of Mr. Michell's capacity dates back
now, as we very well remember, beyond an interval
from this present time of more than a whole round
score of years. Since then, our author has been true
to his office as a rhythmical celebrant of the glories
and beauties of Nature. If it be part of the Poet's
office to lift the thoughts of his fellow-
men from the dust over which they are,
here, in the flesh, moving—to lift them up into the
abysses of the vast Ifniverse—thiA office of the Poet,
the writer of the book now under notice, has most
certainly fulfilled. The range of his view is
beyond all doubt magnificent. It widens
out into the Infinite. His flights of fancy are
among the nebulae and the constellations.
If
there be one point in space around which he
may be said to revolve with. anything more like
constancy than round another, it is that Central Sun
which is now very generally believed among astro-
nomers to be one of the Pleiades. The poem is full
of elevating thought, and even the explanatory notes
appended to it are replete with ennobling suggestive-
ness. had we space for quotation, there are many
passages we would gladly excerpt in evidence of
the poetic force of our author's language, and of the
vitalizing power of his imagination.

According to apparently authentic advises from
the Red River, a Canadian named Scott has been shot by
order of Rion, the commander of the insurgent force, for
having been engaged in Boulton's late movement for upset-
ting the insurrectionary Government after his release on
parole from Fort Gan y.
THE Loss OF TIIE ADVANCE. —The inquiry of the
Board of Trade into the abandonment of the ship Advance
concluded at Liverpool on Friday, when the Court decided
to return Captain Flannery his certificate: