The Russellville Democrat., 1889-08-22
wRGiITs NAsTER-MoRgs.


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 wRGlLss NAsTERswORsS. sorne srssrniatipns Homecoming thr Rack
 ground of gnman f1istpry-
 When Virgil. in the Enoid. had fin ishea the Odyssey of his first six books, whore he had necessarily made use for the most part or Homeric ma terial, and addressed himself to his ''nsg5us opus, tho Iliad of the Latin war. we know thar he contriVed to fuse with coHsuTn1uate art his old and new material; but how much did he himself, and his first raaaors or audIt- ors. believe ol the latterP How real, to him and them, was the fale which he told in the Inst six books oi his epic with SC fresh an inspiration, such kindled fra and heightened poetry. with B opth and sreadth oi human syrnpR- thy unmatched elsewhere by the most sympathetic poet of all timee We spaak Of the modern spirit Di Virgil h has become B commonplace Ill n devfne," savs Sainie-Beuva. ''H nne heure decisive du monde ce qu'aimernit l'avenir." Did he also appear .modern to the men of his own tlmePn He makes his domicoas intensely human filling tkair tale with life, sleeping their fate in tears The deepest student md werthiest heir of his method in our own day has done the same for the heroes of the Round Table. Did Virgil feel as free to do what he would with 1Eneas and Turnus and Evander as Tennyson did with Arthur and with IRuncelot?
 We may, ] think. taize 1t for granted that in the Aprnstsn nge the main in cidents of the Trojan war were still re- garded, quite simply. as historical. or the events which followed its close many different versions ssreaaT exist aa- The poet might ssleei his subjaet here, might devise episodes and esGal- fish psdigrees. as Virgil did for Au- eustns-as man may write an hist0r- ical novel fo-day-hut il would not answer fnr him 18 invent tho widely, or dnvia3e 100 far from the recnruizad line nf tradition, The sunpasad flmta of the Asian citr's fsAll wRs no mora distant from the men oi that period than the earliest oi She iiar.k ages are from onrsel Res---a little less remote in fact thRn the mr1hic events of the Arehurian rVcie- The proof is plain, even yet that primitive Italy was peBpled hy succession of cnlonists from the East, who bought for their fair tarritory, and wore 1ispBs- sessed in turn of her favorlsa sites, In sha historic times of Rome such proof must have bsen visible and palpable, on evary hand, to an extent which 1t is difficult for Us now 10 conceive. The final struggles of confederate I4asium taxed 10 the utmost thu resources of kings and early consuls, and craat Etruris had hardly h~aathad her las7 in the cantury when Cicaro numbered, and e('assar feIs, and Virgil sang
 Moreover. whiie she whole historic vista was actually much shorter then than il is now, it had entared no Rc- man mind as yet-save that of IIunre- tils. or some such dark and audacious she0ris5--Sarinusly Y to question 1hat the hegiuninc oi al things are divine A horo's c~uat at-rrundfa1her might well bs the '.saugI2ia& altimss auct0T, in She heavens, Of his iIlnstri0us race. the earlier she generation the more free uno familiar must needs have bean, man thnught it's intercourse with She co6s. and 1t was still currently be iieved that certain spots Di earth had haen seleota6 from thu origin oi all things bg the favor of divinity ana sannsified ny it's frequent visitation. Even man like Cicaro horn critiC aud bred lawyer, will nor hsve his friond tno hruully inquisitive about She antiquities ni his own native town. ..If is best. dear Ataeus, in B case like this, t0 acrept She pnes's version ni truth and nat insist upon Ehat uf an eyewitness "A &luutic.