avenge the slightest injury to them.40 Where such things were sung and welcomed, liberty had surely obtained a foothold, and a firm one. It is not worthy of those who love their race, to question the existence or the works of Homer. No troop of minstrels could have so consistently described the seen, or so continually aspired to the unseen world. The ardor for battle and the love of truth, with which the Iliad and the Odyssey are both filled, are such in their expression, as one and the same poet could alone harmoniously breathe. Yet while the grandeur of these poems was surely unattainable, except by one whose harp was strung to the sublimest airs, the feelings to which he gave a voice existed, though unsung, within his countrymen. His poetry is the utterance of an individual; but its character is altogether national. It came forth from a free spirit, adventurous yet devotional, to chime in with the same tones in every other spirit akin to his own. The place he fills in 41 the history of Grecian liberty is of one who speaks aloud and fervently of glories present to him and to his nation, while in the same breath he foretells the greater glories to come. And every Greek who strained his eyes to see the visions which Homer beheld in his blindness was unconsciously quickening the future dawn. 40 Odyss., VI. 207, 208, IX. 270. 41" The akun of Homer, taken from the age of 25 to 60 years, will fall," is the conclusion of Mr. Clin 66 ton, within B. C. 962-927, or from 165-200 years after the Tro- |