HEROES AND HERO-WORSHIP.* THE still vigorous and versatile person who

long filled the Greek chair in Edinburgh University maintains his fondness

for poetising. Little short of sixty years have passed since he essayed a translation of Goethe's Faust. The performance

had many merits, though it was deficient in the highest, as respects, in particular, the sweetness of simplicity or the grandeur of daring. What Dryden said about the renderings of Virgil which it was his aim to supersede, might be said of it. Though sensible, the meaning was set forth in a style "scabrous and hobbling." A higher note was struck, with more of delicacy, force, and completeness, in handling some of the great Greek tragedians, work to which, though a man cannot do everything, it is to be regretted that Mr. Blackie did not devote more of constancy and pains. His original verses, though numerous, have been brief, fugitive, and exceedingly miscellaneous. The present volume has more of unity stamped upon it than any of its predecessors, though it has also much diversity in substance, not in form. Truth to say, the sus- tained form of the metre, especially when it falls into rattling jingle, is a drawback. Here are the opening stanzas :— "I will sing a song of heroes Crowned with manhood's diadem, Men that lift us, when we love them, Into nobler life with them.

I will sing a song of heroes To their God-sent mission true, From the ruin of the old times Grandly forth to shape the new ; Men that, like a strong-winged zephyr, Come with freshness and with power, Bracing fearful hearts to grapple With the problem of the hour ; Men whose prophet-voice of warning Stirs the dull and spurs the slow, Till the big heart of a people Swells with hopeful overflow."

That is only tolerable. There are other passages of superior

terseness, verve, and sensibility, but they are counterbalanced by some which are lumbering or insipid, wherein the author does not sing of his subject, but merely writes about it.

The idea of the book is ambitions. It contemplates the presentation in lyric pictures of typical characters and scenes in European and West Asian history, reaching down from the earliest times. Some of these men and things are hardly amenable to a strictly poetic treatment, though others are capable of being portrayed in a manner to stir and thrill with

• A Song of Heroes. By John Stuart Blackle, Emeritus Professor of Greek in the University a Edinburgh. Edinburgh and London : W. Blackwood and Sons.

an inspiring interest. The Professor seems to have become conscious of the difficulties that beset his task,—may it not be suspected, of his own partial failure? He expresses a hope that "if the poetical treatment should fall under the censure of the judicious critic, the less fastidious student of human fates may not fail to find a fair amount of encouraging stimulus and healthy nutriment." Unquestionably there is much of genuine ardour and philosophic reflection in many of the pieces ; but equally true is it that the living fire is often wanting, insomuch that one is tempted sometimes to suspect an affectation of sentiment or enthusiasm, or to think of one who

laboriously tries, bon gre mal gre, to force a farrago of trivial

miscellanies into a straggling continuity with his thesis. The heroes celebrated fall into three classes, taken from the old world, the new, and the Middle Ages. Each group forms a singular medley of individuals largely unlike and nnallied.

The representatives of the old world are Abraham, Moses, David, Socrates, Alexander, Ca3sar, and Paul. From the Middle Ages are chosen Columba, Alfred, Wallace, and Bruce, the explanation being vouchsafed that had an appeal been made to other than English-speaking readers, Charlemagne might have taken the place of Alfred, and Barbarossa that of Wallace or Brace. The list of moderns comprises Luther, Cromwell, Washington, Nelson, and Wellington. Plainly there is incom- pleteness or partiality in these selections.

There is most to like in the pictures given of Socrates, Columba, and Cromwell. The first is landed as the great teacher of the lesson, "Know thyself." There is much of historical truth in the delineation, but the colouring does not always consort with the requirements of serious poetry. For instance, take the scene with the philosopher and an atheist :— " Came a little man, an atheist, Said in gods he could believe If with eyes he might behold them : What we see we must believe.

Said the son of Sophroniscus Do you see yourself, or me ? You may see my hand, my fingers, But myself you cannot see.

When I spread my guests a banquet Delicate with dainty fish, Though unseen, unnamed, unnoted, 'Twas the cook that sauced the dish.'" Columba was celebrated by Mr. Blackie long ago, and, although the picture now given is perhaps the best in this gallery, was celebrated with a finer touch. The presentment of Cromwell is vivid and forcible, especially so as regards the expulsion of the Rump Parliament; but it is spoiled by the closing stanzas :—

"And they went as wanton schoolboys When the master shows his rod, Or as idols from the presence Vanish of the rightful God.

He hath conquered. Clad in plain grey Hose, and worsted stockings grey, And a hat without a hat-band, He is England's King to-day."

The slovenly versification here is common throughout, while there are worse instances of bathos. Thus, of Alexander we are told :— " Indus with its seven mouths hailed him, Tideful ocean owned his rule, And with grateful grace to Neptune There he sacrificed a bull."

The grammar is often ludicrously confused. Thus :— " I will sing the son of Terah, Abraham in tented state, With his sheep, and goats, and asses, Bearing high behests from Fate."

Even worse are these lines about Edward and Wallace :—

" And the haughty, harsh usurper, With a cold unfeeling eye,

Diawn and quartered, disembowelled, Saw the noblest Scotsman die."

Edward must have had many lives ere he could remain a witness.

Mr. Blackie had a great purpose; but he has failed to

achieve it. His book will not enhance his reputation. It falls immeasurably short of what has been done in the same line by Lewis Morris and Francis T. Palgrave.