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Article ON THE NIGHT SCENE OF HOMER. ← Page 2 of 3 →
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On The Night Scene Of Homer.
With great deference to the Crutch-shaker sve do not see any necessity for having recourse to such a supposition , svhen the passage can be explained in the plain and , sve think , natural and obvious acceptation given above . Besides , there is the decided and decisive silence of the poet about clouds being seen , or svinds being heard ; nay , we have his express assertion that there svas not a breath of air at the time . True , the description may refer to an entire night , as sve believe it does : but sve
are svarranted to infer that it svas a " svindless" one throughout—no temporary cloud—shading , as the Professor , svith his pencil dipt in the inspiration of his native skies and mountains , svould , hosvever picturesquely , invest the scene svith—but one clear , cloudless , bright , blue sky all night , revealing every sign and every star to the gladdened shepherd ' s eye . And svell that shepherd knesv that he could not see all the constellations at once , that the Hyades and Pleiades svould appear before Orion and Sirius ; and so svith the other signs in their successive expansion and array , bursting from beyond and belosv the boundary of his visible horizon . For he knesv
" The starry lights that heaven's high concave crown'd ; The Pleiads , Hyads , with the northern team ; And great Orion ' s more refulgent beam , To which , around the axle ot the sky , The Bear revolving points his golden eye , Stiil shines exalted on the etherial plain . Nor bathes his blazing forehead in the main . " POPE ' S ILIAD , b . 18
We should not svish to sveaken by extension the position sve have taken up , but sve think that a consideration of the question , svhy svas the shepherd so glad at seeing all the stars ? svill tend further to strengthen our construction . Did he rejoice , then , merely because he sasv all the stars visible above him at any particular moment—for example , after the supposed clarification of the heavens by the breaking up of clouds ? No . He had often looked up and admired , but there svas no occasion
then for his special svonder or eestacy . He had no complete assurance as yet that this appearance svould last . It might have stormed and darkened before another star had set , or another arisen . But svhen at last he sasv sign after sign appearing , svhile others disappeared , " expanding to other stars another heaven , " as Sotheby says , and svhich Christopher himself pronounces to be the very " vision seen by Homer ;" then , indeed , his " assurance became doubly sure , " and he felt a professional satisfaction that there svould be a continuance of clear , fine sveather , a succession of sunny days , and starry or moon-light nights .
For it svas not the mere viesv of the starry heavens , per se , that so gladdened the shresvd though simple shepherd ' s heart , but also something of a selfish or utilitarian sentiment , mingling svith his astronomical enthusiasm , and regulating his natural disposition to star-svorship . A more difficult question to solve than svhat has been noticed above , is that which has been started , viz ., svhat object on earth svas the moon meant to represent , shining among the many stars ? The stars resembled the Trojan night-firesbut there svas no great central fire to mate with
, the moon . Query , might it not have been meant to resemble Troy-tosvn , svhich , sve are informed in a previous passage , svas illuminated in all her hearths and houses , to throsv farther light upon the subject-plain , or prevent surprise ? Shining on high from her lofty position , overlooking the svatch-fires , the city might in some sense be likened to the moon
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Night Scene Of Homer.
With great deference to the Crutch-shaker sve do not see any necessity for having recourse to such a supposition , svhen the passage can be explained in the plain and , sve think , natural and obvious acceptation given above . Besides , there is the decided and decisive silence of the poet about clouds being seen , or svinds being heard ; nay , we have his express assertion that there svas not a breath of air at the time . True , the description may refer to an entire night , as sve believe it does : but sve
are svarranted to infer that it svas a " svindless" one throughout—no temporary cloud—shading , as the Professor , svith his pencil dipt in the inspiration of his native skies and mountains , svould , hosvever picturesquely , invest the scene svith—but one clear , cloudless , bright , blue sky all night , revealing every sign and every star to the gladdened shepherd ' s eye . And svell that shepherd knesv that he could not see all the constellations at once , that the Hyades and Pleiades svould appear before Orion and Sirius ; and so svith the other signs in their successive expansion and array , bursting from beyond and belosv the boundary of his visible horizon . For he knesv
" The starry lights that heaven's high concave crown'd ; The Pleiads , Hyads , with the northern team ; And great Orion ' s more refulgent beam , To which , around the axle ot the sky , The Bear revolving points his golden eye , Stiil shines exalted on the etherial plain . Nor bathes his blazing forehead in the main . " POPE ' S ILIAD , b . 18
We should not svish to sveaken by extension the position sve have taken up , but sve think that a consideration of the question , svhy svas the shepherd so glad at seeing all the stars ? svill tend further to strengthen our construction . Did he rejoice , then , merely because he sasv all the stars visible above him at any particular moment—for example , after the supposed clarification of the heavens by the breaking up of clouds ? No . He had often looked up and admired , but there svas no occasion
then for his special svonder or eestacy . He had no complete assurance as yet that this appearance svould last . It might have stormed and darkened before another star had set , or another arisen . But svhen at last he sasv sign after sign appearing , svhile others disappeared , " expanding to other stars another heaven , " as Sotheby says , and svhich Christopher himself pronounces to be the very " vision seen by Homer ;" then , indeed , his " assurance became doubly sure , " and he felt a professional satisfaction that there svould be a continuance of clear , fine sveather , a succession of sunny days , and starry or moon-light nights .
For it svas not the mere viesv of the starry heavens , per se , that so gladdened the shresvd though simple shepherd ' s heart , but also something of a selfish or utilitarian sentiment , mingling svith his astronomical enthusiasm , and regulating his natural disposition to star-svorship . A more difficult question to solve than svhat has been noticed above , is that which has been started , viz ., svhat object on earth svas the moon meant to represent , shining among the many stars ? The stars resembled the Trojan night-firesbut there svas no great central fire to mate with
, the moon . Query , might it not have been meant to resemble Troy-tosvn , svhich , sve are informed in a previous passage , svas illuminated in all her hearths and houses , to throsv farther light upon the subject-plain , or prevent surprise ? Shining on high from her lofty position , overlooking the svatch-fires , the city might in some sense be likened to the moon