And he makes Agamemnon commend Idomeneus for drinking generously and honestly, whilst the others are afraid of their cups--as Claudius, King of Denmark, might praise one of his strong-headed courtiers, and laugh at Polonius. Agamemnon does not say that Idomeneus' goblet was _not_ mixed--was _neat_--rather we use to think that wine was always mixed--but whether "with small," as old Chapman says, or with water, I don't know--but I fancied water! But perhaps, Seward, the investigation of a Grecian Feast in heroic time, and in Attic, becomes an exigency. Chapman is at least determined--and wisely--to show that he is not afraid of the matter--that he saw nothing in it "altogether inconsistent with the dignity of the speech and the majesty of Epic Poetry." SEWARD. Dignity! Majesty! They stand, sir, in the whole together--in the Manners taken collectively by themselves throughout the entire Iliad--and then taken as a part of the total delineation. Apply our modern notions of dignity and majesty to the Homeric Poetry, and we shall get a shock in every other page. NORTH. The Homeric, heroic manners! Heyne has a Treatise or Excursus--as you know--on the @hautarkeia@--I think he calls it--of the Homeric Heroes--their waiting on themselves, or their self-sufficiency--where I think that he collects the picture. SEWARD. I am ashamed to say I do not know it. NORTH. No matter. You see how this connects with the scheme of the Poem--in which, prevalent or conspicuous by the amplitude of the space which it occupies, is the individual prowess of heroes in field--conspicuous, too, by its moment in action. This is another and loftier mode of the @hautarkeia@. The human bosom is a seat or fountain of power. Power goes forth, emanates in all directions, high and low, right and left. The Man is a terrestrial God. He takes counsel with his own heart, and he acts. "He conversed with his own magnanimous spirit"--or as Milton says of Abdiel meeting Satan--"And thus his own undaunted heart explored." SEWARD. Yes, Mr North, the Man is as a terrestrial God; but--with continual recognition by the Poet and his heroes--as under the celestial Gods. And I apprehend, sir, that this two-fold way of representing man, in himself and towards them, is that which first separates the Homeric from and above all other Poetry, is its proper element of grandeur, in which we never bathe without coming out aggrandised. NORTH. Seward, you instruct me by---- SEWARD. Oh, no, sir! You instruct me---- NORTH.