brought this complaint in the hope of prevailing by the influence of his rank. This is perhaps one of the most remarkable Homeric compliments to the penetration and to the influence of _Tis_. When the sounds of music and dancing, as at a marriage feast, are heard in the house of Odysseus in Ithaca, _Tis_ is listening outside; and he blamed Penelope for her fancied hardness of heart, “because she had not had the courage to keep the great house of her gentle lord steadfastly till he should come home.” _Tis_ is not always the mouthpiece of such elevated sentiments. With a frank truth to life and nature, Homer depicts _Tis_ as indulging in an ignoble joy by stabbing the corpse of his once-dreaded foe, Hector, and remarking that he is safer to handle now than when he was burning the ships. In the _Odyssey_, when the maiden Nausicaa is conducting Odysseus to the city of her father Alcinous, we catch glimpses of a _Tis_ who nearly approaches the character of Mrs. Grundy, with an element of spiteful gossip added. The fidelity with which _Tis_ reflects public opinion is further seen in the circumstance that his solicitude for the rights of man is not strong enough to counteract his natural disposition to exalt over the fallen. Thersites was a commoner who presumed to speak his mind among his betters,—when one of them, Odysseus, dealt him a smart blow on the back, and caused him to resume his seat in tears. _Tis_ laughed for joy, saying in effect that it served Thersites right, and that he probably would not do it again. The Tory sentiment of this passage makes it appropriate to quote the version of it by the late Lord Derby:— “The Greeks, despite their anger, laughed aloud, And one to other said, ‘Good faith, of all The many works Ulysses well hath done, Wise in the council, foremost in the fight, He ne’er hath done a better, than when now He makes this scurril babbler hold his peace. Methinks his headstrong spirit will not soon Lead him again to vilify the kings.’”