Mr. Palgrave has, of course, cited with reference to Sophocles the great chorus in the _Œdipus Coloneus_, but he has omitted to notice that, if Sophocles has not elsewhere given us so elaborate a piece of natural description, innumerable touches in the dramas, and more particularly in the fragments, show that he observed nature almost as minutely as Shakespeare. Nothing could be more vivid than the touches of description in the _Philoctetes_. From Euripides Mr. Palgrave cites nothing, observing that he rarely goes beyond somewhat conventional phrases. Surely Mr. Palgrave must have forgotten the magnificent description of Parnassus, as seen from the plain, in the _Phœnissæ_, the glorious description of a moonlight night, as represented on the tapestry, in the _Ion_, the vivid touches of natural description in the _Bacchæ_, that of the meadow in the _Hippolytus_, and the chorus about Athens in the _Medea_, to say nothing of the charming rural picture in the fragments of the _Phaeton_.[33] To say of Aristophanes that, in his treatment of nature, he rarely goes beyond somewhat common phrases, is to say what is refuted, not merely in the chorus referred to by Mr. Palgrave, but in the _Frogs_ and in the _Birds_. He stands next to Homer in his keen sensibility to the charm of nature. Shelley himself might have written the choruses referred to. In dealing with the Alexandrian poets Mr. Palgrave passes over Apollonius Rhodius and Callimachus entirely, and yet the fine picture of Delos given by Callimachus in the Hymn to Delos is one of the gems of ancient description, and Apollonius Rhodius abounds with the most graphic and charming delineations of scenery and natural objects. What a beautiful description of early morning is this!-- ημος δ’ ουρανοθεν χαροπη ὑπολαμπεται ηως εκ περατης ανιουσα, διαγλαυσσουσι δ’ αταρποι, και πεδια δροσοεντα φαεινη λαμπεται αιγλη. _Argon._ i. 1280-1283. “What time from heaven the bright glad morn coming up from the East begins to shine, and path and road are all agleam, and the dew-bespangled plains are flashing with the radiant light.” How vivid too, and with the vividness of modern poetry, are his descriptions of the cave of Hades and its neighbourhood (ii. 729-750), and the Great Syrtis (iv. 1230-1245)! In his selections from the Greek Anthology Mr. Palgrave is much happier; but here again he has many omissions, and among them the most remarkable illustration of Greek nature-painting to be found in that collection--namely, Meleager’s idyll giving an elaborate description of a spring day, which might have been written by Thomson (_Pal. Anthology_, ix. 363). It may be observed in passing that ουρεσιφοιτα κρινα (_Pal. Anth._, v. 144) can hardly mean “lilies that wander over the hills,” but lilies “that haunt the hills,” and that ξουθαι μελισσαι in Theocritus, vii. 142, probably means “buzzing” bees, not “tawny.”