It is very difficult, by any process of criticism, to define the impression of greatness and of glory which the character of Achilles leaves upon the mind. There is in him a kind of magnetic fascination, something incommensurable and indescribable, a quality like that which Goethe defined as dæmonic. They are not always the most noble or the most admirable natures which exert this influence over their fellow-creatures. The Emperor Napoleon and our own Byron had each, perhaps, a portion of this Achilleian personality. Men of their stamp sway the soul by their prestige, by their personal beauty and grandeur, by the concentrated intensity of their character, and by the fatality which seems to follow them. To Achilles, to Alexander, to Napoleon, we cannot apply the rules of our morality. It is, therefore, impossible for us, who must aim first at being good citizens, careful in our generation, and subordinate to the laws of society around us, to admire them without a reservation. Yet, after all is said, a great and terrible glory does rest upon their heads; and though our sentiments of propriety may be offended by some of their actions, our sense of what is awful and sublime is satisfied by the contemplation of them. No one should delude us into thinking that true culture does not come from the impassioned study of everything, however eccentric and at variance with our own mode of life, that is truly great. Greatness, of whatever species it may be, is always elevating and spirit-stirring. When we listen to the Eroica Symphony, and remember that that master-work of music was produced by the genius of Beethoven, brooding over the thoughts of Achilles in the _Iliad_, and of Napoleon upon the battle-fields of Lombardy, we may feel how abyss cries to abyss, and how all forms of human majesty meet and sustain each other. FOOTNOTES: [12] That the poet of the _Iliad_ in its present form had this legend before him is clear from books xxi. 297, xxii. 355-360. [13] See Müller's _Dorians_, vol. ii. pp. 306-313. [14] Sections 18 and 19 of Plutarch's _Life of Pelopidas_ contain the best account of the sacred band, and place the Greek chivalrous sentiment in the clearest light. [15] It may be questioned whether this fragment ought not to be referred to the scene with the embassy later on in the play. [16] See Caxton's Preface to the _Mort d'Arthur_. CHAPTER IV. _THE WOMEN OF HOMER._