Indeed, while I contend keenly for the historic aim and character of Homer, I understand the terms in a sense much higher than that of mere precision in the leading narration. We may, as I am disposed to think, even if we should disbelieve the existence of Helen, of Agamemnon, or of Troy, yet hold, in all that is most essential, by the historical character of Homer. For myself, I ask to be permitted to believe in these, and in much besides these; yet I also plead that the main question is not whether he has correctly recorded a certain series of transactions, but whether he has truly and faithfully represented manners and characters, feelings and tastes, races and countries, principles and institutions. Here lies the pith of history; these it has for its soul, and fact for its body. It does not appear to me reasonable to presume that Homer idealized his narration with anything like the license which was permitted to the Carlovingian romance; yet even that romance did not fail to retain in many of the most essential particulars a true historic character; and it conveys to us, partly by fact and partly through a vast parable, the inward life of a period pregnant with forces that were to operate powerfully upon our own characters and condition. Even those who would regard the cases as parallel should, therefore, remember that they too must read Homer otherwise than as a poet in the vulgar and more prevailing sense, which divests poetry of its relation to reality. The more they read him in that spirit the higher, I believe, they will raise their estimate of his still unknown and unappreciated treasures. FOOTNOTES: [12] Historical Antiquities of the Greeks, vol i. Appendix C. [13] Od. i. 326, viii. 72-82, 266-366, 499-520. [14] Il. xx. 213-41. [15] Il. xx. 179-83. [16] Il. xix. 148-50. [17] Hor. A.P. v. 359. [18] Od. iii. 266. [19] Il. xxiii. 826. [20] Ibid. 326-33. [21] Il. v. 801. [22] Il. xxiii. 409. [23] Od. iv. 797. [24] Nägelsbach, Homerische Theologie, Einleitung, pp. 1-3. [25] Scott has paid, however, a tribute to Shakespeare on this ground in ‘The Fortunes of Nigel.’ Novels and Romances, vol. iii. p. 68, 8vo. edition. [26] Il. iv. 438. [27] Strabo i. 2, p. 16. [28] Strabo i. 2, p. 20. SECT. 4.--_The probable Date of Homer._ In employing such a phrase as the date of Homer, I mean no reference to any given number of years before the Olympiads, but simply his relation in the order of history to the heroic age; to the events, and, above all, to the living type of that age.