Plato, on the other hand, I say so with all respect, seems to me in some cases to play on words: his arguments are very able, very philosophical, often very noble; but not always conclusive; in a language differently constructed they might sometimes tell in exactly the opposite sense. If this method has proved less fruitful, if in metaphysics we have made but little advance, that very fact in one point of view leaves the _Dialogues_ of Socrates as instructive now as ever they were; while the problems with which they deal will always rouse our interest, as the calm and lofty spirit which inspires them must command our admiration. Of the _Apology_ and the _Phaedo_ especially it would be impossible to speak too gratefully. I would also mention Demosthenes' _De Coronâ_, which Lord Brougham pronounced the greatest oration of the greatest of orators; Lucretius, Plutarch's Lives, Horace, and at least the _De Officiis_, _De Amicitiâ_, and _De Senectute_ of Cicero. The great epics of the world have always constituted one of the most popular branches of literature. Yet how few, comparatively, ever read Homer or Virgil after leaving school. The _Nibelungenlied_, our great Anglo-Saxon epic, is perhaps too much neglected, no doubt on account of its painful character. Brunhild and Kriemhild, indeed, are far from perfect, but we meet with few such "live" women in Greek or Roman literature. Nor must I omit to mention Sir T. Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_, though I confess I do so mainly in deference to the judgment of others. Among the Greek tragedians I include Aeschylus, if not all his works, at any rate _Prometheus_, perhaps the sublimest poem in Greek literature, and the _Trilogy_ (Mr. Symonds in his _Greek Poets_ speaks of the "unrivalled majesty" of the _Agamemnon_, and Mark Pattison considered it "the grandest work of creative genius in the whole range of literature"); or, as Sir M. E. Grant Duff recommends, the _Persae_; Sophocles (_Oedipus Tyrannus_), Euripides (_Medea_), and Aristophanes (_The Knights_ and _Clouds_); unfortunately, as Schlegel says, probably even the greatest scholar does not understand half his jokes; and I think most modern readers will prefer our modern poets. I should like, moreover, to say a word for Eastern poetry, such as portions of the _Maha Bharata_ and _Ramayana_ (too long probably to be read through, but of which Talboys Wheeler has given a most interesting epitome in the first two volumes of his _History of India_); the _Shah-nameh_, the work of the great Persian poet Firdusi; Kalidasa's _Sakuntala_, and the Sheking, the classical collection of ancient Chinese odes. Many I know, will think I ought to have included Omar Khayyam.