Pagina 802 di 1391

'As bats in hollow of mystic cavern, whenever any of them has

dropped out of the string and falls from the rock, fly shrilling

and cling to one another, so did they with shrilling cry hold

together as they moved.'

And we must beg Homer and the other poets not to be angry if we

strike out these and similar passages, not because they are

unpoetical, or unattractive to the popular ear, but because the

greater the poetical charm of them, the less are they meet for

the ears of boys and men who are meant to be free, and who should

fear slavery more than death.

Undoubtedly.