through the city in terror at some peril or portent, illustrate the darker phases of life; the festive choral dance, the eager remembrance of home by a long-absent traveler, and maidens playing ball on the beach, the brighter side. It is to be noted that the greater part of these are taken from the life of women. Peaceful industry is represented by the wood-cutter, the tiler, the farmer reaping, the nurseryman, or grower of trees, the horse-jockey, the puffing of the smith's bellows; and once we hear the echoes of war in the clash of meeting phalanxes. Apsyrtus, in his interview with Medea, tries her as cautiously as a boy tries a swollen torrent through which not even strong men may pass. Comparisons with gods are not frequent. Jason is likened to Apollo, Medea to Artemis, Eetes to Poseidon. Similar is the comparison of Amycus to the monster-children of Typhoeus or Gaea. The minor comparisons for the most part cover the same range as the extended similes. Here, however, we find subjective illustration, in dreams, five times introduced. New animals are the seals, the aïovia (water-birds), and the popßás (grazing animal, cow or horse). Jason steals away like a thief; a blow rebounds as does the hammer from the anvil; the cattle of Helios are as white as milk; the ichor flowing from the ankle of Talos is like melted lead. A few examples, chosen from the finer similes, may best illustrate Apollonius's power of invention and skill in elaboration. To see how he has copied and expanded a Homeric figure, let us compare a passage from the Iliad with one from the Argonautica : "And as when speeds the thought of a man, who, having far traveled "And as a man that roams afar from his country, as often So then Athena, the daughter of Zeus, darting rapidly downward, "The poet's similes," says Mr. Mahaffy, "are rather introduced for their prettiness than for their aptness." Homer's favorite comparison with the lion, which appears no fewer than thirty times in the Iliad, gives place in Apollonius to the daintier figure of the star, which is used more frequently than any other. One of these is a good specimen of the poet's light and graceful treatment: "Up toward the city he went, resembling a star in his glory, Such a star as young brides, in their new-made cottages cloistered, Him to whom she is betrothed, and her parents are keeping her for him : Here is seen the Homeric detail, which does not add to the likeness between the things compared, but serves to bring out more vividly the picture presented in the simile. A neat and original conception appears in the following: So in her heaving breast fast fluttered the heart of the maiden." 8 2 1 ὡς δ ̓ ὅτε τις πάτρηθεν ἀλώμενος, οἷά τε πολλὰ ὑγρή τε τραφερή τ ̓ ἐνδάλλεται, ἄλλοτε δ ̓ ἄλλῃ ὡς ἄρα καρπαλίμως κούρη Διὸς ἀίξασα θῆκεν ἐπ ̓ ἀξείνοιο πόδας Θυνηίδος ἀκτῆς. — Argon., II. 543–550. βῆ δ ̓ ἴμεναι προτὶ ἄστυ φαεινῷ ἀστέρι ἶσος, I. 774-781. ὡς δὲ καὶ ἐν στήθεσσι κέαρ ἐλελίζετο κούρης. — ΙΙΙ. 754-759. In a different style, vigorous and rapid, is one illustrating the passion of Hercules on hearing of the loss of Hylas : "As when a bull rushes on, by the gad-fly tortured and maddened, There is no such brilliant series of similes as that which describes the sally of the Grecian host to battle in the second book of the Iliad. The narrative of the trial of prowess exacted from Jason by Eetes is, however, enlivened by no fewer than nineteen comparisons, greater and smaller; the two likening Jason to an impatient war-horse which smelleth the battle afar off, and to a flash of lightning darting from the clouds, have something Homeric in their vigor and their representation of succeeding phases of the same action : " Just as a spirited war-horse desires to enter the battle, Prancing and neighing and pawing the ground, and high in his mettle Tosses his head aloft, with ears erect for the tumult, Thus did the son of Eson exult in his limbs' manly vigor. And from the clouds, what time they bring the blackest of tempests." 2 In the following simile the vividness of the picture is increased 1 ὡς δ ̓ ὅτε τίς τε μύωπι τετυμμένος ἔσσυτο ταῦρος ὡς ὅ γε μαιμώων δτὲ μὲν θὰ γούνατ ̓ ἔπαλλεν συνεχέως, ὁτὲ δ ̓ αὖτε μεταλλήγων καμάτοιο τῆλε διαπρύσιον μεγάλῃ βοάασκεν αυτῇ. - Ι. 1265-1272. 2 ὡς δ ̓ ὅτ ̓ ἀρήιος ἵππος ἐελδόμενος πολέμοιο σκαρθμῷ ἐπιχρεμέθων κρούει πέδον, αὐτὰρ ὕπερθεν τοῖος ὰρ Αἰσονίδης ἐπαγαίετο κάρτεϊ γυίων· πολλὰ δ ̓ ἂρ ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα μετάρσιον ἴχνος ἔπαλλεν, III. 1258-1266. by the introduction of a minor comparison, a simile within a simile: "And as a spotted snake goes winding his crooked pathway With these illustrations of Apollonius's art we may conclude this essay upon one of the best of the Alexandrian poets. We may possibly have shown how much beauty and interest there is in a field which has been too much neglected by classical scholars, and by those readers who claim an acquaintance with the betterknown works of Greek literature. The intense and absorbing beauty of the productions of the Hellenic genius at its prime blinds our eyes to the merit of later works, which, though inferior, are by no means contemptible. An earnest plea should be made for this aftermath of Greek culture. Aside from their literary worth, the products of Alexandrian study and thought must have an intensely human interest for one who has caught their spirit. The perfection of Homer, of Pindar, of Sophocles, makes us despair; the imperfect strivings of Theocritus and Apollonius show us more of human nature, and charm us with the discovery of what man's labor and effort, struggling against odds and unfavorable conditions, can accomplish. The gods, if we may use a figure suggested by one of the ancient admirers of this school of poetry,2 may retain their seats in the heavenly Olympus; but the giants have raised their Pelion and Ossa to no mean height above earth, —and the giants are our own kindred of an earlier day. Of Apollonius it is to be said that he was the greatest poet of his age. Even though we may not care to learn from him in the matters of language and form, though his long narrative may in places have 1 ὡς δὲ δράκων σκολιὴν εἰλιγμένος ἔρχεται οἶμον, εὐτέ μιν ὀξύτατον θάλπει σέλας ήελίοιο· 2 Εἰ δ ̓ ὕμνων σκαπτρον Ομηρος ἔχει, καὶ Ζεύς τοι κρέσσων Ενοσίχθονος· ἀλλ ̓ Ενοσίχθων τοῦ μὲν ἔφυ μείων, ἀθανάτων δ ̓ ὕπατος. — Anth. Pal., VII. 409. Our version of the figure is juster. little attraction for us, there always remains this interest, that the Alexandrian has gone far beyond his predecessors and masters in the representation of the passion of love, and that he first struck with any certain tone the chord which has dominated later literature, and which awakens the most responsive feeling in our breasts. Charles J. Goodwin. SOME EXPERIMENTS WORTH TRYING IN THE MINISTRY. ONE of the greatest longings of a large class of young men in the ministry is for something new. Not necessarily new truths, nor new literary styles, nor new methods of converting men, nor new methods of preaching, but that consciousness of variety and freshness in the work of the profession that shall clothe old things with a new garment, and relieve the worker of the oppression which the thought of doing the same things that have been done in the same way so often gives him. I speak out of my own limited experience. For four years I have been trying to preach the gospel of the new creature in Christ Jesus. And the feeling that I have been threshing old straw and selling shopworn goods has very often raised the question in my own mind," Am I then a new creature myself? Is it true that all things have become new with me? And if so, how does it happen that so many things are old and wearisome and monotonous to me? Thou a preacher of newness of life! Surely thou must have been converted, if at all, from the top downwards, and the process has not yet reached the heart, that source of all fresh springs of inspiration and all new visions of real life!" Now it is the minister's business to win men to God the Father, and in that business the great law of service demands so much of a preacher, and rightly, that very many young ministers neglect the sources of self-development. Let me see if I can make that plainer. There is no doubt about it, the ministry does demand an immense amount of self-denial, of continual service to all sorts and conditions of men. The drain on sympathy, and intellect, and spiritual forces, and time, and physical energy is something tremendous. The temptation to pour out all one's strength like water is a real temptation with many a man starting out in this profession of service. And it is right here that many a minister, |