struction, up to this point perfect, is now departed from. No doubt, as a sentence apart, it is good, and gives the strong place to the 'Iliad,' but a setting in better harmony with its surroundings would be 'The Iliad must be understood by the least imaginative of men'.

1. 13.-Homer, &c. This is according to principle. But there is no necessity for having it in a separate sentence; it is a mere iteration of the preceding, and may be joined on to that by a semicolon.

Incidentally we ask how this theory of Homer's poetry squares with Macaulay's theory about Imagination in early ages.

7. 16.-Back to Milton again, and so on to the end of the paragraph,

7. 19. Two distinct metaphors, to clench the exposition. They are here put negatively.

7. 20.-The first metaphor from the positive aspect.

1. 21. The second in the same way; and now that we have them all, we see a much better arrangement. To make these last two conform to the preceding sentence, which includes both, we should conjoin them by a semicolon. 'He sketches and leaves others to fill up the outline; he strikes the key-note and expects his hearer to make out the melody.' One of the figures is enough for clearness; moreover the second is misleading and spoils the good effect of the first. Who from the key-note can make out the melody? a feat that every schoolboy' knows to be absurdly impossible, there being hundreds of different melodies starting from the same key-note." (Minto's Manual of Prose Literature, 1st Edition, p. 99.) Once more in these concluding sentences we have Balance and Contrast.

Altogether, what expository devices does Macaulay employ in this paragraph?

I. Iteration.

2. Illustration-Metaphors.

3. Comparison, and Contrast.

1. 23.—We often hear of the magical influence of Poetry,—a good example of Macaulay's abruptness. Where are we going now? There is no indication at first. These sudden plunges are made for the sake of quickening the attention. Strictly we should expect a paragraph on this theme; but, as we read on, it dawns upon us that here we have merely 'Milton electrifies us through conductors' expanded into a paragraph. This then is a subordinate statement elevated for the sake of effect into an independent place. Join this and the next sentence thus :-' The phrase magical influence of poetry though in general meaning nothing, is, when applied to the writings of Milton, most appropriate'. 'The most appropriate epithet for Milton's poetry is its magical influence.' 'Milton's poetry is most appropriately described by an epithet which generally means nothing-its magical influence.' This last is the best.

7. 25.-A simile, following out the idea in 'magical'. 1. 26. A good contrast :-'obvious meaning-occult power'. 7. 27. Say-'His words at first sight seem to contain no more than other words': Mark the repetition of 'words'; 'than others' would be weak.

P. 18.

1. 1. The past is present and the distant near. Epigrammatic balance-an example of the sparkling, artificial and pointed remarks frequent in Macaulay. No sooner-an inversion for emphasis.

1. 3.—The burial-places of the memory give up their dead. A metaphor couched in the Biblical phraseology, of which our author is very fond.

7. 4.—Mark in the use of the Imperative mood the determination to have variety.

7. 7. The same metaphor that has prevailed throughout the

paragraph.

7. 9. An illustration from the Arabian Nights. Macaulay, it is said, kept up anecdotes of this sort for the express purpose of applying them on occasion to figurative use. This is more marked in our essay than in the later ones. We shall have numerous examples further on. The present example is very apposite and harmonises well with the 'magical' vein of the paragraph.

7. II. An actual example from Literature to strengthen his

case. Re-arrange for emphasis thus :-'A remarkable instance of this' [closer connection with what went before] 'is Dryden's attempt to translate some parts of P. Lost into his own diction—an attempt that resulted in miserable failure'. Or still better-'Of this we have a remarkable instance, in Dryden, whose attempt to translate, &c., ended in miserable failure'. This both joins on closely to the previous sentence, and carries up the chief phrase to the place of greatest prominence.

1. 14.-In support of these observations,-the unusual luxury of a phrase of Explicit Reference-demonstrative. The fact

predicated in the sentence is open to question, but we expect a paragraph on the charm of Milton's names and we get it. 'The muster rolls of names' is in the emphatic place, and it keeps the lead in all the sentences. 7. 18. A succession of shorter sentences for variety. 1. 20.-Link-a trite metaphor.

7. 21.—Another example of Macaulay's profusion in figurative matter. Here we have a touch of sentiment in the similes, and their purpose is not mainly to aid the Understanding, for that is unnecessary in the circumstances, but to deepen the impression on the Feelings.

P. 19.

1. 4.-One, another, a third, a fourth, -a sentence to each in orderly array. In those four sentences we have a perfect example of studied variety of expression. It is a principle of Rhetoric to avoid repeating words. Here there is a quadruple variation, transports us back'; 'places us among'; 'evokes all the dear recollections'; 'brings before us'. Over and above, there is variety in the things recalled. Did Macaulay intend the alternation

of Classical and Saxon?

1. 6.—While he is in the sentimental vein, he heaps up the concrete circumstances that are always so telling. No

order is visible in his arrangement—although ‘prize,' is presumably the highest of the four.

1. 9.-By way of setting off the sentimental, he takes us to the romantic and powerful side, and then, appropriately to close his paragraph, we have an elaborate cumulation of particulars, rising in strength-though upon no recognisable principle, to the 'smiles of rescued princesses,' which is sufficiently impressive as the climax.

Virgil,-Contiguity, Metonymy, author for his works —an every-day figure.

1. 14.-Coming to particular poems,—the emphasis as it should be.

7. 16.—Enough to say-' Mechanism of language could not be brought to a more exquisite degree of perfection'.

l. 18.—These poems :—demonstrative phrase of reference; as attar of roses—another simile, for impressiveness as well as intelligibility-greatly exaggerated.

P. 20.

1. 1.—Another paragraph apparently to deal with the points of resemblance between Comus and the Agonistes. We shall see.

1. 4.-A digression begins at this point and we hear no more of Comus and the Agonistes for two pages. Is this allowable? Apparently not. The discussion of the lyrical as against the dramatic is in order, if we only saw its connection and bearing better. We might begin with some such phrase of reference as-'Before discussing Comus and Samson Agonistes it will be necessary for us to make some remarks on lyrical as opposed to dramatic poetry. No two kinds of composition are so essentially dissimilar as the play and the ode.'

7. 6. The dramatist' now monopolises the space down almost 'to the end of the paragraph.

7. 10.-A forcible illustration.

7. 12.-An example from modern Literature.

7. 13.—An original comparison—in an amusing strain, worked up with Macaulay's usual felicity and profusion. Much less would do for the mere understanding of the writer's drift, but when he gets on a pleasing topic like this, he is no niggard of his colour. 'The rags of a beggar,' is an anti-climax for comic effect.

1. 21.- This species of egotism—a repetition in substance of the matter in the preceding sentences-a mode of explicit

reference. We at last get the character of the ode. So too in the next sentence.

Not a satisfactory paragraph. We began with Comus and Agonistes, and end without them. The paragraph indeed is entirely occupied with a contrast between the lyrical and the dramatic, and even that in itself is open to improvement. It would remedy matters to throw the first two sentences into one, thus:- 'The Comus and the Samson Agonistes, if different in some respects, are alike in this, that though in form they are plays, in reality they are lyrics. Why is this? The explanation is a long one.'

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