more complete picture of the Greek people of his time than any other writer with reference to any other age and people. Herder, a German critic, in speaking of Homer's writings, says: The truth and wisdom with which he unites all the subjects of this world in a living picture, the firmness of every stroke in all the personages of this immortal picture, the divine freedom with which he contemplates the characters, and paints their virtues and vices, their successes and disasters-this is what renders Homer unique, and worthy of immortality.'

The poetry of the 'Iliad' was so fervently admired in ancient times that men of learning could frequently repeat with facility almost any passage which might be referred to. Alexander the Great, it is said, admired it so much that he carried a copy with him on all his expeditions—sleeping with it beneath his pillow by night, and depositing it by day in a rich golden casket which had once belonged to Darius. While such intense admiration was displayed towards the poet in former times, the attractive nature of Homer's 'Iliad' is shown in more modern days by the extraordinary number of translations which have appeared a mere enumeration of these would be a difficult task-many displaying so much spirit and scholarship as fairly to entitle them to

a place in the library of all lovers of poetry and classical learning. The numerous authors of these would no doubt find profit as well as pleasure in their study of the original and the work of translation; though it is to be feared there is some degree of inutility in their number as well as in the many discussions and controversies regarding the site of Troy, the reality of Homer's existence, and his reputed authorship of the poems with which his name has been for so many centuries associated.

The Lay of the Nibelungen.

HE introduction of Christianity among the Ger

THE

man tribes greatly changed the character of their literature, and in place of the heroic songs and ballads of a barbarous paganism, the people rejoiced in hymns and legends founded on scriptural subjects. The language of their literature similarly changed-Latin becoming the favourite in the court as well as the Church, till the Crusaders brought about new ideas regarding the vernacular dialects, and wrought a reaction; the age of chivalry and romance creating a love for song, based on the legendary lore of Charlemagne, of King Arthur and his Round Table, which left its fruit in many of the best treasures of German national literature. Rude as many of these ancient ballads and songs no doubt were, they served as the mould in which much of the poetry of the northern nations was cast, and their antiquity carries us back to those warlike tribes that overran Europe from the fourth to the tenth

centuries of the Christian era; and however exaggerated they may be in themselves, they are almost the only native records we have of that long-past time--telling of a period upon which history is comparatively silent, thus possessing interest and claiming attention. If it is difficult sometimes to separate sober truth from the exaggerations of the bards, there are elements in the ancient ballads whereby to judge of the tastes and habits of the people of their time; and whatever else may be said regarding them, they have always held a high place in literature, but none is more worthy of fame or fuller of interest than that known as the Lay of the Nibelungen, which has always enjoyed a welldeserved popularity in Germany. It is generally supposed to be but a collection of old ballads and romantic legends, gems of their kind, strung together by some troubadour of the twelfth century-the date of the oldest manuscript of the epic; the collector writing connecting passages to link together. and give a unity. and completeness to the whole. There is, according to several critics, evidence that something like this stringing together must have been the case, there being various. incongruities in the complete epic which are easily observable-such as the curious mingling of pagan rites

with observances of the Roman Catholic Church, in one place speaking of the Mass, and in another of pagan sacrifices; but this latter characteristic is not exceptional with the Nibelungenlied, for it is to be seen also in Ariosto's 'Jerusalem Delivered,' and Camoen's 'Lusiad,' which are each the work of a single hand throughout.

The interest in this German epic is made to centre in the early parts upon the wealth which one of the heroes, Siegfried, has won from the Nibelungen-a royal race, of whom we are told little more than that they possessed vast treasures of gold and precious stones; further on, the principal interest lies in the carrying out of Kriemhilt's revenge for the murder of her husband, Siegfried; while, throughout the whole, the loves, adventures, feuds, and violent deaths of heroes and heroines, are skilfully and artistically portrayed. One of the most noticeable features in the epic is the unswerving loyalty of the vassals to their kings and chiefs, characteristic of a time when feudalism was the chief bond of society; and there are also glowing passages, detailing tournaments, feats of arms, and deeds of courage.

'The unknown singer of the Nibelungen,' says Carlyle, though no Shakespeare, must have had a deep