What do you say to this line of Homer as a piece of poetical full-band
music? I know you read the Greek characters with perfect ease, but
permit me, just for my own satisfaction, to put it into English
letters:--
Aigle pamphanoosa di' aitheros ouranon ike!
as if he should have spoken in our poorer phrase of
Splendor far shining through ether to heaven ascending.
That Greek line, which I do not remember having heard mention of as
remarkable, has nearly every consonantal and vowel sound in the language.
Try it by the Greek and by the English alphabet; it is a curiosity. Tell
me that old Homer did not roll his sightless eyeballs about with delight,
as he thundered out these ringing syllables! It seems hard to think of
his going round like a hand-organ man, with such music and such thought
as his to earn his bread with. One can't help wishing that Mr. Pugh
could have got at him for a single lecture, at least, of the "Star
Course," or that he could have appeared in the Music Hall, "for this
night only."
--I know I have rambled, but I hope you see that this is a delicate way
of letting you into the nature of the individual who is, officially, the
principal personage at our table. It would hardly do to describe him
directly, you know. But you must not think, because the lightning
zigzags, it does not know where to strike.
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