verse. Nature herself, as we have said, teaches the choice of the proper
measure.

Homer, admirable in all respects, has the special merit of being the only
poet who rightly appreciates the part he should take himself. The poet
should speak as little as possible in his own person, for it is not this
that makes him an imitator. Other poets appear themselves upon
the scene throughout, and imitate but little and rarely. Homer, after a
few prefatory words, at once brings in a man, or woman, or other
personage; none of them wanting in characteristic qualities, but each
with a character of his own.

The element of the wonderful is required in Tragedy. The irrational, on
which the wonderful depends for its chief effects, has wider scope in
Epic poetry, because there the person acting is not seen. Thus, the
pursuit of Hector would be ludicrous if placed upon the stage--the Greeks
standing still and not joining in the pursuit, and Achilles waving them
back. But in the Epic poem the absurdity passes unnoticed. Now the
wonderful is pleasing: as may be inferred from the fact that every one
tells a story with some addition of his own, knowing that his hearers
like it. It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of
telling lies skilfully. The secret of it lies in a fallacy, For, assuming
that if one thing is or becomes, a second is or becomes, men imagine
that, if the second is, the first likewise is or becomes. But this is a
false inference. Hence, where the first thing is untrue, it is quite
unnecessary, provided the second be true, to add that the first is or has
become. For the mind, knowing the second to be true, falsely infers the
truth of the first. There is an example of this in the Bath Scene of the
Odyssey.