for the Greek nation."--Heeren, "Ancient Greece," Section vii. p. 107, sq. _ 108 The cranes._ "Marking the tracts of air, the clamorous cranes Wheel their due flight in varied ranks descried: And each with outstretch'd neck his rank maintains, In marshall'd order through th' ethereal void." Lorenzo de Medici, in Roscoe's Life, Appendix. See Cary's Dante: "Hell," canto v. _ 109 Silent, breathing rage._ "Thus they, Breathing united force with fixed thought, Moved on in silence." "Paradise Lost," book i. 559. 110 "As when some peasant in a bushy brake Has with unwary footing press'd a snake; He starts aside, astonish'd, when he spies His rising crest, blue neck, and rolling eyes" Dryden's Virgil, ii. 510. 111 Dysparis, i.e. unlucky, ill fated, Paris. This alludes to the evils which resulted from his having been brought up, despite the omens which attended his birth. 112 The following scene, in which Homer has contrived to introduce so brilliant a sketch of the Grecian warriors, has been imitated by Euripides, who in his "Phoenissae" represents Antigone surveying the opposing champions from a high tower, while the paedagogus describes their insignia and details their histories. 113 --_No wonder,_ &c. Zeuxis, the celebrated artist, is said to have appended these lines to his picture of Helen, as a motto. Valer Max. iii. 7. 114 The early epic was largely occupied with the exploits and sufferings of women, or heroines, the wives and daughters of the Grecian heroes. A nation of courageous, hardy, indefatigable women, dwelling apart from men, permitting only a short temporary intercourse, for the purpose of renovating their numbers, burning out