right or wrong; So voluble a weapon is the tongue; Wounded, we wound; and neither side can fail, For every man has equal strength to rail: Women alone, when in the streets they jar, Perhaps excel us in this wordy war; Like us they stand, encompass'd with the crowd, And vent their anger impotent and loud. Cease then--Our business in the field of fight Is not to question, but to prove our might. To all those insults thou hast offer'd here, Receive this answer: 'tis my flying spear." He spoke. With all his force the javelin flung, Fix'd deep, and loudly in the buckler rung. Far on his outstretch'd arm, Pelides held (To meet the thundering lance) his dreadful shield, That trembled as it stuck; nor void of fear Saw, ere it fell, the immeasurable spear. His fears were vain; impenetrable charms Secured the temper of the ethereal arms. Through two strong plates the point its passage held, But stopp'd, and rested, by the third repell'd. Five plates of various metal, various mould, Composed the shield; of brass each outward fold, Of tin each inward, and the middle gold: There stuck the lance. Then rising ere he threw, The forceful spear of great Achilles flew, And pierced the Dardan shield's extremest bound, Where the shrill brass return'd a sharper sound: Through the thin verge the Pelean weapon glides, And the slight covering of expanded hides. Ćneas his contracted body bends, And o'er him high the riven targe extends, Sees, through its parting plates, the upper air, And at his back perceives the quivering spear: A fate so near him, chills his soul with fright; And swims before his eyes the many-colour'd light. Achilles, rushing in with dreadful cries, Draws his broad blade, and at Ćneas flies: Ćneas rousing as the foe came on, With force collected, heaves a mighty stone: A mass enormous! which in modern days No two of earth's degenerate sons could raise. But ocean's god, whose earthquak