Page:Essays and Addresses.djvu/80

 refrain —and a more elaborate ode in praise of a victor (Ol. ix. i). Pindar's art demanded laborious studies in metre, in music, and in the adaptation of both to —the highly intricate systems of the choral dance. Tradition gives him several instructors—Scopelinus, Agathocles or Apollodorus, Lâsus of Hermione—not to mention the criticisms of Corinna. Good teaching, he says, can give a keener edge to native power (, Ol. xi. 20). But, wherever he alludes to the poet's craft, he dwells on the distinction between acquired skill and the inborn gift. Ol. ii. 86:— | | : "The bard is he whose mind is rich by nature's gift; men shaped by lore have sound and fury effecting nought; 'tis the chattering of crows against the godlike bird of Zeus." Ol. ix. 100:— | |  |  |  |  |  |  | : "Nature's gift is alway best; but many men have strained to win renown by feats whereto they had been schooled. Yet, where the god is not, a truer instinct ever counsels silence; paths are there beyond paths; one training will not form us all; the heights of art are steep." Nem. iii. 40:— | |