Page:Hesiod, and Theognis.djvu/142

 indirectly a tribute to Hesiod. Darwin's 'Botanic Garden,' and the 'Loves of the Plants,' affect indeed the genesis of nymphs and sylphs, of gnomes and salamanders; but the fanciful parade of these, amidst a crowd of metaphors, tropes, and descriptions, has nothing in it to remind us of Hesiod's 'Theogony,' unless it be a more tedious minuteness, and an exaggerated affectation of allegoric system. In truth, however, Hesiod's 'Theogony' is a work of which this or that side may be susceptible of parallel, but to which, in its own kind, and taken as a whole, none like nor second has arisen.

The 'Shield' and the 'Fragments' are of too doubtful authorship to call for the reflected light of parallelism; and so our task of laying before the reader a sketch of the life, works, and after-influence of the Ascræan poet is completed.