Page:On the Sublime 1890.djvu/69

XV by taking pains he often raises himself to a tragic elevation. In his sublimer moments he generally reminds us of Homer's description of the lion—

Take, for instance, that passage in which Helios, in handing the reins to his son, says—

And then—

May we not say that the spirit of the poet mounts the chariot with his hero, and accompanies the winged steeds in their perilous flight? Were it not so,—had not his imagination soared side by side with them in that celestial passage, he would never have conceived so vivid an image. Similar is that passage in his "Cassandra," beginning

Aeschylus is especially bold in forming images