Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume One).djvu/80

 gods for him; or the prostration of old King Priam in the tent of Achilles as he implores the cruel victor for the dead body of his heroic son; or the meeting of Odysseus and Nausikaa, and the departure of the god-like sufferer from the house of the Phaiakian king, when Nausikaa, sad and bashful, hides behind a column and gazes after the departing stranger; or, after the terrible battle with the suitors, the meeting of Odysseus with the faithful Penelope, or the scene where the returning hero reveals himself in the garden to his old, sorrow-stricken father, Laertes. The reason why these scenes moved me so much more deeply than the descriptions of the battles in the “Iliad” and the fabulous adventures in the “Odyssey,” although these, too, were most fascinating, I only learned to appreciate later; it is because they touch within us the purely human feeling which depends neither on time nor place; which is neither ancient nor modern, but universal and eternal.

After reading Homer in translation I began to long impatiently for the study of Greek, and the ease with which I acquired that language afterwards was undoubtedly due to my desire to meet Homer in the full beauty of the original form.

Of course I was early introduced to the kings and to the republican heroes and sages of Roman history, and learned, through my own experience, to appreciate how greatly the study of a language is facilitated by studying the history of the country to which it belongs. This applies to ancient tongues as well as to modern. When the student ceases to look upon the book which he is translating as a mere pile of words to be brought into accord with certain rules of grammar; when that which the author says stimulates him to scrutinize the true meaning, relation and connection of the forms of expression