FRIENDSHIP-SHAKESPEARE.- 181 to the extraordinary devotion that he has awakened. Plato idealizes the situation by supposing that the two lovers engage in philosophical studies together, the elder devoting himself to the improvement of the younger, as Hercules did with Hylas. But in actual history, these friendships, when they occurred, were characterized by mutual heroic devotion to the death; whence they became a power in war, and a terror to despots. Disparity of years, and the personal beauty of the younger, entered into Plato's friendship, but were not universal accompaniments of the passion. The age of Elizabeth witnessed the poetic celebration of friendship on a very great scale. (See Professor Minto's English Poets, p. 215.) Shakespeare is a conspicuous example. The susceptibility to male friendship seemed one of his special characteristics. He has, in consequence, given it poetical embodiment, occasionally in his plays, and markedly in his sonnets. The type is almost purely Platonic. The attraction of the beautiful youth of the sonnets is personal charm, which is described with all the fulness, and almost with the very epithets, of beauty in women. The sonnets contribute to erotic embodiment rather than to such an ideal of friendship as we should prefer to see expressed, having a character and nobility of its own, instead of being an objectionable imitation of sexual love. The Lycidas of Milton is a tribute to friendship inspired by the calamity of loss. The language of mourning is given in Milton's manner, and the circumstances attending the disaster are rendered in the terms of ancient mythology. The lines where he celebrates the companionship of the two at Cambridge are an adaptation of the pastoral, by which they are treated as fellow-shepherds : For we were nursed upon the self-same hill, The whole passage is too fanciful to impress us with an ideal picture of friendship. The poem might have been devoted to the memory of any college companion suddenly cut off by a disaster; and it is not on the representation of friendship that its greatness depends. The emotional temperament of Burns bursts forth in his friendships; and these are occasionally the subject of his poetic pen. His Epistles to friends overflow in geniality and kindness: Content with you to make a pair In occasional touches, he reverts to the theme, as in " Tam O'Shanter' : And at his elbow, Souter Johnny, His ancient, trusty, drouthy crony ; They had been fou for weeks thegither. He Cowper is, by pre-eminence, the poet of friendship. is wanting in purely erotic effusions. His own private life was made up of intense friendships, which he celebrated in every form, and with all the arts suited to their illustration. His gratitude for the long-continued kindness of Mrs. Unwin is poured forth in the poem "To Mary'. Since he feels that she is nearing her end, he mingles pathos with the strain. The twentieth year is well-nigh past Since first our sky was overcast ;Ah would that this might be the last! My Mary! The daily offices of kindness and attention make the first essential in the picture of friendship. Nevertheless, as the consequence of the duration of the good offices, a disinterested feeling has grown up; the termination corresponding to the beginning of love in the sexes, and yielding the strongest fascination of personal companionship. Such friendship between opposite sexes is barely distinguishable from the happiest examples of the conjugal relation. Thy silver locks, once auburn bright, My Mary! For could I view nor them nor thee, My Mary! The tokens of affection on her part are delicately introduced so as to heighten the picture. Partakers of thy sad decline, Thy hands their little force resign; My Mary! And still to love, though press'd with ill, My Mary! AFFECTIONATE RELATION OF MASTER AND SERVANT. 183 There is nothing wanting in the expression of tender friendship, except surroundings. Had the composition been a more purely artistic effort, these would have been supplied. In the Task, the circumstantials of the poet's daily life are wrought up to the highest point of interest as a domestic interior whose groundwork is the relationship of friends. A touching picture of friendship is given in the closing stanzas of Gray's Elegy'. The single line— Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere speaks a volume of friendly attractiveness. We may append to this head the occasionally affectionate relation of Master and Servant, Patron and Dependent, Superior and Inferior, Teacher and Pupil. The relationship, in these instances, becomes tender, on the same grounds as friendship, by the mutual interchange of good offices and services, beyond what is strictly bargained for. The picture of Eumæus in the Odyssey is the celebration of fidelity on the part of the servant to his master. It recalls the faithful steward of Abraham, and the captive maiden in the service of Naaman the Syrian, by whose advice he was cured of his leprosy. The domestic (slave or servant) necessarily appears in epic and dramatic poetry, and performs many parts. The ideal of fidelity is an occasional type, but is rarely worked up with high poetic art; nor would it exhibit any novelty in the devices employed. Numerous varieties of the servant class are given in Shakespeare. The attached domestic in the old Scottish families is depicted by Scott. All the business relations of life are softened by the operation of the same disposition to mutual services, irrespective of the bare fulfilment of contracted obligations. The poet occasionally aids the moralist in setting forth the value of this element of human happiness. GREGARIOUSNESS.-PATRIOTISM. Under Strength, reference was made to the power of collective masses, which represent the highest form of human might. Another view needs to be taken of the same fact. Apart altogether from the exercise of power, there is a charm or fascination in the presence of Numbers, which penetrates our whole life. Besides forming attachments to individuals, under the strong instincts of sex and parentage, and by virtue of reciprocated services, we take delight in encountering even indifferent persons, when they are aggregated in numbers, small or large. In the family gathering, there are individual attachments, and also the influence of collectiveness. As the sphere of society is enlarged, the thrill of numbers is increased, notwithstanding the diminution of individual regards. The periodical gatherings of villages, townships,-are regular institutions, connected with religion, public business or amusements: and the ostensible purpose is often the smallest part of the attraction. Even the physical gratifications of life are notoriously heightened by sociable participation. The hilarity of a feast is only partly due to the pleasure of the table. The outbursts of joyousness usually reach their highest strain in the company of a multitude. The vast assemblies brought together by military array, by games, festivals or popular demonstrations, have a thrilling effect on every individual. The case of sociable emotion is not overlooked in art representations. The painter includes among his subjects the gatherings of numbers in armies, and popular congregations in every form. Poetry also embraces the topic, although it is very apt to be merged in the fighting interest of hostile masses. Milton repeatedly pictures the vastness of his hosts, both angelic and Satanic, without reference to their being actually engaged in combat. There is a mode of description suited to awaken the thrill of numbers, without the more exciting inspiration of war-like strength. To see this in its purity, we have to refer to the delineation of peaceable gatherings for a common object, as festivals and games. In quoting the legends of Delos, as embodied in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, Grote pictures_the_games periodically held at Dêlos in honour of the god. The expressions chosen are carefully suited to make us ideally present at a splendid gathering, and to recall something of the thrill of numbers, as we may have actually experienced it: -The promise made by Lêtô to Dêlos was faithfully performed amidst the numberless other temples and groves which men provided for him, he ever preferred that island as his permanent residence, and there the Ionians with their wives and children, and all their "bravery," congregated perio THRILL OF NUMBERS. 185 dically from their different cities to glorify him. Dance and song and athletic contests adorned the solemnity, and the countless ships, wealth, and grace of the multitudinous Ionians had the air of an assembly of gods. The Delian maidens, servants of Apollo, sang hymns to the glory of the god, as well as of Artemis and Lêtô, intermingled with adventures of foregone men and women, to the delight of the listening crowd.' The language is at every point suggestive not only of multitude, but of selectness and distinction, by which the influence of numbers is greatly heightened. The art of representing social gatherings has reached a high development in our time. The newspaper report of a great public ceremonial or amusement studies every contrivance of language that can give impressiveness to the delineation. The chief Rhetorical maxim in connexion with the art is to consider scenic description in the first instance, while qualifying that by the exhibition of numerical array. To this is added the minute picturing of a few select portions and incidents, which assist in vivifying the whole, and put the reader nearly in the position of the spectator. The extent and form of the aggregate mass can be given in the first instance by literal phraseology, and be afterwards augmented by all the circumstances that suggest a multitudinous host and the variety of its active manifestations. The picturing of Numbers with a view to awakening the gregarious thrill is a suiting introduction to the literary embodiment of the Patriotic form of tender interest. The sentiment towards our country and fellow-countrymen contains a portion of this interest along with purely egotistic feeling. A small amount of Tender interest mingles with more purely egotistic feelings in the sentiment towards country and fellow-countrymen. Common interests, companionship, sympathy and mutual good offices engender a kind and friendly regard towards neighbours, co-members of societies small and great, and fellow-subjects of the same political body; allowance being made for rivalry and partisanship, which operate to cause alienation and hatred. It is the business of the poet to look, by preference, on |