have lodged them well in our minds, an infallible touchstone for detecting the presence or absence of high poetic quality, and also the degree of this quality, in all other poetry which we may place beside them.  Short passages, even single lines, will serve our turn quite sufficiently.  Take the two lines which I have just quoted from Homer, the poet’s comment on Helen’s mention of her brothers;—­or take his

[Greek:] A delo, to sphoi domen Paelaei anakti Thnaeta; umeis d eston agaero t athanato te. ae ina dustaenoiosi met andrasin alge echaeton;[77]

the address of Zeus to the horses of Peleus;—­or take finally his

  [Greek:]
  Kai se, geron, to prin men akouomen olbion einar[78]

the words of Achilles to Priam, a suppliant before him.  Take that incomparable line and a half of Dante, Ugolino’s tremendous words—­

  “Io no piangeva; si dentro impietrai. 
  Piangevan elli ..."[79]

take the lovely words of Beatrice to Virgil—­

  “Io son fatta da Dio, sua merce, tale,
  Che la vostra miseria non mi tange,
  Ne fiamma d’esto incendio non m’assale ..."[80]

take the simple, but perfect, single line—­

  “In la sua volontade e nostra pace."[81]

Take of Shakespeare a line or two of Henry the Fourth’s expostulation with sleep—­

  “Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
  Seal up the ship-boy’s eyes, and rock his brains
  In cradle of the rude imperious surge ..."[82]

and take, as well, Hamlet’s dying request to Horatio—­

“If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain
To tell my story ..."[83]

Take of Milton that Miltonic passage—­

                   “Darken’d so, yet shone
  Above them all the archangel; but his face
  Deep scars of thunder had intrench’d, and care
  Sat on his faded cheek ..."[84]

add two such lines as—­

“And courage never to submit or yield
And what is else not to be overcome ..."[85]

and finish with the exquisite close to the loss of Proserpine, the loss

  " ... which cost Ceres all that pain
  To seek her through the world."[86]

These few lines, if we have tact and can use them, are enough even of themselves to keep clear and sound our judgments about poetry, to save us from fallacious estimates of it, to conduct us to a real estimate.

The specimens I have quoted differ widely from one another, but they have in common this:  the possession of the very highest poetical quality.  If we are thoroughly penetrated by their power, we shall find that we have acquired a sense enabling us, whatever poetry may be laid before us, to feel the degree in which a high poetical quality is present or wanting there.  Critics give themselves great labor to