tional uses. Indeed, as I think modestly, he attributes his own justly merited reputation of being an original and brilliant talker largely to this habit of self-restraint. In the second place, it seems that classicism and erudition are best avoided. They are out of repute. Besides which, the temper of the day is one of self-contemplation, and concerns itself with neither. In the third place, quotations, especially at any length, must be most guardedly resorted to, having in view this fact: that as the evening paper is out by one o'clock the aptest quotation must be a little behind time. I thought this quite neat. Sebastian only smiled, and showed me the original idea in a monthly review nearly a year old. He thinks that the source of a quotation, whether from prose or poetry, should never be given; it is better manners to usher in one's quotation with an easy 'Who, or some one, says;' no one then can feel stupid or ill-read. Sebastian then said, jokingly, although I did not quite see the joke, that as Plato's philosophy was cloudland to the average intelligence, smart society was enchanted by it: so that I must read up one or two things in a book called Jowett.' There was something he said too about Hobbes, and all that sort of men, which I did not quite. catch the drift of.

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These practical hints, he thinks, and anything like ordinary luck, should help me to make a handsome beginning; and that with the addition of a few religious doubts, I may soon turn fearless somersaults in the smartest society. I thought this very vigorous, but he showed me the same idea in the current Fortnightly marked in violet ink for later use, the acrobat in the original being Mr. Robert Browning.

Well, the secret of Sebastian's system is now mine, at all events. I have only to get together my box of tricks, furbish up some implements, and get some stuff to work upon. Conversation may be a trade or a game, its art only artifice, its artists only handicraftsmen. It is possible that in these abundant days, conversation has only time to be, as Sebastian says, 'le vernis de toutes choses.' It may be that good conversation is merely the most nimble manipulation of other men's thoughts, the most tuneful arrangement of the most popular airs. It may all depend upon dexterity and opportunism, and yet I do not feel altogether confirmed that it is so, nor can I quite satisfy myself-the 4 to 7 cards notwithstanding-that Sebastian P. and his method have expressed the artist and the art of conversation; or that they have helped me to realise my impressions.

'There are many kinds of readers, and each has a sort of perusal suitable to his kind.' There are also many kinds of talkers, each with the conversation of his kind. Sebastian P. is one kind, and understands what suits his kind. But a master of the art of conversation surely understands and suits all kinds? Mr. Bagehot's subtle reader—the passage occurs in the essay on Gibbon-pursues with a

fine attention the most delicate and imperceptible ramifications of a topic, marks slight traits, notes changing manners, is minutely attentive to every prejudice and awake to every passion, watches syllables and waits on words, is alive to the light airs of nice association which float about every subject-the motes in the bright sunbeam-the delicate gradations of the passing shadows.'

Can Sebastian P. do all this? If he can, then Sebastian P. has the grand style of the art of conversation, and for a model I need look no further.

RIBBLESDALE.

PHOENICIAN AFFINITIES OF ITHACA.

THE field of the limited, but not unimportant, inquiry which I now propose will be sufficiently defined and opened if we bear in mind

1. That of the three great Ethnical factors making up the people to whom Homer sang, namely the Phoenician, Achaian, and Pelasgian, the first named brought as their contribution to the national compound nothing less than the arts of life, which are the instruments of civilisation.

2. That the Phoenician element came into Greece not, except in the case of the Cadmeians of Boeotia, by the immigration of races or bodies of men, but by the introduction of individuals or families, perhaps appointed under the Egyptian Empire, certainly qualified, to take the lead for political and social purposes in an infant society.

3. That the Phoenician name in Homer includes what is Egyptian, and generally whatever had come from the south-eastern quarter of the Mediterranean, by means of the Phoenician ships.

4. That Homer never in any case assigns a non-Hellenic origin to persons, or to manners, that had become Hellenic; and that it is only by comparison and inference, and the various forms of probable evidence as opposed to direct information, that we can establish any conclusions about them, as between indigenous and exotic origin.

I have to inquire, then, whether there are signs in Ithaca itself or in its king, or in both, which tend to show that his family was of Phoenician extraction, and that the island bore marks of Phoenician settlement within it.

Firstly, I think that these inferences will be strongly supported by an examination of the state of society on the return of Odysseus.

It is obvious that, if we accept as historical an expedition of the great chiefs and national forces of Greece to the East for an effort prolonged through a course of years; and if we also accept as possible the lengthened detention of some one or more among those chiefs. by a course of sea-travel after the termination of the war, we are prepared to expect, as a consequence, a considerable amount of disorganisation in the dominion so long deprived of the presence of its head. We look for something bearing a resemblance to what happened to Western Europe in the not wholly dissimilar case of the Crusades.

But the case of Ithaca presents to us much more than this. Even

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in the Iliad, there are signs tending to show that Odysseus was not fully and effectively acknowledged as sovereign throughout his nominal dominions. Doulichion, which according to my interpretation 1 designates the larger part of Cefalonia, supplied nearly half of the whole body of Suitors (fifty-two out of one hundred and sixteen); and these were probably the wealthier, as they alone are stated to have taken with them into Ithaca a certain company of attendants (dresteres), six in number. But in the Catalogue (Il. ii. 625) the contingent from Doulichion appears under Meges, not under Odysseus. Further, Odysseus commands only the inconsiderable squadron of eleven ships. There is but one smaller body specified, namely the nine ships from Rhodes; but the smallness of the force contributed by that island is probably to be accounted for by its distance and imperfectly established allegiance. The small squadron of Odysseus was, however, furnished not by Ithaca alone, but by Samê, Zante, and a strip of continental dominion (I. ii. 632-5). It seems probable that such a range of territory must have supplied a greater force, had it been completely assimilated to the rule of the Arkeisian family.

Let us now turn to the Odyssey itself. It is no wonder that the returning chief, as he arrives without companions, is at first led only to the house of a known and trusty dependent. But it is highly remarkable that at no stage of his proceedings does Odysseus either make or meditate an appeal to the people at large, or even to a section among them. He has only at best a handful of individuals specially related or dependent to assist him; his real reliance being upon his own energies and the unbounded resources of the great Athenê. Nay, he has cause to beware of a hostile popular intervention in the fearful business he has to carry on. Before he begins the slaughter,

he carefully closes the doors of the palace, and places the swineherd so as to prevent any ingress, as well as any exit (Od. xxii. 126-30). Very different was the mind of the imperilled Suitors. Will no one,' says Agelaos, 'go up by the postern, and let the people know? They will soon give the alarm, and make an end of this man's bow-play' (131-4). But, inasmuch as one man can hold the narrow passage (138), nothing can be done; and the work proceeds to its terrible consummation. Later, when Odysseus has repaired to the residence of his father, the friends of the dead Suitors (xxiv. 420) gather a public Assembly. It is addressed by Eupeithes, father of Antinoos, who had been the leader of the band. His purpose is to avenge them on Odysseus: his only fear, lest the hero, with his friends, should get away from the island (425-37). Medon, the Herald, then warns the concourse that he has seen a divinity giving countenance to the great retribution (442-9); and Halitherses, an old friend of the long absent chieftain, hereupon takes courage, not to assail or resist Eupeithes, but only to declare that he abstains from following him (462). But more 1 Macmillan's Magazine, 1877, 'Dominions of Odysseus' considered geographically.

than half of the Assembly start up with shouts, and follow Eupeithes to battle (463-6). Then follows, under the auspices of Athenê, his own death, and the defeat and rout of his party: the havock made by Odysseus being finally arrested by the intervention of Zeus, who brings about an accommodation. But, all the way through, the numbers in active partisanship are entirely with the party of the Suitors, and that portion of the Ithacan Assembly which had not favoured them remains neutral. We have here a spectacle very different from that presented by an homogeneous sovereignty. Odysseus and his friends everywhere appear with the signs of a minority upon them. It is with an evident consciousness of this state of facts that Halitherses addresses the Assembly, and describes the failure of the attempts which he and Mentor, friends of the absent chief, had been used to make towards stirring up the Ithacan people, not to uphold the rights of the absent lord, but to curb the insolence and arrest the misdeeds of the Suitors (456).

Let us now consider what further light can be thrown upon the subject by the race-nomenclature employed during the transactions.

Eupeithes, as we have seen, fears that Odysseus may escape from the island. But where is it that he is deemed likely to seek refuge or aid against the Ithacans? Not in his own dominions; but among the Pylians, or in Elis (430, 1). Now both these countries were under dynasties which bear signs of Phoenician extraction. Nestor was descended through Neleus from Poseidon (Od. xi. 254), a sure Phoenician mark. Elis had been ruled by Augeias (Il. xi. 701), and one of his descendants commanded part of the Elian or Epeian contingent before Troy (Il. ii. 624). But Augeias is one of the group of persons who bear the peculiar title of anax andron in the Poems, and I regard this title again as a certain mark of Phoenician relations.2

The name ordinarily attaching to the Suitors as a body is Achaioi, or else Kephallenes, which we may consider as meaning those Achaioi who inhabited the dominions of Odysseus. The Achaian name is indeed applied more loosely to the Ithacan population, as it is in the case of the Greek army at large, by derivation from the primary sense, which attaches it to the nobles (Od. i. 272, ii. 7). Such being the general employment of the Achaian name, it is obviously significant that in a marked passage we find the Suitors or their spokesman apply it to themselves in contradistinction to Odysseus, the acknowledged head of the community. And this, not when he was exposed in his disguise to insult, but when upon a full recognition of him they were seized with alarm (xxii. 43, 4). Then it is that Eurumachos addresses him with a futile attempt at conciliation. If you are indeed,' he says, 'the Ithacan Odysseus, then your description is a just one of what we, the Achaians, have been about.' Here seems to be indicated a distinction of race

2 Juventus Mundi, p. 171. But I should now state more pointedly the Phoenician relation.