LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
AFTER THE TEMPEST (Strang)
ADORATION (Clark)
"A SNARE OF VINTAGE" (Beardsley)
SPIDERS OF MIGHTY BIGNESS (Strang)
THE BATTLE OF THE TURNIPS (Clark)
THE SUPPER OF FISH (Strang)
UNDERPROPPING THE WHALE'S CHOPS (Clark)
SOCRATES' GARDEN (Clark)
THE BANQUET OF BEANS (Strang)
THE PILLAR OF BERYLSTONE (Clark)
OWLS AND POPPIES (Strang)
DREAMS (Beardsley)
THE HALCYON'S NEST (Strang)
THE FLOATING FOREST (Clark)
THE ISLAND WOMEN (Strang)
WATER INCARNADINE (Clark)
It is a commonplace of criticism that Lucian was the first of themoderns, but in truth he is near to our time because of all theancients he is nearest to his own. With Petronius he shared thediscovery that there is material for literature in the debased andvarious life of every day—that to the seeing eye the individual ismore wonderful in colour and complexity than the severely simpleabstraction of the poets. He replaced the tradition, respected ofhis fathers, by an observation more vivid and less pedantic thanthe note-book of the naturalist. He set the world in the dry lightof truth, and since the vanity of mankind is a constant factorthroughout the ages, there is scarce a page of Lucian's writing thatwears the faded air of antiquity. His personages are as familiarto-day as they were in the second century, because, with his pitilessdetermination to unravel the tangled skein of human folly, he neverblinded his vision to their true qualities. And the multiplicity ofhis interest is as fresh as his penetration. Nothing came amiss tohis eager curiosity. For the first time in the history of literature(with the doubtful exception of Cicero) we encounter a writer whoseceaseless activity includes the world. While others had declaredthemselves poets, historians, philosophers, Lucian comes forth as aman of letters. Had he lived to-day, he would have edited a newspaper,written leading articles, and kept his name ever before the publicin the magazines. For he possessed the qualities, if he avoided thedefects, of the journalist. His phrase had not been worn by constantuse to imbecility; his sentences were not marred by the associationof commonness; his style was still his own and fit for the expressionof a personal view. But he noted such types and incidents as make animmediate, if perennial, appeal, and to study him is to be convincedthat literature and journalism are not necessarily divorced.
The profession was new, and with the joy of the innovator Lucian wasnever tired of inventing new genres. Romance, criticism, satire—hemastered them all. In Toxaris and The Ass he proves with whatdelicacy and restraint he could handle the story. His ill-omenedapprenti