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THEORIES OF STYLE IN LITERATURE
and hoofs of iron, and slay one another in their insatiable
desires."*
We may learn from this author, if we would but observe
his example, that there is yet another path besides those
mentioned which leads to sublime heights. What path do
I mean? The emulous imitation of the great poets and prosewriters
of the past. On this mark, dear friend, let us keep
our eyes ever steadfastly fixed. Many gather the divine
impulse from another's spirit, just as we are told that the
Pythian priestess, when she takes her seat on the tripod,
where there is said to be a rent in the ground breathing upwards
a heavenly emanation, straightway conceives from
that source the godlike gift of prophecy, and utters her inspired
oracles; so likewise from the mighty genius of the
great writers of antiquity there is carried into the souls of
their rivals, as from a fount of inspiration, an effluence which
breathes upon them until, even though their natural temper
be but cold, they share the sublime enthusiasm of others.
Thus Homer's name is associated with a numerous band of
illustrious disciples not only Herodotus, but Stesichorus
before him, and the great Archilochus, and above all Plato,
who from the great fountain-head of Homer's genius drew
into himself innumerable tributary streams. Perhaps it
would have been necessary to illustrate this point, had not
classified and noted down
Ammonius and his school already
the various examples. Now what I am speaking of is not
plagiarism, but resembles the process of copying from fair
forms or statues or works of skilled labor. Nor in my
opinion would so many fair flowers of imagery have bloomed
among the philosophical dogmas of Plato, nor would he have
risen so often to the language and topics of poetry, had he not
engaged heart and soul in a contest for precedence with
* Rep. ix. 586, A.