< Page:Hesiod, and Theognis.djvu
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HESIOD. indirectly a tribute to Hesiod. Darwin's 'Botanic Garden,' and the ' Loves of the Plants/ affect indeed the genesis of nymphs and sylphs, of gnomes and salamanders ; but the fanciful parade of these, amidst a crowd of metaphors, tropes, and descriptions, has nothing in it to remind us of Hesiod's * Theogony,' unless it be a more tedious minuteness, and an exag- gerated affectation of allegoric system. In truth, however, Hesiod's l Theogony ' is a work of which this or that side may be susceptible of parallel, but to which, in its own kind, and taken as a whole, none like nor second has arisen. The 'Shield' and the 'Fragments' are of too doubt- ful authorship to call for the reflected light of parallel- ism; and so our task of laying before the reader a sketch of the life, works, and after-influence of the Ascrsean poet is completed.

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