[59] Compare Lay of the Last Minstrel, canto i. stanza 15., and canto v. stanza 2. In the first instance, the river-spirit is accurately the Homeric god, only Homer would have believed in it,—Scott did not; at least not altogether.
[60] Compare the exquisite lines of Longfellow on the sunset in the Golden Legend:—
"The day is done, and slowly from the scene
The stooping sun upgathers his spent shafts,
And puts them back into his golden quiver."
[61] Iliad iv. 141.
[62] Iliad ii. 776.
[63] Odyssey, x. 510.
[64] Compare the passage in Dante referred to above, Chap. XII. § 6.
[65] Odyssey, xi. 571. xxiv. 13. The couch of Ceres, with Homer's usual faithfulness, is made of a ploughed field, v. 127.
[66] Odyssey, v. 398.
[67] Odyssey, xii. 357.