reality. Hence poetry implies either a happy gift of nature or a strain
of madness. In the one case a man can take the mould of any character; in
the other, he is lifted out of his proper self.

As for the story, whether the poet takes it ready made or constructs it
for himself, he should first sketch its general outline, and then fill in
the episodes and amplify in detail. The general plan may be illustrated
by the Iphigenia. A young girl is sacrificed; she disappears mysteriously
from the eyes of those who sacrificed her; She is transported to another
country, where the custom is to offer up all strangers to the goddess. To
this ministry she is appointed. Some time later her own brother chances
to arrive. The fact that the oracle for some reason ordered him to go
there, is outside the general plan of the play. The purpose, again, of
his coming is outside the action proper. However, he comes, he is seized,
and, when on the point of being sacrificed, reveals who he is. The mode
of recognition may be either that of Euripides or of Polyidus, in whose
play he exclaims very naturally:--'So it was not my sister only, but I
too, who was doomed to be sacrificed'; and by that remark he is saved.

After this, the names being once given, it remains to fill in the
episodes. We must see that they are relevant to the action. In the case
of Orestes, for example, there is the madness which led to his capture,
and his deliverance by means of the purificatory rite. In the drama, the
episodes are short, but it is these that give extension to Epic poetry.
Thus the story of the Odyssey can be stated briefly. A certain man is
absent from home for many years; he is jealously watched by Poseidon, and
left desolate. Meanwhile his home is in a wretched plight---suitors are
wasting his substance and plotting against his son. At length, tempest-
tost, he himself arrives; he makes certain persons acquainted with him;
he attacks the suitors with his own hand, and is himself preserved while