Pagina 479 de 1391

The verisimilitude which is given to the pilgrimage of a thousand

years, by the intimation that Ardiaeus had lived a thousand years

before; the coincidence of Er coming to life on the twelfth day

after he was supposed to have been dead with the seven days which

the pilgrims passed in the meadow, and the four days during which

they journeyed to the column of light; the precision with which

the soul is mentioned who chose the twentieth lot; the passing

remarks that there was no definite character among the souls, and

that the souls which had chosen ill blamed any one rather than

themselves; or that some of the souls drank more than was

necessary of the waters of Forgetfulness, while Er himself was

hindered from drinking; the desire of Odysseus to rest at last,

unlike the conception of him in Dante and Tennyson; the feigned

ignorance of how Er returned to the body, when the other souls

went shooting like stars to their birth,-add greatly to the

probability of the narrative.