United States or Spain ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The legends say Horatius Cocles defended a bridge, single-handed, against the whole Etrurian army—that Mamillus, the ruler of Tuscalum, fought a battle at Lake Regillus, in which the cause of Tarquin was lost—the subject of the most beautiful of Macaulay’s lays—and that Mutius Scævola attempted to assassinate Porsenna, and, as a proof of his fortitude, held his hand in the fire until it was consumed, which act converted Porsenna into a friend.
Through all the press and conflict, he watched for it, followed it—just as, he thought in one whimsical moment, the French troopers of Macaulay’s poem watched for the white plume of Navarre. If he had known even less about the game than he did, he must still have seen that for Harvard his brother and Ballard, the fullback, were playing especially well.
The jurisprudence of Rome has survived all her conquests, and is the most valuable contribution to civilization which she ever made. Their power came to an end in a signal manner, and the history of their fall is identified with one of the most beautiful legends of this heroic age, which is also the subject of one of Macaulay’s lays.
But he wields the weapon of trenchant irony with terrible force, and he adds the poet’s power of vision and the true historian’s sense of reality and sense of individuality. He has Macaulay’s gift of orderly narrative. He is equally masterly in describing a battle scene, a meeting of diplomatists, a revolutionary movement.
Word Of The Day