But our appreciation involves a clear recognition of the vast difference between ourselves and the ancient Greeks.

We see the Homeric poems in their true perspective through the dim vista of shadowy centuries.

We regard them as the growth of a long past stage in the historical evolution; implying a different social order--a different ideal of life--an archaic conception of the world and its forces, only to be reconstructed for the imagination by help of long training and serious study.

The multiplicity of the laws imposed upon the translator is the consequence of this perception.

They amount to saying that a man must manage to project himself into a distant period, and saturate his mind with the corresponding modes of life.