The significance of ais not easily to be pinned on paper by analytical . It is at its best when it is presented by awhorather than makes explicit what his theme portends; who presents it incarnate in theofand , as our poet has done. Its defender is thus at a disadvantage: unless he is careful, and speaks in parables, he will kill what he is studying by vivisection, and he will be left with a formal or mechanical allegory, and what is more, probably with one that will not work. For myth isat once and in all its parts, andbefore it can be dissected.