Note 170 — Chapter VI · METAPHOR.
Reading edition
Mr. Kingsley has compared the ancient ballad,
“Could harp a fish out of the water, Or music out of the stane, Or the milk out of a maiden’s breast That bairns had never nane,”
with the modern adaptation,
“O there was magic in his voice, And witchcraft in his string!”
The expression of Herodotus about the Libyan wild asses, ἄποτοι, οὐ γὰρ δὴ πίνουσι, contrasts forcibly the two styles.—R. G.