Note 354 — PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. (continued 4)

I have always looked upon the story of the Sirens as being one of the most beautiful fictions in the Homeric poems. By the two Sirens I cannot but think that the poet meant to represent Philosophy and Melody, these being, as it were, the handmaids of Poetry. They assail the virtue of Ulysses with no vulgar temptations, by assuring him that they were well acquainted with all the martial exploits in which he had been engaged, and that he would leave them “much delighted, and with an increase of knowledge.”