thor points out the advantages of Miltonic verse; and it must be confessed that Miltonic verse seems to be that happy medium in metre, which stands the best chance of giving the compressed sense of Homer without debasing its spirit: it is a stern criticism to say that Mr. Pope's is no translation of, Homer;' his warmest admirers will admit that it is not a close one, and probably they will not dispute but that it might be as just, if it had a closer resemblance to its original, notwithstanding what he says in the passage I have quoted from his preface. It is agreed therefore that an opening is still left between literal prose and fettered rhyme; I should conceive it might be a pleasant exercise for men of talents to try a few specimens from such passages in the Iliad, as they might like best, and these perhaps might engage some one or more to proceed with the work, publishing a book at a time (as it were experimentally) by which means they might avail themselves of the criticisms of their candid judges, and make their final compilation more correct: if this was ably executed, a very splendid work might in time be completed, to the honour of our nation and language, embellished with engravings of designs by our eminent masters from select scenes in each rhapsody, according to the judgment of the artist. Small engines may set great machines in motion, as weak advocates sometimes open strong causes; in that hope,and with no other presumption whatever, I shall conclude this paper with a few lines translated from the outset of the Iliad, which the reader, whose patience has hitherto kept company with me, may or may not peruse as he thinks fit. SING, Goddess Muse, the wrath of Peleus' son, That vex'd the sons of Greece, and swept her host 3 Of valiant heroes to untimely death; He, for the king's offence, with mortal plague Sage Chryses; to the stationed fleet of Greece, Kings, and ye well-appointed warriors all! He ceas'd; th' assembled warriors all assent, Let me not find thee, Priest! if thou presum'st The housewife's loom and spread my nightly couch; Hear me, thou God, who draw'st the silver bow; Hear thou, whom Chrysa worships; hear, thou king Of Tenedos, of Cilla; Smintheus, hear! And, if thy priest hath ever deck'd thy shrine Grateful oblations, send thine arrows forth; Strike, strike these tyrants, and avenge my tears! Spread the contagion dire; then thro' the camp Of great Achilles none delay'd to come, If quick retreat from this contagious shore Why falls Apollo's vengeance on our heads; And intermission from this wasting plague, Let victims bleed by hecatombs, and glut NUMBER. CXXIV. HESIOD's heroic holds a middle place between the Orphean and Homeric style; his Genealogy of the Deities resembling the former, and his Shield of Hercules at due distance following the latter his famous poem in praise of illustrious women is lost; from the words, "H Oin, with which it opened, it came in time to be generally known by the name of the Eoics, or The Great Eoics, and this title by misinterpretation has been construed to refer to the proper name of some favourite mistress, whom he chose to make the heroine of his poem: the poet being born at Ascra, a small village in the neighbourhood of Mount Helicon, Eoa was supposed to have been a beautiful damsel of Ascra, whom he was in love with this poem seems to have been considered as the best work of the author, at least it was that which brought him most in favour with his contemporaries, and gained him some admirers, who even preferred him to Homer; we cannot wonder if that sex at least who were the objects of his panegyric, were the warmest in his praise. I suspect that Homer did not pay much court to the ladies in his Margites, and as for the Cypriacs, they were professedly written to expose the gallantries of the fair sex; the character of Penelope however in the Odyssey is a standard of conjugal fidelity, and Helen, though a frail heroine in the Iliad, is painted with such delicate touches as to recommend her in the most interesting manner to our pity and forgiveness. Hesiod's address carried every thing before it, and the choice of his subjects shew that popularity was his study, for not content with engaging the fair sex in his favour by the gallantry of The Great Eoics, he flattered the heroes of his time, or at least the descendants of heroes, by a poem, which he entitled The Heroic Genealogy: as one was a professed panegyric of beautiful and illustrious women, the other was written in the praise of brave and distinguished men if this heroic catalogue comprized only the great and noble of his own sex, his Times and Seasons were addressed to the community at large, and conveyed instruction to the husbandman and labourer; nor was this all, for great authorities have given to Hesiod the fables commonly ascribed to Æsop, who is supposed only to have made some additions to Hesiod's collection; if this were so, we have another strong reason for his popularity- For fables, as Quintilian well observes, are above all things calculated to win the hearts of the vulgar and unlearned, who delight in pleasing tales and fictions, and are easily led away with what they delight in.' -In short, Hesiod seems to have written to all ranks, degrees and descriptions of people; to rich and poor, to the learned and unlearned, to men, women, and even to the deities themselves. Can we be surprised then if this politic and pleasing author was the idol of his time, and gained the prize even though Homer was his competitor? His contemporaries gave judgment in his favour, but posterity revokes the decree: Quintilian, who probably had all his works before him, pronounces of Hesiod, That he rarely soars; that great part of his works are nothing else but catalogues and strings of names, intermixed however with useful precepts |