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,
Destructive source of all the numerous ills

That vex'd the sons of Greece, and swept her host

3

Of valiant heroes to untimely death;
But their unburied bodies left to feast
The dogs of Troy and carrion birds of prey;
So Jove decreed (and let Jove's will be done!)
In that ill hour, when first contention sprang
'Twixt Agamemnon, of the armies chief,
And goddess-born Achilles. Say, what power
'Mongst heav'n's high synod stirr'd the fatal strife!-
Son of Latona by almighty Jove--

He, for the king's offence, with mortal plague
Smote the contagious camp, vengeance divine
For the insulted honour of his priest,

Sage Chryses; to the stationed fleet of Greece,
With costly ransom off'ring to redeem
His captive daughter, came the holy seer;
The laurel garland, ensign of his God,
And golden sceptre in his hand he bore;
And thus to all, but chief the kingly sons,
Of Atreus, suppliant he address'd his suit.

Kings, and ye well-appointed warriors all!
So may the Gods, who on Olympus' height
Hold their celestial mansions, aid your arms
To level yon proud towers, and to your homes
Restore you, as to me yon shall restore
My captive daughter, and her ransom take.
In awful reverence of the god I serve.

He ceas'd; th' assembled warriors all assent,
All but Atrides, he, the general voice
Opposing, with determin'd pride rejects
The proffer'd ransom and insults the suit.

Let me not find thee, Priest! if thou presum'st
Or here to loiter, or henceforth to come,
'Tis not that sceptre, no, nor laurel crown
Shall be thy safe-guard: hence! I'll not restore
The captive thou demand'st; doom'd for her life
In distant Argos, where I reign, to ply

The housewife's loom and spread my nightly couch;
Fly, whilst thy flight can save thee, and begone!
No more; obedient to the stern decree,
The aged suitor turns his trembling steps
To the surf-beaten shore; there calls his God,
And in the bitterness of anguish prays.

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
Or on thy flaming altars offer'd up

Grateful oblations, send thine arrows forth;

Strike, strike these tyrants, and avenge my tears!
Thus Chryses prayed, nor was the pray'r unheard;
Quick at his call the vengeful God uprear'd
His tow'ring stature on Olympus' top;
Behind him hung his bow; onward he strode
Terrific, black as night, and as he shook
His quiver'd arrows, the affrighted air
Echo'd the dreadful knell: now from aloft
Wide o'er the subject fleet he glanc'd his eye,
And from his silver bow with sounding string
Launch'd th' unerring shaft: on mules and dogs
The missile death alighted; next to man

Spread the contagion dire; then thro' the camp
Frequent and sad gleam'd the funereal fires.
Nine mournful days they gleam'd; haply the tenth
With better omens rose; Achilles now
Conven'd the Grecian chiefs, thereto inspir'd
By Jove's fair consort, for the Goddess mourn'd
The desolating mischief: at the call

Of great Achilles none delay'd to come,
And in full council thus the hero spake.

If quick retreat from this contagious shore
Might save a remnant of our war-worn host,
My voice, Atrides, would advise retreat;
But not for me such counsels: call your seers,
Prophets and priests, interpreters of dreams,
For Jove holds commerce with mankind in sleep,
And let that holy convocation say

Why falls Apollo's vengeance on our heads;
And if oblations can avail for peace

And intermission from this wasting plague,

Let victims bleed by hecatombs, and glut
His altars, so his anger be appeas'd.

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