diff --git a/file-io.ipynb b/file-io.ipynb
index 5560737..18e2a2c 100644
--- a/file-io.ipynb
+++ b/file-io.ipynb
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
   },
   {
    "cell_type": "code",
-   "execution_count": 2,
+   "execution_count": 3,
    "metadata": {},
    "outputs": [],
    "source": [
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@
   },
   {
    "cell_type": "code",
-   "execution_count": null,
+   "execution_count": 4,
    "metadata": {},
    "outputs": [],
    "source": [
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@
   },
   {
    "cell_type": "code",
-   "execution_count": null,
+   "execution_count": 5,
    "metadata": {},
    "outputs": [],
    "source": [
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@
   },
   {
    "cell_type": "code",
-   "execution_count": 8,
+   "execution_count": 6,
    "metadata": {},
    "outputs": [
     {
@@ -155,6 +155,29 @@
     "        with open(iliad_file, \"r\") as f:\n",
     "            a.write(f.read() + \"\\n\")\n"
    ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": null,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "from pathlib import Path\n",
+    "\n",
+    "path = Path('pope-iliad.txt')\n",
+    "content = path.read_text()\n",
+    "split_content = content.splitlines()[1000:2000]\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 8,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "with open(\"./sliced_lines.txt\", \"w\") as f:\n",
+    "    f.write(str(\"\\n\".join(split_content)))"
+   ]
   }
  ],
  "metadata": {
diff --git a/sliced_lines.txt b/sliced_lines.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ce02885
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sliced_lines.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,999 @@
+come to the birth. Traditions the most picturesque, episodes the most
+pathetic, local associations teeming with the thoughts of gods and
+great men, may crowd in one mighty vision, or reveal themselves in more
+substantial forms to the mind of the poet; but, except the power to
+create a grand whole, to which these shall be but as details and
+embellishments, be present, we shall have nought but a scrap-book, a
+parterre filled with flowers and weeds strangling each other in their
+wild redundancy: we shall have a cento of rags and tatters, which will
+require little acuteness to detect.
+
+Sensible as I am of the difficulty of disproving a negative, and aware
+as I must be of the weighty grounds there are for opposing my belief,
+it still seems to me that the Homeric question is one that is reserved
+for a higher criticism than it has often obtained. We are not by nature
+intended to know all things; still less, to compass the powers by which
+the greatest blessings of life have been placed at our disposal. Were
+faith no virtue, then we might indeed wonder why God willed our
+ignorance on any matter. But we are too well taught the contrary
+lesson; and it seems as though our faith should be especially tried
+touching the men and the events which have wrought most influence upon
+the condition of humanity. And there is a kind of sacredness attached
+to the memory of the great and the good, which seems to bid us repulse
+the scepticism which would allegorize their existence into a pleasing
+apologue, and measure the giants of intellect by an homeopathic
+dynameter.
+
+Long and habitual reading of Homer appears to familiarize our thoughts
+even to his incongruities; or rather, if we read in a right spirit and
+with a heartfelt appreciation, we are too much dazzled, too deeply
+wrapped in admiration of the whole, to dwell upon the minute spots
+which mere analysis can discover. In reading an heroic poem we must
+transform ourselves into heroes of the time being, we in imagination
+must fight over the same battles, woo the same loves, burn with the
+same sense of injury, as an Achilles or a Hector. And if we can but
+attain this degree of enthusiasm (and less enthusiasm will scarcely
+suffice for the reading of Homer), we shall feel that the poems of
+Homer are not only the work of one writer, but of the greatest writer
+that ever touched the hearts of men by the power of song.
+
+And it was this supposed unity of authorship which gave these poems
+their powerful influence over the minds of the men of old. Heeren, who
+is evidently little disposed in favour of modern theories, finely
+observes:—
+
+“It was Homer who formed the character of the Greek nation. No poet has
+ever, as a poet, exercised a similar influence over his countrymen.
+Prophets, lawgivers, and sages have formed the character of other
+nations; it was reserved to a poet to form that of the Greeks. This is
+a feature in their character which was not wholly erased even in the
+period of their degeneracy. When lawgivers and sages appeared in
+Greece, the work of the poet had already been accomplished; and they
+paid homage to his superior genius. He held up before his nation the
+mirror, in which they were to behold the world of gods and heroes no
+less than of feeble mortals, and to behold them reflected with purity
+and truth. His poems are founded on the first feeling of human nature;
+on the love of children, wife, and country; on that passion which
+outweighs all others, the love of glory. His songs were poured forth
+from a breast which sympathized with all the feelings of man; and
+therefore they enter, and will continue to enter, every breast which
+cherishes the same sympathies. If it is granted to his immortal spirit,
+from another heaven than any of which he dreamed on earth, to look down
+on his race, to see the nations from the fields of Asia to the forests
+of Hercynia, performing pilgrimages to the fountain which his magic
+wand caused to flow; if it is permitted to him to view the vast
+assemblage of grand, of elevated, of glorious productions, which had
+been called into being by means of his songs; wherever his immortal
+spirit may reside, this alone would suffice to complete his
+happiness.”[35]
+
+Can we contemplate that ancient monument, on which the “Apotheosis of
+Homer”[36] is depictured, and not feel how much of pleasing
+association, how much that appeals most forcibly and most distinctly to
+our minds, is lost by the admittance of any theory but our old
+tradition? The more we read, and the more we think—think as becomes the
+readers of Homer,—the more rooted becomes the conviction that the
+Father of Poetry gave us this rich inheritance, whole and entire.
+Whatever were the means of its preservation, let us rather be thankful
+for the treasury of taste and eloquence thus laid open to our use, than
+seek to make it a mere centre around which to drive a series of
+theories, whose wildness is only equalled by their inconsistency with
+each other.
+
+As the hymns, and some other poems usually ascribed to Homer, are not
+included in Pope’s translation, I will content myself with a brief
+account of the Battle of the Frogs and Mice, from the pen of a writer
+who has done it full justice[37]:—
+
+“This poem,” says Coleridge, “is a short mock-heroic of ancient date.
+The text varies in different editions, and is obviously disturbed and
+corrupt to a great degree; it is commonly said to have been a juvenile
+essay of Homer’s genius; others have attributed it to the same Pigrees,
+mentioned above, and whose reputation for humour seems to have invited
+the appropriation of any piece of ancient wit, the author of which was
+uncertain; so little did the Greeks, before the age of the Ptolemies,
+know or care about that department of criticism employed in determining
+the genuineness of ancient writings. As to this little poem being a
+youthful profusion of Homer, it seems sufficient to say that from the
+beginning to the end it is a plain and palpable parody, not only of the
+general spirit, but of the numerous passages of the Iliad itself; and
+even, if no such intention to parody were discernible in it, the
+objection would still remain, that to suppose a work of mere burlesque
+to be the primary effort of poetry in a simple age, seems to reverse
+that order in the development of national taste, which the history of
+every other people in Europe, and of many in Asia, has almost
+ascertained to be a law of the human mind; it is in a state of society
+much more refined and permanent than that described in the Iliad, that
+any popularity would attend such a ridicule of war and the gods as is
+contained in this poem; and the fact of there having existed three
+other poems of the same kind attributed, for aught we can see, with as
+much reason to Homer, is a strong inducement to believe that none of
+them were of the Homeric age. Knight infers from the usage of the word
+deltos, “writing tablet,” instead of διφθέρα, “skin,” which, according
+to Herod. 5, 58, was the material employed by the Asiatic Greeks for
+that purpose, that this poem was another offspring of Attic ingenuity;
+and generally that the familiar mention of the cock (v. 191) is a
+strong argument against so ancient a date for its composition.”
+
+Having thus given a brief account of the poems comprised in Pope’s
+design, I will now proceed to make a few remarks on his translation,
+and on my own purpose in the present edition.
+
+Pope was not a Grecian. His whole education had been irregular, and his
+earliest acquaintance with the poet was through the version of Ogilby.
+It is not too much to say that his whole work bears the impress of a
+disposition to be satisfied with the general sense, rather than to dive
+deeply into the minute and delicate features of language. Hence his
+whole work is to be looked upon rather as an elegant paraphrase than a
+translation. There are, to be sure, certain conventional anecdotes,
+which prove that Pope consulted various friends, whose classical
+attainments were sounder than his own, during the undertaking; but it
+is probable that these examinations were the result rather of the
+contradictory versions already existing, than of a desire to make a
+perfect transcript of the original. And in those days, what is called
+literal translation was less cultivated than at present. If something
+like the general sense could be decorated with the easy gracefulness of
+a practised poet; if the charms of metrical cadence and a pleasing
+fluency could be made consistent with a fair interpretation of the
+poet’s meaning, his _words_ were less jealously sought for, and those
+who could read so good a poem as Pope’s Iliad had fair reason to be
+satisfied.
+
+It would be absurd, therefore, to test Pope’s translation by our own
+advancing knowledge of the original text. We must be content to look at
+it as a most delightful work in itself,—a work which is as much a part
+of English literature as Homer himself is of Greek. We must not be torn
+from our kindly associations with the old Iliad, that once was our most
+cherished companion, or our most looked-for prize, merely because
+Buttmann, Loewe, and Liddell have made us so much more accurate as to
+ἀμφικύπελλον being an adjective, and not a substantive. Far be it from
+us to defend the faults of Pope, especially when we think of Chapman’s
+fine, bold, rough old English;—far be it from us to hold up his
+translation as what a translation of Homer _might_ be. But we can still
+dismiss Pope’s Iliad to the hands of our readers, with the
+consciousness that they must have read a very great number of books
+before they have read its fellow.
+
+As to the Notes accompanying the present volume, they are drawn up
+without pretension, and mainly with the view of helping the general
+reader. Having some little time since translated all the works of Homer
+for another publisher, I might have brought a large amount of
+accumulated matter, sometimes of a critical character, to bear upon the
+text. But Pope’s version was no field for such a display; and my
+purpose was to touch briefly on antiquarian or mythological allusions,
+to notice occasionally _some_ departures from the original, and to give
+a few parallel passages from our English Homer, Milton. In the latter
+task I cannot pretend to novelty, but I trust that my other
+annotations, while utterly disclaiming high scholastic views, will be
+found to convey as much as is wanted; at least, as far as the necessary
+limits of these volumes could be expected to admit. To write a
+commentary on Homer is not my present aim; but if I have made Pope’s
+translation a little more entertaining and instructive to a mass of
+miscellaneous readers, I shall consider my wishes satisfactorily
+accomplished.
+
+THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY.
+
+
+_Christ Church_.
+
+
+
+
+POPE’S PREFACE TO THE ILIAD OF HOMER
+
+
+Homer is universally allowed to have had the greatest invention of any
+writer whatever. The praise of judgment Virgil has justly contested
+with him, and others may have their pretensions as to particular
+excellences; but his invention remains yet unrivalled. Nor is it a
+wonder if he has ever been acknowledged the greatest of poets, who most
+excelled in that which is the very foundation of poetry. It is the
+invention that, in different degrees, distinguishes all great geniuses:
+the utmost stretch of human study, learning, and industry, which
+masters everything besides, can never attain to this. It furnishes art
+with all her materials, and without it judgment itself can at best but
+“steal wisely:” for art is only like a prudent steward that lives on
+managing the riches of nature. Whatever praises may be given to works
+of judgment, there is not even a single beauty in them to which the
+invention must not contribute: as in the most regular gardens, art can
+only reduce beauties of nature to more regularity, and such a figure,
+which the common eye may better take in, and is, therefore, more
+entertained with. And, perhaps, the reason why common critics are
+inclined to prefer a judicious and methodical genius to a great and
+fruitful one, is, because they find it easier for themselves to pursue
+their observations through a uniform and bounded walk of art, than to
+comprehend the vast and various extent of nature.
+
+Our author’s work is a wild paradise, where, if we cannot see all the
+beauties so distinctly as in an ordered garden, it is only because the
+number of them is infinitely greater. It is like a copious nursery,
+which contains the seeds and first productions of every kind, out of
+which those who followed him have but selected some particular plants,
+each according to his fancy, to cultivate and beautify. If some things
+are too luxuriant it is owing to the richness of the soil; and if
+others are not arrived to perfection or maturity, it is only because
+they are overrun and oppressed by those of a stronger nature.
+
+It is to the strength of this amazing invention we are to attribute
+that unequalled fire and rapture which is so forcible in Homer, that no
+man of a true poetical spirit is master of himself while he reads him.
+What he writes is of the most animated nature imaginable; every thing
+moves, every thing lives, and is put in action. If a council be called,
+or a battle fought, you are not coldly informed of what was said or
+done as from a third person; the reader is hurried out of himself by
+the force of the poet’s imagination, and turns in one place to a
+hearer, in another to a spectator. The course of his verses resembles
+that of the army he describes,
+
+    Οἵδ’ ἄῤ ἴσαν, ὡσεί τε πυρὶ χθὼν πἆσα νέμοιτο.
+
+“They pour along like a fire that sweeps the whole earth before it.” It
+is, however, remarkable, that his fancy, which is everywhere vigorous,
+is not discovered immediately at the beginning of his poem in its
+fullest splendour: it grows in the progress both upon himself and
+others, and becomes on fire, like a chariot-wheel, by its own rapidity.
+Exact disposition, just thought, correct elocution, polished numbers,
+may have been found in a thousand; but this poetic fire, this “vivida
+vis animi,” in a very few. Even in works where all those are imperfect
+or neglected, this can overpower criticism, and make us admire even
+while we disapprove. Nay, where this appears, though attended with
+absurdities, it brightens all the rubbish about it, till we see nothing
+but its own splendour. This fire is discerned in Virgil, but discerned
+as through a glass, reflected from Homer, more shining than fierce, but
+everywhere equal and constant: in Lucan and Statius it bursts out in
+sudden, short, and interrupted flashes: In Milton it glows like a
+furnace kept up to an uncommon ardour by the force of art: in
+Shakspeare it strikes before we are aware, like an accidental fire from
+heaven: but in Homer, and in him only, it burns everywhere clearly and
+everywhere irresistibly.
+
+I shall here endeavour to show how this vast invention exerts itself in
+a manner superior to that of any poet through all the main constituent
+parts of his work: as it is the great and peculiar characteristic which
+distinguishes him from all other authors.
+
+This strong and ruling faculty was like a powerful star, which, in the
+violence of its course, drew all things within its vortex. It seemed
+not enough to have taken in the whole circle of arts, and the whole
+compass of nature, to supply his maxims and reflections; all the inward
+passions and affections of mankind, to furnish his characters: and all
+the outward forms and images of things for his descriptions: but
+wanting yet an ampler sphere to expatiate in, he opened a new and
+boundless walk for his imagination, and created a world for himself in
+the invention of fable. That which Aristotle calls “the soul of
+poetry,” was first breathed into it by Homer. I shall begin with
+considering him in his part, as it is naturally the first; and I speak
+of it both as it means the design of a poem, and as it is taken for
+fiction.
+
+
+Fable may be divided into the probable, the allegorical, and the
+marvellous. The probable fable is the recital of such actions as,
+though they did not happen, yet might, in the common course of nature;
+or of such as, though they did, became fables by the additional
+episodes and manner of telling them. Of this sort is the main story of
+an epic poem, “The return of Ulysses, the settlement of the Trojans in
+Italy,” or the like. That of the Iliad is the “anger of Achilles,” the
+most short and single subject that ever was chosen by any poet. Yet
+this he has supplied with a vaster variety of incidents and events, and
+crowded with a greater number of councils, speeches, battles, and
+episodes of all kinds, than are to be found even in those poems whose
+schemes are of the utmost latitude and irregularity. The action is
+hurried on with the most vehement spirit, and its whole duration
+employs not so much as fifty days. Virgil, for want of so warm a
+genius, aided himself by taking in a more extensive subject, as well as
+a greater length of time, and contracting the design of both Homer’s
+poems into one, which is yet but a fourth part as large as his. The
+other epic poets have used the same practice, but generally carried it
+so far as to superinduce a multiplicity of fables, destroy the unity of
+action, and lose their readers in an unreasonable length of time. Nor
+is it only in the main design that they have been unable to add to his
+invention, but they have followed him in every episode and part of
+story. If he has given a regular catalogue of an army, they all draw up
+their forces in the same order. If he has funeral games for Patroclus,
+Virgil has the same for Anchises, and Statius (rather than omit them)
+destroys the unity of his actions for those of Archemorus. If Ulysses
+visit the shades, the Æneas of Virgil and Scipio of Silius are sent
+after him. If he be detained from his return by the allurements of
+Calypso, so is Æneas by Dido, and Rinaldo by Armida. If Achilles be
+absent from the army on the score of a quarrel through half the poem,
+Rinaldo must absent himself just as long on the like account. If he
+gives his hero a suit of celestial armour, Virgil and Tasso make the
+same present to theirs. Virgil has not only observed this close
+imitation of Homer, but, where he had not led the way, supplied the
+want from other Greek authors. Thus the story of Sinon, and the taking
+of Troy, was copied (says Macrobius) almost word for word from
+Pisander, as the loves of Dido and Æneas are taken from those of Medea
+and Jason in Apollonius, and several others in the same manner.
+
+
+To proceed to the allegorical fable—If we reflect upon those
+innumerable knowledges, those secrets of nature and physical philosophy
+which Homer is generally supposed to have wrapped up in his allegories,
+what a new and ample scene of wonder may this consideration afford us!
+How fertile will that imagination appear, which was able to clothe all
+the properties of elements, the qualifications of the mind, the virtues
+and vices, in forms and persons, and to introduce them into actions
+agreeable to the nature of the things they shadowed! This is a field in
+which no succeeding poets could dispute with Homer, and whatever
+commendations have been allowed them on this head, are by no means for
+their invention in having enlarged his circle, but for their judgment
+in having contracted it. For when the mode of learning changed in the
+following ages, and science was delivered in a plainer manner, it then
+became as reasonable in the more modern poets to lay it aside, as it
+was in Homer to make use of it. And perhaps it was no unhappy
+circumstance for Virgil, that there was not in his time that demand
+upon him of so great an invention as might be capable of furnishing all
+those allegorical parts of a poem.
+
+
+The marvellous fable includes whatever is supernatural, and especially
+the machines of the gods. If Homer was not the first who introduced the
+deities (as Herodotus imagines) into the religion of Greece, he seems
+the first who brought them into a system of machinery for poetry, and
+such a one as makes its greatest importance and dignity: for we find
+those authors who have been offended at the literal notion of the gods,
+constantly laying their accusation against Homer as the chief support
+of it. But whatever cause there might be to blame his machines in a
+philosophical or religious view, they are so perfect in the poetic,
+that mankind have been ever since contented to follow them: none have
+been able to enlarge the sphere of poetry beyond the limits he has set:
+every attempt of this nature has proved unsuccessful; and after all the
+various changes of times and religions, his gods continue to this day
+the gods of poetry.
+
+
+We come now to the characters of his persons; and here we shall find no
+author has ever drawn so many, with so visible and surprising a
+variety, or given us such lively and affecting impressions of them.
+Every one has something so singularly his own, that no painter could
+have distinguished them more by their features, than the poet has by
+their manners. Nothing can be more exact than the distinctions he has
+observed in the different degrees of virtues and vices. The single
+quality of courage is wonderfully diversified in the several characters
+of the Iliad. That of Achilles is furious and intractable; that of
+Diomede forward, yet listening to advice, and subject to command; that
+of Ajax is heavy and self-confiding; of Hector, active and vigilant:
+the courage of Agamemnon is inspirited by love of empire and ambition;
+that of Menelaus mixed with softness and tenderness for his people: we
+find in Idomeneus a plain direct soldier; in Sarpedon a gallant and
+generous one. Nor is this judicious and astonishing diversity to be
+found only in the principal quality which constitutes the main of each
+character, but even in the under parts of it, to which he takes care to
+give a tincture of that principal one. For example: the main characters
+of Ulysses and Nestor consist in wisdom; and they are distinct in this,
+that the wisdom of one is artificial and various, of the other natural,
+open, and regular. But they have, besides, characters of courage; and
+this quality also takes a different turn in each from the difference of
+his prudence; for one in the war depends still upon caution, the other
+upon experience. It would be endless to produce instances of these
+kinds. The characters of Virgil are far from striking us in this open
+manner; they lie, in a great degree, hidden and undistinguished; and,
+where they are marked most evidently affect us not in proportion to
+those of Homer. His characters of valour are much alike; even that of
+Turnus seems no way peculiar, but, as it is, in a superior degree; and
+we see nothing that differences the courage of Mnestheus from that of
+Sergestus, Cloanthus, or the rest. In like manner it may be remarked of
+Statius’s heroes, that an air of impetuosity runs through them all; the
+same horrid and savage courage appears in his Capaneus, Tydeus,
+Hippomedon, &c. They have a parity of character, which makes them seem
+brothers of one family. I believe when the reader is led into this
+tract of reflection, if he will pursue it through the epic and tragic
+writers, he will be convinced how infinitely superior, in this point,
+the invention of Homer was to that of all others.
+
+
+The speeches are to be considered as they flow from the characters;
+being perfect or defective as they agree or disagree with the manners,
+of those who utter them. As there is more variety of characters in the
+Iliad, so there is of speeches, than in any other poem. “Everything in
+it has manner” (as Aristotle expresses it), that is, everything is
+acted or spoken. It is hardly credible, in a work of such length, how
+small a number of lines are employed in narration. In Virgil the
+dramatic part is less in proportion to the narrative, and the speeches
+often consist of general reflections or thoughts, which might be
+equally just in any person’s mouth upon the same occasion. As many of
+his persons have no apparent characters, so many of his speeches escape
+being applied and judged by the rule of propriety. We oftener think of
+the author himself when we read Virgil, than when we are engaged in
+Homer, all which are the effects of a colder invention, that interests
+us less in the action described. Homer makes us hearers, and Virgil
+leaves us readers.
+
+
+If, in the next place, we take a view of the sentiments, the same
+presiding faculty is eminent in the sublimity and spirit of his
+thoughts. Longinus has given his opinion, that it was in this part
+Homer principally excelled. What were alone sufficient to prove the
+grandeur and excellence of his sentiments in general, is, that they
+have so remarkable a parity with those of the Scripture. Duport, in his
+Gnomologia Homerica, has collected innumerable instances of this sort.
+And it is with justice an excellent modern writer allows, that if
+Virgil has not so many thoughts that are low and vulgar, he has not so
+many that are sublime and noble; and that the Roman author seldom rises
+into very astonishing sentiments where he is not fired by the Iliad.
+
+
+If we observe his descriptions, images, and similes, we shall find the
+invention still predominant. To what else can we ascribe that vast
+comprehension of images of every sort, where we see each circumstance
+of art, and individual of nature, summoned together by the extent and
+fecundity of his imagination to which all things, in their various
+views presented themselves in an instant, and had their impressions
+taken off to perfection at a heat? Nay, he not only gives us the full
+prospects of things, but several unexpected peculiarities and side
+views, unobserved by any painter but Homer. Nothing is so surprising as
+the descriptions of his battles, which take up no less than half the
+Iliad, and are supplied with so vast a variety of incidents, that no
+one bears a likeness to another; such different kinds of deaths, that
+no two heroes are wounded in the same manner, and such a profusion of
+noble ideas, that every battle rises above the last in greatness,
+horror, and confusion. It is certain there is not near that number of
+images and descriptions in any epic poet, though every one has assisted
+himself with a great quantity out of him; and it is evident of Virgil
+especially, that he has scarce any comparisons which are not drawn from
+his master.
+
+
+If we descend from hence to the expression, we see the bright
+imagination of Homer shining out in the most enlivened forms of it. We
+acknowledge him the father of poetical diction; the first who taught
+that “language of the gods” to men. His expression is like the
+colouring of some great masters, which discovers itself to be laid on
+boldly, and executed with rapidity. It is, indeed, the strongest and
+most glowing imaginable, and touched with the greatest spirit.
+Aristotle had reason to say, he was the only poet who had found out
+“living words;” there are in him more daring figures and metaphors than
+in any good author whatever. An arrow is “impatient” to be on the wing,
+a weapon “thirsts” to drink the blood of an enemy, and the like, yet
+his expression is never too big for the sense, but justly great in
+proportion to it. It is the sentiment that swells and fills out the
+diction, which rises with it, and forms itself about it, for in the
+same degree that a thought is warmer, an expression will be brighter,
+as that is more strong, this will become more perspicuous; like glass
+in the furnace, which grows to a greater magnitude, and refines to a
+greater clearness, only as the breath within is more powerful, and the
+heat more intense.
+
+
+To throw his language more out of prose, Homer seems to have affected
+the compound epithets. This was a sort of composition peculiarly proper
+to poetry, not only as it heightened the diction, but as it assisted
+and filled the numbers with greater sound and pomp, and likewise
+conduced in some measure to thicken the images. On this last
+consideration I cannot but attribute these also to the fruitfulness of
+his invention, since (as he has managed them) they are a sort of
+supernumerary pictures of the persons or things to which they were
+joined. We see the motion of Hector’s plumes in the epithet
+Κορυθαίολος, the landscape of Mount Neritus in that of Εἰνοσίφυλλος,
+and so of others, which particular images could not have been insisted
+upon so long as to express them in a description (though but of a
+single line) without diverting the reader too much from the principal
+action or figure. As a metaphor is a short simile, one of these
+epithets is a short description.
+
+
+Lastly, if we consider his versification, we shall be sensible what a
+share of praise is due to his invention in that also. He was not
+satisfied with his language as he found it settled in any one part of
+Greece, but searched through its different dialects with this
+particular view, to beautify and perfect his numbers he considered
+these as they had a greater mixture of vowels or consonants, and
+accordingly employed them as the verse required either a greater
+smoothness or strength. What he most affected was the Ionic, which has
+a peculiar sweetness, from its never using contractions, and from its
+custom of resolving the diphthongs into two syllables, so as to make
+the words open themselves with a more spreading and sonorous fluency.
+With this he mingled the Attic contractions, the broader Doric, and the
+feebler Æolic, which often rejects its aspirate, or takes off its
+accent, and completed this variety by altering some letters with the
+licence of poetry. Thus his measures, instead of being fetters to his
+sense, were always in readiness to run along with the warmth of his
+rapture, and even to give a further representation of his notions, in
+the correspondence of their sounds to what they signified. Out of all
+these he has derived that harmony which makes us confess he had not
+only the richest head, but the finest ear in the world. This is so
+great a truth, that whoever will but consult the tune of his verses,
+even without understanding them (with the same sort of diligence as we
+daily see practised in the case of Italian operas), will find more
+sweetness, variety, and majesty of sound, than in any other language of
+poetry. The beauty of his numbers is allowed by the critics to be
+copied but faintly by Virgil himself, though they are so just as to
+ascribe it to the nature of the Latin tongue: indeed the Greek has some
+advantages both from the natural sound of its words, and the turn and
+cadence of its verse, which agree with the genius of no other language.
+Virgil was very sensible of this, and used the utmost diligence in
+working up a more intractable language to whatsoever graces it was
+capable of, and, in particular, never failed to bring the sound of his
+line to a beautiful agreement with its sense. If the Grecian poet has
+not been so frequently celebrated on this account as the Roman, the
+only reason is, that fewer critics have understood one language than
+the other. Dionysius of Halicarnassus has pointed out many of our
+author’s beauties in this kind, in his treatise of the Composition of
+Words. It suffices at present to observe of his numbers, that they flow
+with so much ease, as to make one imagine Homer had no other care than
+to transcribe as fast as the Muses dictated, and, at the same time,
+with so much force and inspiriting vigour, that they awaken and raise
+us like the sound of a trumpet. They roll along as a plentiful river,
+always in motion, and always full; while we are borne away by a tide of
+verse, the most rapid, and yet the most smooth imaginable.
+
+
+Thus on whatever side we contemplate Homer, what principally strikes us
+is his invention. It is that which forms the character of each part of
+his work; and accordingly we find it to have made his fable more
+extensive and copious than any other, his manners more lively and
+strongly marked, his speeches more affecting and transported, his
+sentiments more warm and sublime, his images and descriptions more full
+and animated, his expression more raised and daring, and his numbers
+more rapid and various. I hope, in what has been said of Virgil, with
+regard to any of these heads, I have no way derogated from his
+character. Nothing is more absurd or endless, than the common method of
+comparing eminent writers by an opposition of particular passages in
+them, and forming a judgment from thence of their merit upon the whole.
+We ought to have a certain knowledge of the principal character and
+distinguishing excellence of each: it is in that we are to consider
+him, and in proportion to his degree in that we are to admire him. No
+author or man ever excelled all the world in more than one faculty; and
+as Homer has done this in invention, Virgil has in judgment. Not that
+we are to think that Homer wanted judgment, because Virgil had it in a
+more eminent degree; or that Virgil wanted invention, because Homer
+possessed a larger share of it; each of these great authors had more of
+both than perhaps any man besides, and are only said to have less in
+comparison with one another. Homer was the greater genius, Virgil the
+better artist. In one we most admire the man, in the other the work.
+Homer hurries and transports us with a commanding impetuosity; Virgil
+leads us with an attractive majesty; Homer scatters with a generous
+profusion; Virgil bestows with a careful magnificence; Homer, like the
+Nile, pours out his riches with a boundless overflow; Virgil, like a
+river in its banks, with a gentle and constant stream. When we behold
+their battles, methinks the two poets resemble the heroes they
+celebrate. Homer, boundless and resistless as Achilles, bears all
+before him, and shines more and more as the tumult increases; Virgil,
+calmly daring, like Æneas, appears undisturbed in the midst of the
+action; disposes all about him, and conquers with tranquillity. And
+when we look upon their machines, Homer seems like his own Jupiter in
+his terrors, shaking Olympus, scattering the lightnings, and firing the
+heavens: Virgil, like the same power in his benevolence, counselling
+with the gods, laying plans for empires, and regularly ordering his
+whole creation.
+
+
+But after all, it is with great parts, as with great virtues, they
+naturally border on some imperfection; and it is often hard to
+distinguish exactly where the virtue ends, or the fault begins. As
+prudence may sometimes sink to suspicion, so may a great judgment
+decline to coldness; and as magnanimity may run up to profusion or
+extravagance, so may a great invention to redundancy or wildness. If we
+look upon Homer in this view, we shall perceive the chief objections
+against him to proceed from so noble a cause as the excess of this
+faculty.
+
+
+Among these we may reckon some of his marvellous fictions, upon which
+so much criticism has been spent, as surpassing all the bounds of
+probability. Perhaps it may be with great and superior souls, as with
+gigantic bodies, which, exerting themselves with unusual strength,
+exceed what is commonly thought the due proportion of parts, to become
+miracles in the whole; and, like the old heroes of that make, commit
+something near extravagance, amidst a series of glorious and inimitable
+performances. Thus Homer has his “speaking horses;” and Virgil his
+“myrtles distilling blood;” where the latter has not so much as
+contrived the easy intervention of a deity to save the probability.
+
+
+It is owing to the same vast invention, that his similes have been
+thought too exuberant and full of circumstances. The force of this
+faculty is seen in nothing more, than in its inability to confine
+itself to that single circumstance upon which the comparison is
+grounded: it runs out into embellishments of additional images, which,
+however, are so managed as not to overpower the main one. His similes
+are like pictures, where the principal figure has not only its
+proportion given agreeable to the original, but is also set off with
+occasional ornaments and prospects. The same will account for his
+manner of heaping a number of comparisons together in one breath, when
+his fancy suggested to him at once so many various and correspondent
+images. The reader will easily extend this observation to more
+objections of the same kind.
+
+
+If there are others which seem rather to charge him with a defect or
+narrowness of genius, than an excess of it, those seeming defects will
+be found upon examination to proceed wholly from the nature of the
+times he lived in. Such are his grosser representations of the gods;
+and the vicious and imperfect manners of his heroes; but I must here
+speak a word of the latter, as it is a point generally carried into
+extremes, both by the censurers and defenders of Homer. It must be a
+strange partiality to antiquity, to think with Madame Dacier,[38] “that
+those times and manners are so much the more excellent, as they are
+more contrary to ours.” Who can be so prejudiced in their favour as to
+magnify the felicity of those ages, when a spirit of revenge and
+cruelty, joined with the practice of rapine and robbery, reigned
+through the world: when no mercy was shown but for the sake of lucre;
+when the greatest princes were put to the sword, and their wives and
+daughters made slaves and concubines? On the other side, I would not be
+so delicate as those modern critics, who are shocked at the servile
+offices and mean employments in which we sometimes see the heroes of
+Homer engaged. There is a pleasure in taking a view of that simplicity,
+in opposition to the luxury of succeeding ages: in beholding monarchs
+without their guards; princes tending their flocks, and princesses
+drawing water from the springs. When we read Homer, we ought to reflect
+that we are reading the most ancient author in the heathen world; and
+those who consider him in this light, will double their pleasure in the
+perusal of him. Let them think they are growing acquainted with nations
+and people that are now no more; that they are stepping almost three
+thousand years back into the remotest antiquity, and entertaining
+themselves with a clear and surprising vision of things nowhere else to
+be found, the only true mirror of that ancient world. By this means
+alone their greatest obstacles will vanish; and what usually creates
+their dislike, will become a satisfaction.
+
+This consideration may further serve to answer for the constant use of
+the same epithets to his gods and heroes; such as the “far-darting
+Phœbus,” the “blue-eyed Pallas,” the “swift-footed Achilles,” &c.,
+which some have censured as impertinent, and tediously repeated. Those
+of the gods depended upon the powers and offices then believed to
+belong to them; and had contracted a weight and veneration from the
+rites and solemn devotions in which they were used: they were a sort of
+attributes with which it was a matter of religion to salute them on all
+occasions, and which it was an irreverence to omit. As for the epithets
+of great men, Mons. Boileau is of opinion, that they were in the nature
+of surnames, and repeated as such; for the Greeks having no names
+derived from their fathers, were obliged to add some other distinction
+of each person; either naming his parents expressly, or his place of
+birth, profession, or the like: as Alexander the son of Philip,
+Herodotus of Halicarnassus, Diogenes the Cynic, &c. Homer, therefore,
+complying with the custom of his country, used such distinctive
+additions as better agreed with poetry. And, indeed, we have something
+parallel to these in modern times, such as the names of Harold
+Harefoot, Edmund Ironside, Edward Longshanks, Edward the Black Prince,
+&c. If yet this be thought to account better for the propriety than for
+the repetition, I shall add a further conjecture. Hesiod, dividing the
+world into its different ages, has placed a fourth age, between the
+brazen and the iron one, of “heroes distinct from other men; a divine
+race who fought at Thebes and Troy, are called demi-gods, and live by
+the care of Jupiter in the islands of the blessed.”[39] Now among the
+divine honours which were paid them, they might have this also in
+common with the gods, not to be mentioned without the solemnity of an
+epithet, and such as might be acceptable to them by celebrating their
+families, actions or qualities.
+
+What other cavils have been raised against Homer, are such as hardly
+deserve a reply, but will yet be taken notice of as they occur in the
+course of the work. Many have been occasioned by an injudicious
+endeavour to exalt Virgil; which is much the same, as if one should
+think to raise the superstructure by undermining the foundation: one
+would imagine, by the whole course of their parallels, that these
+critics never so much as heard of Homer’s having written first; a
+consideration which whoever compares these two poets ought to have
+always in his eye. Some accuse him for the same things which they
+overlook or praise in the other; as when they prefer the fable and
+moral of the Æneis to those of the Iliad, for the same reasons which
+might set the Odyssey above the Æneis; as that the hero is a wiser man,
+and the action of the one more beneficial to his country than that of
+the other; or else they blame him for not doing what he never designed;
+as because Achilles is not as good and perfect a prince as Æneas, when
+the very moral of his poem required a contrary character: it is thus
+that Rapin judges in his comparison of Homer and Virgil. Others select
+those particular passages of Homer which are not so laboured as some
+that Virgil drew out of them: this is the whole management of Scaliger
+in his Poetics. Others quarrel with what they take for low and mean
+expressions, sometimes through a false delicacy and refinement, oftener
+from an ignorance of the graces of the original, and then triumph in
+the awkwardness of their own translations: this is the conduct of
+Perrault in his Parallels. Lastly, there are others, who, pretending to
+a fairer proceeding, distinguish between the personal merit of Homer,
+and that of his work; but when they come to assign the causes of the
+great reputation of the Iliad, they found it upon the ignorance of his
+times, and the prejudice of those that followed; and in pursuance of
+this principle, they make those accidents (such as the contention of
+the cities, &c.) to be the causes of his fame, which were in reality
+the consequences of his merit. The same might as well be said of
+Virgil, or any great author whose general character will infallibly
+raise many casual additions to their reputation. This is the method of
+Mons. de la Mott; who yet confesses upon the whole that in whatever age
+Homer had lived, he must have been the greatest poet of his nation, and
+that he may be said in his sense to be the master even of those who
+surpassed him.
+
+In all these objections we see nothing that contradicts his title to
+the honour of the chief invention: and as long as this (which is indeed
+the characteristic of poetry itself) remains unequalled by his
+followers, he still continues superior to them. A cooler judgment may
+commit fewer faults, and be more approved in the eyes of one sort of
+critics: but that warmth of fancy will carry the loudest and most
+universal applauses which holds the heart of a reader under the
+strongest enchantment. Homer not only appears the inventor of poetry,
+but excels all the inventors of other arts, in this, that he has
+swallowed up the honour of those who succeeded him. What he has done
+admitted no increase, it only left room for contraction or regulation.
+He showed all the stretch of fancy at once; and if he has failed in
+some of his flights, it was but because he attempted everything. A work
+of this kind seems like a mighty tree, which rises from the most
+vigorous seed, is improved with industry, flourishes, and produces the
+finest fruit: nature and art conspire to raise it; pleasure and profit
+join to make it valuable: and they who find the justest faults, have
+only said that a few branches which run luxuriant through a richness of
+nature, might be lopped into form to give it a more regular appearance.
+
+Having now spoken of the beauties and defects of the original, it
+remains to treat of the translation, with the same view to the chief
+characteristic. As far as that is seen in the main parts of the poem,
+such as the fable, manners, and sentiments, no translator can prejudice
+it but by wilful omissions or contractions. As it also breaks out in
+every particular image, description, and simile, whoever lessens or too
+much softens those, takes off from this chief character. It is the
+first grand duty of an interpreter to give his author entire and
+unmaimed; and for the rest, the diction and versification only are his
+proper province, since these must be his own, but the others he is to
+take as he finds them.
+
+It should then be considered what methods may afford some equivalent in
+our language for the graces of these in the Greek. It is certain no
+literal translation can be just to an excellent original in a superior
+language: but it is a great mistake to imagine (as many have done) that
+a rash paraphrase can make amends for this general defect; which is no
+less in danger to lose the spirit of an ancient, by deviating into the
+modern manners of expression. If there be sometimes a darkness, there
+is often a light in antiquity, which nothing better preserves than a
+version almost literal. I know no liberties one ought to take, but
+those which are necessary to transfusing the spirit of the original,
+and supporting the poetical style of the translation: and I will
+venture to say, there have not been more men misled in former times by
+a servile, dull adherence to the letter, than have been deluded in ours
+by a chimerical, insolent hope of raising and improving their author.
+It is not to be doubted, that the fire of the poem is what a translator
+should principally regard, as it is most likely to expire in his
+managing: however, it is his safest way to be content with preserving
+this to his utmost in the whole, without endeavouring to be more than
+he finds his author is, in any particular place. It is a great secret
+in writing, to know when to be plain, and when poetical and figurative;
+and it is what Homer will teach us, if we will but follow modestly in
+his footsteps. Where his diction is bold and lofty, let us raise ours
+as high as we can; but where his is plain and humble, we ought not to
+be deterred from imitating him by the fear of incurring the censure of
+a mere English critic. Nothing that belongs to Homer seems to have been
+more commonly mistaken than the just pitch of his style: some of his
+translators having swelled into fustian in a proud confidence of the
+sublime; others sunk into flatness, in a cold and timorous notion of
+simplicity. Methinks I see these different followers of Homer, some
+sweating and straining after him by violent leaps and bounds (the
+certain signs of false mettle), others slowly and servilely creeping in
+his train, while the poet himself is all the time proceeding with an
+unaffected and equal majesty before them. However, of the two extremes
+one could sooner pardon frenzy than frigidity; no author is to be
+envied for such commendations, as he may gain by that character of
+style, which his friends must agree together to call simplicity, and
+the rest of the world will call dulness. There is a graceful and
+dignified simplicity, as well as a bold and sordid one; which differ as
+much from each other as the air of a plain man from that of a sloven:
+it is one thing to be tricked up, and another not to be dressed at all.
+Simplicity is the mean between ostentation and rusticity.
+
+This pure and noble simplicity is nowhere in such perfection as in the
+Scripture and our author. One may affirm, with all respect to the
+inspired writings, that the Divine Spirit made use of no other words
+but what were intelligible and common to men at that time, and in that
+part of the world; and, as Homer is the author nearest to those, his
+style must of course bear a greater resemblance to the sacred books
+than that of any other writer. This consideration (together with what
+has been observed of the parity of some of his thoughts) may, methinks,
+induce a translator, on the one hand, to give in to several of those
+general phrases and manners of expression, which have attained a
+veneration even in our language from being used in the Old Testament;
+as, on the other, to avoid those which have been appropriated to the
+Divinity, and in a manner consigned to mystery and religion.
+
+For a further preservation of this air of simplicity, a particular care
+should be taken to express with all plainness those moral sentences and
+proverbial speeches which are so numerous in this poet. They have
+something venerable, and as I may say, oracular, in that unadorned
+gravity and shortness with which they are delivered: a grace which
+would be utterly lost by endeavouring to give them what we call a more
+ingenious (that is, a more modern) turn in the paraphrase.
+
+Perhaps the mixture of some Græcisms and old words after the manner of
+Milton, if done without too much affectation, might not have an ill
+effect in a version of this particular work, which most of any other
+seems to require a venerable, antique cast. But certainly the use of
+modern terms of war and government, such as “platoon, campaign, junto,”
+or the like, (into which some of his translators have fallen) cannot be
+allowable; those only excepted without which it is impossible to treat
+the subjects in any living language.
+
+There are two peculiarities in Homer’s diction, which are a sort of
+marks or moles by which every common eye distinguishes him at first
+sight; those who are not his greatest admirers look upon them as
+defects, and those who are, seemed pleased with them as beauties. I
+speak of his compound epithets, and of his repetitions. Many of the
+former cannot be done literally into English without destroying the
+purity of our language. I believe such should be retained as slide
+easily of themselves into an English compound, without violence to the
+ear or to the received rules of composition, as well as those which
+have received a sanction from the authority of our best poets, and are
+become familiar through their use of them; such as “the
+cloud-compelling Jove,” &c. As for the rest, whenever any can be as
+fully and significantly expressed in a single word as in a compounded
+one, the course to be taken is obvious.
+
+Some that cannot be so turned, as to preserve their full image by one
+or two words, may have justice done them by circumlocution; as the
+epithet einosiphyllos to a mountain, would appear little or ridiculous
+translated literally “leaf-shaking,” but affords a majestic idea in the
+periphrasis: “the lofty mountain shakes his waving woods.” Others that
+admit of different significations, may receive an advantage from a
+judicious variation, according to the occasions on which they are
+introduced. For example, the epithet of Apollo, ἑκηβόλος or
+“far-shooting,” is capable of two explications; one literal, in respect
+of the darts and bow, the ensigns of that god; the other allegorical,
+with regard to the rays of the sun; therefore, in such places where
+Apollo is represented as a god in person, I would use the former
+interpretation; and where the effects of the sun are described, I would
+make choice of the latter. Upon the whole, it will be necessary to
+avoid that perpetual repetition of the same epithets which we find in
+Homer, and which, though it might be accommodated (as has been already
+shown) to the ear of those times, is by no means so to ours: but one
+may wait for opportunities of placing them, where they derive an
+additional beauty from the occasions on which they are employed; and in
+doing this properly, a translator may at once show his fancy and his
+judgment.
+
+As for Homer’s repetitions, we may divide them into three sorts: of
+whole narrations and speeches, of single sentences, and of one verse or
+hemistitch. I hope it is not impossible to have such a regard to these,
+as neither to lose so known a mark of the author on the one hand, nor
+to offend the reader too much on the other. The repetition is not
+ungraceful in those speeches, where the dignity of the speaker renders
+it a sort of insolence to alter his words; as in the messages from gods
+to men, or from higher powers to inferiors in concerns of state, or
+where the ceremonial of religion seems to require it, in the solemn
+forms of prayers, oaths, or the like. In other cases, I believe the
+best rule is, to be guided by the nearness, or distance, at which the
+repetitions are placed in the original: when they follow too close, one
+may vary the expression; but it is a question, whether a professed
+translator be authorized to omit any: if they be tedious, the author is
+to answer for it.
+
+It only remains to speak of the versification. Homer (as has been said)
+is perpetually applying the sound to the sense, and varying it on every
+new subject. This is indeed one of the most exquisite beauties of
+poetry, and attainable by very few: I only know of Homer eminent for it
+in the Greek, and Virgil in the Latin. I am sensible it is what may
+sometimes happen by chance, when a writer is warm, and fully possessed
+of his image: however, it may reasonably be believed they designed
+this, in whose verse it so manifestly appears in a superior degree to
+all others. Few readers have the ear to be judges of it: but those who
+have, will see I have endeavoured at this beauty.
+
+Upon the whole, I must confess myself utterly incapable of doing
+justice to Homer. I attempt him in no other hope but that which one may
+entertain without much vanity, of giving a more tolerable copy of him
+than any entire translation in verse has yet done. We have only those
+of Chapman, Hobbes, and Ogilby. Chapman has taken the advantage of an
+immeasurable length of verse, notwithstanding which, there is scarce
+any paraphrase more loose and rambling than his. He has frequent
+interpolations of four or six lines; and I remember one in the
+thirteenth book of the Odyssey, ver. 312, where he has spun twenty
+verses out of two. He is often mistaken in so bold a manner, that one
+might think he deviated on purpose, if he did not in other places of
+his notes insist so much upon verbal trifles. He appears to have had a
+strong affectation of extracting new meanings out of his author;
+insomuch as to promise, in his rhyming preface, a poem of the mysteries
+he had revealed in Homer; and perhaps he endeavoured to strain the
+obvious sense to this end. His expression is involved in fustian; a
+fault for which he was remarkable in his original writings, as in the
+tragedy of Bussy d’Amboise, &c. In a word, the nature of the man may
+account for his whole performance; for he appears, from his preface and
+remarks, to have been of an arrogant turn, and an enthusiast in poetry.
+His own boast, of having finished half the Iliad in less than fifteen
+weeks, shows with what negligence his version was performed. But that
+which is to be allowed him, and which very much contributed to cover
+his defects, is a daring fiery spirit that animates his translation,
+which is something like what one might imagine Homer himself would have
+writ before he arrived at years of discretion.
+
+Hobbes has given us a correct explanation of the sense in general; but
+for particulars and circumstances he continually lops them, and often
+omits the most beautiful. As for its being esteemed a close
+translation, I doubt not many have been led into that error by the
+shortness of it, which proceeds not from his following the original
+line by line, but from the contractions above mentioned. He sometimes
+omits whole similes and sentences; and is now and then guilty of
+mistakes, into which no writer of his learning could have fallen, but
+through carelessness. His poetry, as well as Ogilby’s, is too mean for
+criticism.
+
+It is a great loss to the poetical world that Mr. Dryden did not live
+to translate the Iliad. He has left us only the first book, and a small
+part of the sixth; in which if he has in some places not truly
+interpreted the sense, or preserved the antiquities, it ought to be
+excused on account of the haste he was obliged to write in. He seems to
+have had too much regard to Chapman, whose words he sometimes copies,
+and has unhappily followed him in passages where he wanders from the
+original. However, had he translated the whole work, I would no more
+have attempted Homer after him than Virgil: his version of whom
+(notwithstanding some human errors) is the most noble and spirited
+translation I know in any language. But the fate of great geniuses is
+like that of great ministers: though they are confessedly the first in
+the commonwealth of letters, they must be envied and calumniated only
+for being at the head of it.
+
+That which, in my opinion, ought to be the endeavour of any one who
+translates Homer, is above all things to keep alive that spirit and
+fire which makes his chief character: in particular places, where the
+sense can bear any doubt, to follow the strongest and most poetical, as
+most agreeing with that character; to copy him in all the variations of
+his style, and the different modulations of his numbers; to preserve,
+in the more active or descriptive parts, a warmth and elevation; in the
+more sedate or narrative, a plainness and solemnity; in the speeches, a
+fulness and perspicuity; in the sentences, a shortness and gravity; not
+to neglect even the little figures and turns on the words, nor
+sometimes the very cast of the periods; neither to omit nor confound
+any rites or customs of antiquity: perhaps too he ought to include the
+whole in a shorter compass than has hitherto been done by any
+translator who has tolerably preserved either the sense or poetry. What
+I would further recommend to him is, to study his author rather from
+his own text, than from any commentaries, how learned soever, or
+whatever figure they may make in the estimation of the world; to
+consider him attentively in comparison with Virgil above all the
+ancients, and with Milton above all the moderns. Next these, the
+Archbishop of Cambray’s Telemachus may give him the truest idea of the
+spirit and turn of our author; and Bossu’s admirable Treatise of the
+Epic Poem the justest notion of his design and conduct. But after all,
+with whatever judgment and study a man may proceed, or with whatever
+happiness he may perform such a work, he must hope to please but a few;
+those only who have at once a taste of poetry, and competent learning.
+For to satisfy such a want either, is not in the nature of this
+undertaking; since a mere modern wit can like nothing that is not
+modern, and a pedant nothing that is not Greek.
+
+What I have done is submitted to the public; from whose opinions I am
+prepared to learn; though I fear no judges so little as our best poets,
+who are most sensible of the weight of this task. As for the worst,
+whatever they shall please to say, they may give me some concern as
+they are unhappy men, but none as they are malignant writers. I was
+guided in this translation by judgments very different from theirs, and
+by persons for whom they can have no kindness, if an old observation be
+true, that the strongest antipathy in the world is that of fools to men
+of wit. Mr. Addison was the first whose advice determined me to
+undertake this task; who was pleased to write to me upon that occasion
+in such terms as I cannot repeat without vanity. I was obliged to Sir
+Richard Steele for a very early recommendation of my undertaking to the
+public. Dr. Swift promoted my interest with that warmth with which he
+always serves his friend. The humanity and frankness of Sir Samuel
+Garth are what I never knew wanting on any occasion. I must also
+acknowledge, with infinite pleasure, the many friendly offices, as well
+as sincere criticisms, of Mr. Congreve, who had led me the way in
+translating some parts of Homer. I must add the names of Mr. Rowe, and
+Dr. Parnell, though I shall take a further opportunity of doing justice
+to the last, whose good nature (to give it a great panegyric), is no
+less extensive than his learning. The favour of these gentlemen is not
+entirely undeserved by one who bears them so true an affection. But
+what can I say of the honour so many of the great have done me; while
+the first names of the age appear as my subscribers, and the most
+distinguished patrons and ornaments of learning as my chief
+encouragers? Among these it is a particular pleasure to me to find,
+that my highest obligations are to such who have done most honour to
+the name of poet: that his grace the Duke of Buckingham was not
+displeased I should undertake the author to whom he has given (in his
+excellent Essay), so complete a praise:
+
+“Read Homer once, and you can read no more;
+For all books else appear so mean, so poor,
+Verse will seem prose: but still persist to read,
+And Homer will be all the books you need.”
+
+
+That the Earl of Halifax was one of the first to favour me; of whom it
+is hard to say whether the advancement of the polite arts is more owing
+to his generosity or his example: that such a genius as my Lord
+Bolingbroke, not more distinguished in the great scenes of business,
+than in all the useful and entertaining parts of learning, has not
+refused to be the critic of these sheets, and the patron of their
+writer: and that the noble author of the tragedy of “Heroic Love” has
+continued his partiality to me, from my writing pastorals to my
+attempting the Iliad. I cannot deny myself the pride of confessing,
+that I have had the advantage not only of their advice for the conduct
+in general, but their correction of several particulars of this
+translation.