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THE

ILIAD OF HOMER.

TRANSLATED BY

ALEXANDER POPE, Esq.

Pope's translation of Homer is a treasury of splendid language.
DR. KNOX.

Pope's translation of the Iliad will remain a lasting monument
to his honour, as the most elegant and highly finished translation
that, perhaps, ever was given of any poetical work.

HALIFAX:

ELAIR'S LECTURES

MILNER AND

SOWERBY.

1869.

PREFACE.

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 every thing 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 induce the 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 are 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.

Οἱ δ ̓ ἄρ ̓ ἴσαν, ὡσεί τε πυρὶ χθὼν πᾶσα νέμοιτο.

They pour along, like a fire that sweeps the whole earth before it.' It is, however, remarkable that his fancy, which is every where 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 poetical fire, this 'vivida vis animi,' in 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 every where 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 Shakespeare, it strikes before we are aware, like an accidental fire from heaven; but, in Homer, in him only, it burns every where clearly, and every where 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 works; as it is the great and peculiar characteristic which distinguishe 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 de

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