Page:First book of the Iliad; Battle of the frogs and mice; Hymn to the Delian Apollo; Bacchus, or, the Rovers; second book of the Iliad (IA firstbookofiliad00home).pdf/11



been led, during an interval of leisure, to translate, for my amusement, the first four books of the Iliad, and venturing, for the same reason, to print the first book, together with the Battle of the Frogs and Mice, and the two accompanying Hymns—it was not my design to have extended, beyond these, the compass of my little volume. My Publisher, however, suggesting that a slight addition would render its dimensions by no means inconveniently large, I was induced, after the sheets, originally intended, had been paged and struck off, to add the second book of the Iliad, with which the volume now concludes. I mention this circumstance in order to account for the appearance of the latter book in its present unusual position—divorced from its natural ally the first book, by the armed intervention of the Frogs and Mice, and the intrusion,