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/12

iv of various species of contention; and to excel in the humblest of them is to possess some degree of merit, and to prefer some claim, however slight, to the public favour. He who cannot attain the richness and harmony of 'Pope' may yet hope to surpass him in fidelity; and though the spirit and freedom of 'Chapman' may not be easily outgone, his conciseness and poetical feeling have not much to intimidate a competitor of ordinary endowments.

"But to come closer to the question,—I hoped that to a fidelity equal to the most scrupulous of my predecessors, I might be found to unite a certain degree of vigour, and to atone for a defect. of poetical merit by conciseness and perspicuity. When I speak of fidelity, however, let it be observed, in justice to myself, that I carry the import of this word somewhat further than is usually done. I translate for the English reader, and do not think it sufficient to give him a loose idea of the original, but as fair and perfect a transcript of it as the difference of language will admit: at the same time it will, I trust, appear that I have not, in any instance, fallen into barbarisms or violated the idiom of my own country.

"It has been objected that my lines run into