Page:The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell (1833).djvu/259



some time ago heard, that the translation of Homer's Iliad would be attempted, I resolved to confer with the gentleman who undertook it. I found him of a tall presence and thoughtful countenance, with his hands folded, his eyes fixed, and his beard un trimmed. This I took to be a good omen, because he thus resembled the Constantinopolitan statue of Homer, which Cedrenus describes; and surely nothing could have been liker, had he but arrived at the character of age and blindness. As my business was to be my introduction, I told him how much I was acquainted with the secret history of Homer; that no one better knows his own horse, than I do the camel of Bactria, in which his soul resided at the time of the Trojan wars; that my acquaintance continued with him, as he appeared in the person of the Grecian poet; that I knew him in his next transmigration into a peacock; was pleased with his return to manhood, under the name of Ennius at Rome; and more pleased to hear he would soon revive under another name, with all his full lustre, in England. This particular knowledge, added I, which sprung from the love I bear him, has made me fond of a conversation with you, in order to the success of your translation.