pleased with her housewifery, took her into his house to spin the wool he received from his scholars for schooling. Here she behaved herself so modestly and discreetly, that Phemius married her, and adopted her son, in whom he discovered a wonderful genius, and an excellent natural disposition. After the death of Phemius and Critheis, Homer succeeded to his fatherin-law's fortune and school, and was admired, not only by the inhabitants of Smyrna, but by strangers who resorted from all parts to that place of trade. A shipmaster called Mentes, who was a man of wit, very learned, and a lover of poetry, was so pleased with Ho'mer that he persuaded him to leave his school, and to travel with him. Homer, whose mind was then employed upon his 'Iliad,' and who thought it of great consequence to see the places of which he should have occasion to treat, embraced the opportunity, and during their several voyages, never failed carefully to note down what he thought worth observing. He travelled into Egypt, whence he brought into Greece the names of their gods, and the chief ceremonies of their worship. He visited Africa and Spain, in return from which places he touched at Ithaca, and was there much troubled with a rheum falling upon his eyes. Mentes being in haste to visit Leucadia, his native country, left Homer well recommended to Mentor, one of the chief men of the island of Ithaca, and there he was informed of many things relating to Ulysses, which he afterwards made use of in composing his 'Odyssey.' Mentes returning to Ithaca, found Homer cured. They embarked together, and after much time spent in visiting the coast of Peloponnesus and the islands, they arrived at Colophon, where Homer was again troubled

with the defluction upon his eyes, which proved so violent, that he is said to have lost his sight.* This misfortune made him resolve to return to Smyrna, where he finished his 'Iliad.' Some time after, the bad state of his affairs obliged him to go to Cumæ, where he hoped to have found some relief. Stopping by the way at a place called the New Wall, which was the residence of a colony from Cumæ, he lodged in the house of an armourer called Tichius, and recited some hymns he had made in honor of the gods, and his poem of Amphiraus's expedition against Thebes. After staying here some time, and being greatly admired, he went to Cumæ; and passing through Larissa, he wrote the epitaph of Midas, king of Phrygia, then newly dead. At Cuma he was received with extraordinary joy, and his poems highly applauded; but when he proposed to immortalize their town, if they would allow him a salary, he was answered, that 'there would be no end of maintaining all the 'Ounpot, or blind men,' and hence got the name of Homer. From Cumæ he went to Phocæa, where he recited his verses in public assemblies. Here one Thestorides, a school master, offered to maintain him, if he would suffer him to transcribe his verses: which Homer complying with through mere necessity, the schoolmaster privily withdrew to Chios, and there grew rich with Homer's poems, while Homer at Phocæa hardly earned his bread by repeating them.

"Obtaining, however, at last, some intimation of the schoolmaster he resolved to find him out; and landing near Chios, he was received by one Glaucus, a shepherd,

• The blindness of Homer has been contested by several authors, and particularly by a scholar named Andreas Wilkins, in a book bearing the quaint title of "Curatio cœci Homeri." If he was blind at all, it was probably only in extreme old age..

by whom he was carried to his master at Bolissus, wne, admiring his knowledge, entrusted him with the education of his children. Here his praise began to get abroad, and the schoolmaster hearing of him, fled before him. At Chios, Homer set up a school of poetry, gained a competent fortune, married a wife, and had two daughters; one of which died young, and the other was married to his patron at Bolissus. Here he composed his 'Odyssey,' and inserted the names of those to whom he had been most obliged, as Mentes, Phemius, Mentor; and resolving to visit Athens, he made honorable mention of that city, to dispose the Athenians for a kind reception of him. But as he went, the ship put into Samos, where he continued the whole winter, singing at the houses of great men, with a train of boys after him. In the spring he went on board again, in order to prosecute his journey to Athens; but landing by the way at Chios, he fell sick, died, and was buried on the sea shore."

In every period, critics of the first order of minds have written upon Homer's works; and from the blaze of his genius have been kindled up half the lights of intervening ages. There is such a simplicity in his writings that the youthful mind can at once comprehend them; such beauty of description, that no one who has read can forget the circumstances, incidents, and images, so distinctly exhibited by the power and the art of the author. He seizes the mind so strongly, that every child sympathizes with every distinguished character in the work, and feels as much interested for each person in the whole drama, as for those of his own connections and kindred. Who has not shed a tear at Hector's fate, or pitied old father Priam begging

the corse of his son? Almost every one who early read the works of Homer, will, if he recollects himself, trace to this author the first ideas he had of sailing ships, scouring the seas, and of naval architecture. Also, the first impressions of a city, if he was born in the country. And the seven walls of Troy were drawn for his inspection, on the slate, or board, or wall, to show him how wonderfully the city was built. The petty nations of Greece all appeared in such bold relief as they assaulted the renowned city; and their modes of warfare were so simple, grand, personal, and imposing, that the mighty masses of modern battles, with their scientific movements, and slaughtered thousands, all sink into insignificance in the youthful mind, compared with the combats of these brave men. How full of sentiment is every part of the Iliad !-heroic, tender, parental, filial. Homer knew the master-springs of the human heart, and touched them as easily as Mozart did the keys of his piano. He passed from the guilty bed of Paris and Helen to the chaste loves of Hector and Andromache without violence to feeling, and in full accordance to our best impressions of virtuous sentiments. He gives, with ease, a full revelation of the human mind, from the sublimest tumults of the soul to the softest touches of human feeling; from the highest of all human resolves to the minutest courtesy of manners, in every grade of society. All that is deep in hatred; all that is settled in malignity and revenge; all that is fiendish in atheism; all that is foolish in the contemners of the gods; as well as all that is sublime in devotion, and sweet in piety, was known to this great painter of nature and of intellectual man.

The Odyssey is, perhaps, more minute in the descrip

tion of manners and customs of countries than the Iliad, and is not wanting in sentiment. The Iliad is unquestionably the model of all epics, since written. The fact is avowed by all who have dared to attempt one. The Odyssey, the great moralist, Dr. Johnson,— who never praised the dead or the living, but from the sternest convictions of his understanding, has avowed, is the foundation of all the tribe of modern novels.

It must be confessed that there are but a few who, if they can read the original with pains and care, do not consult the translations of Homer for,ease, convenience, and pleasure. Some Latin translations are verbally accurate, and may be consulted for the sense of the author. Cowper's translation should be read as giving the strict, simple meaning of the original, and sometimes he is felicitous in expressing it. This translation should be read to see what Homer meant, but there is more attraction in that of Pope. Cowper appears in pilgrim simplicity; Pope in my Lord Chesterfield's court dress. Cowper is the most honest; Pope the most splendid. The one is literal, the other free and paraphrastic. The sweetness and purity of an honest nature is in the first; the dazzling light of genius in the second. Both may be studied with pleasure and profit.

The translations which I shall give of the Greek poets are from the works of Charles Abraham Elton; they form a happy medium between Pope and Cowper.