The Iliad of Homer - Get a Free Blog

strongest and most poetical, as most
agreeing with that character; to copy him
in all the variations of his style, and the
different modulations of his numbers; to
preserve, in the more active or descriptive
parts, a warmth and elevation; in the
more sedate or narrative, a plainness and
solemnity; in the speeches, a fulness and
perspicuity; in the sentences, a shortness
and gravity; not to neglect even the little
figures and turns on the words, nor sometimes
the very cast of the periods; neither
to omit nor confound any rites or customs
of antiquity: perhaps too he ought
to include the whole in a shorter compass
than has hitherto been done by any translator
who has tolerably preserved either
the sense or poetry. What I would further
recommend to him is, to study his author
rather from his own text, than from any
commentaries, how learned soever, or
whatever figure they may make in the estimation
of the world; to consider him