PREFATORY NOTE IN the Articles which compose this Volume, an unusually large amount of extract is embodied. This was rendered unavoidable by the aim which the Author had in view,-his object being not merely to discuss the poetry of Homer, but to present a critical estimate of the comparative merits of his translators. Superabundant, therefore, as the quotations may seem, the Editor has made no attempt at retrenchment, believing that, while the general reader will not object to the amount, the classical student will find in the specimens so fully placed before him, and so sagaciously commented on, the means of improving his scholarship, of cultivating his taste, and of sharpening his critical penetration. As fit accompaniments to the genial criticism of Professor Wilson, and as throwing much light on all that relates to the Homeric poems, the Editor may refer the studious reader to the erudite argumentation of Colonel Mure (History of the Literature of Ancient Greece, vol. i.), the vigorous summary of Professor Blackie (Encyclopedia Britannica, article "Homer,") and the able advocacy and fine analysis of Mr Gladstone (Oxford Essays, 1857). The edition of Cowper's Homer which Professor Wilson made use of when writing these critiques was the second. Mr Southey has preferred to reprint the first edition in his collection of Cowper's Works. The two editions differ from each other very materially, and it is quite possible that Mr Southey may have been right in his opinion that the first is the better version of the two. In the present volume, however, it was of course necessary to reprint the extracts from the edition from which they were originally taken, as it is only to these that the reviewer's criticisms apply. |