Iliad

and the

Hymns

, is more than problematic. N. B. The rude engraving in the page was designed by no vulgar hand. It is full of spirit and passion.

[5]

I am so dull, that neither in the original nor in any translation could I ever find any wit or wise purpose in this poem. The whole humour seems to lie in the names. The frogs and mice are not frogs or mice, but men, and yet they do nothing that conveys any satire. In the Greek there is much beauty of language, but the joke is very flat. This is always the case in rude ages; ­ their serious vein is inimitable, ­ their comic low and low indeed. The psychological cause is easily stated, and copiously exemplifiable.

Footnote 1

: Communicated through Mr. Wordsworth.

Ed.