exercise of such marvelous original powers, should have been so long
suspended by the drudgery of translation; and in this view, their
quarrel with the illustrious Greek will be, doubtless, extended to his
commentators.[1]

During two long years from this most anxious period, the translation
continued as it was; and though, in the hope of its being able to
divert his melancholy, I had attempted more than once to introduce it
to its Author, I was every time painfully obliged to desist. But in
the summer of ninety-six, when he had resided with me in Norfolk
twelve miserable months, the introduction long wished for took place.
To my inexpressible astonishment and joy, I surprised him, one
morning, with the Iliad in his hand; and with an excess of delight,
which I am still more unable to describe, I the next day discovered
that he had been writing.--Were I to mention one of the happiest
moments of my life, it might be that which introduced me to the
following lines:--

Mistaken meanings corrected,
admonente G. Wakefield.

B. XXIII.
L. 429. that the nave
Of thy neat wheel seem e'en to grind upon it.

L. 865. As when (the north wind freshening) near the bank
Up springs a fish in air, then falls again
And disappears beneath the sable flood,
So at the stroke, he bounded.