L. 1018. Thenceforth Tydides o'er his ample shield
Aim'd and still aim'd to pierce him in the neck.

Or better thus--

Tydides, in return, with spear high-poised
O'er the broad shield, aim'd ever at his neck,

Or best of all--

Then Tydeus' son, with spear high-poised above
The ample shield, stood aiming at his neck.

He had written these lines with a pencil, on a leaf at the end of his
Iliad; and when I reflected on the cause which had given them birth, I
could not but admire its disproportion to the effect. What the voice
of persuasion had failed in for a year, accident had silently
accomplished in a single day. The circumstance I allude to was this: I
received a copy of the Iliad and Odyssey of Pope, then recently
published by the Editor above mentioned, with illustrative and
critical notes of his own. As it commended Mr. Cowper's Translation in
the Preface, and occasionally pointed out its merits in the Notes, I
was careful to place it in his way; though it was more from a habit of
experiment which I had contracted, than from well-grounded hopes of
success. But what a fortunate circumstance was the arrival of this
Work! and by what name worthy of its influence shall I call it? In the
mouth of an indifferent person it might be Chance; but in mine; whom
it rendered so peculiarly happy, common gratitude requires that it
should be Providence.