and their wives and daughters made slaves and concubines? On the other

side, I would not be so delicate as those modern critics, who are shocked

at the servile offices and mean employments in which we sometimes see the

heroes of Homer engaged. There is a pleasure in taking a view of that

simplicity, in opposition to the luxury of succeeding ages: in beholding

monarchs without their guards; princes tending their flocks, and

princesses drawing water from the springs. When we read Homer, we ought to

reflect that we are reading the most ancient author in the heathen world;

and those who consider him in this light, will double their pleasure in

the perusal of him. Let them think they are growing acquainted with

nations and people that are now no more; that they are stepping almost

three thousand years back into the remotest antiquity, and entertaining

themselves with a clear and surprising vision of things nowhere else to be

found, the only true mirror of that ancient world. By this means alone

their greatest obstacles will vanish; and what usually creates their

dislike, will become a satisfaction.

This consideration may further serve to answer for the constant use of the

same epithets to his gods and heroes; such as the "far-darting Phoebus,"

the "blue-eyed Pallas," the "swift-footed Achilles," &c., which some have

censured as impertinent, and tediously repeated. Those of the gods

depended upon the powers and offices then believed to belong to them; and

had contracted a weight and veneration from the rites and solemn devotions

in which they were used: they were a sort of attributes with which it was

a matter of religion to salute them on all occasions, and which it was an

irreverence to omit. As for the epithets of great men, Mons. Boileau is of

The Iliad of Homer