At the end of the first six books of the Iliad, the arrival of spring
brought the usual interruptions of exercise and air, which increased
as the summer advanced to a degree so unfavorable to the progress of
HOMER, that in the requisite attention to their salutary claims, the
revisal was, at one time, altogether at a stand. Only four books were
added in the course of nine months; but opportunity returning as the
winter set in, there were added, in less than seven weeks, four more:
and thus ended the year ninety-seven.

As the spring that succeeded was a happier spring, so it led to a
happier summer. We had no longer air and exercise alone, but exercise
and Homer hand in hand. He even followed us thrice to the sea: and
whether our walks were

"on the margin of the land,
O'er the green summit of the" cliffs, "whose base
Beats back the roaring surge,"
"or on the shore
Of the untillable and barren deep,"

they were always within hearing of his magic song. About the middle of
this busy summer, the revisal of the Iliad was brought to a close; and
on the very next day, the 24th of July, the correction of the Odyssey
commenced,--a morning rendered memorable by a kind and unexpected
visit from the patroness of that work, the Dowager Lady Spencer!

It is not my intention to detain the reader with a progressive account
of the Odyssey revised, as circumstantial as that of the Iliad,
because it went on smoothly from beginning to end, and was finished in
less than eight months.