So many flames before the navy blaze,
proud Ilion
And lighten glimmering Xanthus with their rays,
Wide o'er the fields to Troy extend the gleams,
And tip the distant spires with fainter beams;
The long reflections of the distant fires
Gild the high walls, and tremble on the spires;
Gleam on the walls, and tremble on the spires;
A thousand fires at distant stations bright,
Gild the dark prospect, and dispel the night.


Of these specimens every man who has cultivated poetry, or who
delights to trace the mind from the rudeness of its first
conceptions to the elegance of its last, will naturally desire a
great number; but most other readers are already tired, and I am not
writing only to poets and philosophers.

The "Iliad" was published volume by volume, as the translation
proceeded. The four first books appeared in 1713. The expectation
of this work was undoubtedly high, and every man who had connected
his name with criticism or poetry was desirous of such intelligence
as might enable him to talk upon the popular topic. Halifax, who,
by having been first a poet, and then a patron of poetry, had
acquired the right of being a judge, was willing to hear some books
while they were yet unpublished. Of this rehearsal Pope afterwards
gave the following account:-

"The famous Lord Halifax was rather a pretender to taste than really
possessed of it. When I had finished the two or three first books