I have aimed to be literal here, the better to explain _Dacier_'s Remarks. _There are considerable Faults in this Translation_, says Monsieur _Dacier_, _he has forgotten the Epithet πολυτροπον, which marks_ Ulysses_'s Character; he neglects the Circumstance that makes us most concern'd for him, ὅς μαλα πλάγχθη, who wandered a long Time, he says in a loose Way, after the Taking of_ Troy; _whereas, it is in_ Homer _after having ruined_ Troy. Now, if _Horace_, who had studied and admired _Homer_ so much, as to make him a Pattern for all future Writers of _Heroick_ Poems, could mistake three Times in translating two Lines, what a Discouragement must it have been to those who knew how he had succeeded in attempting it? 'Tis true, no Poet will ever undertake a Translation with more Advantage than the last Translator of _Homer_ had; for besides Eight or Ten Versions in _Latin_, _Italian_, _French_, &c. there are Three or Four in _English_; a Prose Translation by Madam _Dacier_, and a Cart-load of Comments in all Languages. I am satisfy'd so good a Versifyer as the Translator of the _Ilias_ might with those Helps, have made a very good Translation, without understanding any more _Greek_ than my self; and nothing in the World could have been more easy, than out of one Commentator to have corrected another, and to have alter'd and amended the Reading in the Name of any of the Criticks, from _Eustathius_ down to _Dacier_. I do not boast of being Master of _Greek_ enough to read _Homer_ with so much Pleasure in the Original as I could do in a good Version, and it is much to be question'd, whether every one that can read him in the Original do understand what they read: Several Ladies and Gentlemen have subscribed for _Chaucer_ of the _Christ-Church_ Edition, but I doubt very much whether they understand him or not, and whether a great many, who can read _Greek_, do really know what they read. One of the greatest Masters of the _Greek Tongue_, in our Time, has often question'd whether there were Twenty Men in _England_ who understood the Strength, Beauty, and Elegance of that Language, tho' there are a Thousand that pretend to it. He represented it as a Study for a Man's Life, and I am confirm'd in this Judgement by what _Menage_ tells us of himself, and others upon this Subject. 'Tis well known _Menage_ wrote several Things in _Greek_, particularly some Odes in Imitation of _Anacreon_, which are not thought inferiour to the _Teian_ Poet's; _J'ay toujours fait beaucoup de cas de ceux qui savent le grec_, &c. _He always highly valued those that understood_ Greek. He does not mean to construe and parse it as Boys do at School, which is the most of what we find in those who pretend to be Masters of it. _Without this Language_, continues he, _a Man can't be said to be more than half Learned: Monsieur_ Cotelier, _Monsieur de_ Treville, _and Monsieur_ Bigot, _are the only Men in_ France, _who can