In case any one unacquainted with the original, and familiar with Homer only through the brilliant _rifacimento_ of Pope, should complain of the redundancies and repetitions which he meets here, let the writer remind him that the attempt is to render the ancient poet, not only in a measure framed on the basis of his own, but as nearly as possible with a literal fidelity. Moreover, be it remembered, that the poem was not composed for readers, but to be sung with the accompaniment of the harp in festive assemblies of wholly illiterate soldiers; and that, in all probability, the various speeches introduced were not all chanted by the main voice; but that brother minstrels from time to time relieved the master, as he himself describes the Muses at the Olympian banquet, "with sweet voice singing alternate." The writer received from Messrs Blackwood, with the proof-sheet of the following contribution, two books of the _Iliad_, the second and the seventh, done in English hexameters, "by Launcellot Shadwell, formerly Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge," with the imprint of Mr Pickering, London, 1844. This gentleman is probably a son of the Vice-Chancellor of England, and, if so, has been trained in a good school of taste as well as scholarship. But whether his hexameters have been _published_, does not appear: the writer had not heard of them before; and he begs to thank Mr Shadwell for his polite attention. LONDON, _April 6th._] N. N. T. Sing, O Goddess! the wrath unblest of Peleian Achilleus, Whence the uncountable woes that were heapt on the host of Achaia; Whence many valorous spirits of heroes, untimely dissever'd, Down unto Hades were sent, and themselves to the dogs were a plunder And all fowls of the air; but the counsel of Zeus was accomplish'd: Even from the hour when at first were in fierceness of rivalry sunder'd Atreus' son, the Commander of Men, and the noble Achilleus. Who of the Godheads committed the twain in the strife of contention? Leto's offspring and Zeus'; who, in anger against Agamemnon, Issued the pestilence dire, and the leaguer was swept with destruction; For that the King had rejected, and spurn'd from the place in dishonour Chryses, the priest of the God, when he came to the warrior-galleys, Willing to rescue his daughter with plentiful gifts of redemption, Bearing the fillet divine in his hands of the Archer Apollo Twined on the sceptre of gold: and petition'd the host of Achaia, Foremost of all the Atreidæ, the twain that were chief in dominion:-- "Hear, ye Atreidæ! and hear, ye Achaians, resplendent in armour! Be it vouchsaf'd unto you of the Gods who inhabit Olympus, Priamus' city to storm, and return to your dwellings in gladness! But now yield me my daughter belov'd, and accept of the ransom, Bearing respect to the offspring of Zeus, Far-darting Apollo." Then had it voice of approval from all the array of Achaians