there is absurdity and extravagance. Instead of the beautiful language
of the original, there is solecism and barbarous English. A candid
reader may easily discern from this furious introduction, that the
critics were actuated rather by malice than truth, and that they must
judge with their eyes shut, who can see no beauty of language, no
harmony of numbers in this translation.

But the most formidable critic against Mr. Pope in this great
undertaking, was the celebrated Madam Dacier, whom Mr. Pope treated with
less ceremony in his Notes on the Iliad, than, in the opinion of some
people, was due to her sex. This learned lady was not without a sense of
the injury, and took an opportunity of discovering her resentment.

"Upon finishing (says she) the second edition of my translation of
Homer, a particular friend sent me a translation of part of Mr. Pope's
preface to his Version of the Iliad. As I do not understand English, I
cannot form any judgment of his performance, though I have heard much of
it. I am indeed willing to believe, that the praises it has met with are
not unmerited, because whatever work is approved by the English nation,
cannot be bad; but yet I hope I may be permitted to judge of that part
of the preface, which has been transmitted to me, and I here take the
liberty of giving my sentiments concerning it. I must freely acknowledge
that Mr. Pope's invention is very lively, though he seems to have been
guilty of the same fault into which he owns we are often precipitated by
our invention, when we depend too much upon the strength of it; as
magnanimity (says he) may run up to confusion and extravagance, so may
great invention to redundancy and wildness.

"This has been the very case of Mr. Pope himself; nothing is more
overstrained, or more false than the images in which his fancy has
represented Homer; sometimes he tells us, that the Iliad is a wild
paradise, where, if we cannot see all the beauties, as in an ordered
garden, it is only because the number of them is infinitely greater.
Sometimes he compares him to a copious nursery, which contains the seeds
and first productions of every kind; and, lastly, he represents him
under the notion of a mighty tree, which rises from the most vigorous
seed, is improved with industry, flourishes and produces the finest
fruit, but bears too many branches, which might be lopped into form, to
give it a more regular appearance.

"What! is Homer's poem then, accordin