tradition, or an invention, and must therefore leave
that question for the present undecided."

7. The poet is careful to leave no prayer unanswered that has justice
on its side. He who prays either kills his enemy, or has signs
given him that he has been heard.

8. [For this singular line the Translator begs to apologize, by
pleading the strong desire he felt to produce an English line, if
possible, somewhat resembling in its effect the famous original
one.

{Deine de klange genet argyreoio bioio.}--TR.]

9. The plague in the Grecian camp was occasioned perhaps by immoderate
heats and gross exhalations. Homer takes occasion from it, to open
the scene with a beautiful allegory. He supposes that such
afflictions are sent from Heaven for the punishment of evil
actions; and because the sun was the principal agent, he says it
was sent to punish Agamemnon for despising that god, and injuring
his priest.

10. Hippocrates observes two things of plagues; that their cause is in
the air, and that different animals are differently affected by
them, according to their nature and nourishment. This philosophy is
referred to the plagues here mentioned. First, the cause is in the
air by means of the darts or beams of Apollo; second, the mules and
dogs are said to die sooner than the men, partly from their natural
quickness of smell, and partly from their feeding so near the earth
whence the exhalations arise.

11: Juno, queen of Olympus, sides with the Grecians. Mr. Coleridge (in
his disquisition upon the Prometheus of AEschylus, published in his
Remains) shows very clearly by historical criticism, that Juno, in
the Grecian religion, expressed the spirit of conservatism. Without
going over his argument we assume it here, for Homer always
attributes to Juno every thing that may be predicated of this
principle. She is persistent, obstinate, acts from no idea, but
often uses a superficial reasoning, and refers to Fate, with which
she upbraids Jupiter. Jupiter is the intellectual power or Free
Will, and by their union, or rather from their antagonism, the
course of things proceeds with perpetual vicissitude, but with a
great deal of life.--E.P.P.

12. Observe this Grecian priest. He has no political power, and
commands little reverence. In Agamemnon's treatment of him, as well
as Chryses, is seen the relation of the religion to the