he stroke, he bounded.

L. 1018. Thenceforth Tydides o'er his ample shield
Aim'd and still aim'd to pierce him in the neck.

Or better thus--

Tydides, in return, with spear high-poised
O'er the broad shield, aim'd ever at his neck,

Or best of all--

Then Tydeus' son, with spear high-poised above
The ample shield, stood aiming at his neck.

He had written these lines with a pencil, on a leaf at the end of his
Iliad; and when I reflected on the cause which had given them birth, I
could not but admire its disproportion to the effect. What the voice
of persuasion had failed in for a year, accident had silently
accomplished in a single day. The circumstance I allude to was this: I
received a copy of the Iliad and Odyssey of Pope, then recently
published by the Editor above mentioned, with illustrative and
critical notes of his own. As it commended Mr. Cowper's Translation in
the Preface, and occasionally pointed out its merits in the Notes, I
was careful to place it in his way; though it was more from a habit of
experiment which I had contracted, than from well-grounded hopes of
success. But what a fortunate circumstance was the arrival of this
Work! and by what name worthy of its influence shall I call it? In the
mouth of an indifferent person it might be Chance; but in mine; whom
it rendered so peculiarly happy, common gratitude requires that it
should be Providence.

As I watched him with an indescribable interest in his progress, I had
the satisfaction to find, that, after a few mornings given to
promiscuous correction, and to frequent perusal of the above-mentioned
Notes, he was evidently settling on the sixteenth Book. This he went
regularly through, and the fruits of an application so happily resumed
were, one day with another, about sixty new lines. But with the end of
the sixteenth Book he had closed the corrections of the year. An
excursion to the coast, which immediately followed, though it promised
an accession of strength to the body, could not fail to interfere with
the pursuits of the mind. It was therefore with much less surprise
than regret, that I saw him relinquish the "_Tale of Troy Divine_."

Such was the prelude to the last revisal, which, in the month of
January, ninety-seven, Mr. Cowper was persuaded to undertake; and to a
faithful copy, as I trust, of which, I have at this t