ill persist to read,
And Homer will be all the books you need."

That the Earl of Halifax was one of the first to favour me; of whom it is
hard to say whether the advancement of the polite arts is more owing to
his generosity or his example: that such a genius as my Lord Bolingbroke,
not more distinguished in the great scenes of business, than in all the
useful and entertaining parts of learning, has not refused to be the
critic of these sheets, and the patron of their writer: and that the noble
author of the tragedy of "Heroic Love" has continued his partiality to me,
from my writing pastorals to my attempting the Iliad. I cannot deny myself
the pride of confessing, that I have had the advantage not only of their
advice for the conduct in general, but their correction of several
particulars of this translation.

I could say a great deal of the pleasure of being distinguished by the
Earl of Carnarvon; but it is almost absurd to particularize any one
generous action in a person whose whole life is a continued series of
them. Mr. Stanhope, the present secretary of state, will pardon my desire
of having it known that he was pleased to promote this affair. The
particular zeal of Mr. Harcourt (the son of the late Lord Chancellor) gave
me a proof how much I am honoured in a share of his friendship. I must
attribute to the same motive that of several others of my friends: to whom
all acknowledgments are rendered unnecessary by the privileges of a
familiar correspondence; and I am satisfied I can no way better oblige men
of their turn than by my silence.

In short, I have found more patrons than ever Homer wanted. He would have
thought himself happy to have met the same favour at Athens that has been
shown me by its learned rival, the University of Oxford. And I can hardly
envy him those pompous honours he received after death, when I reflect on
the enjoyment of so many agreeable obligations, and easy friendships,
which make the satisfaction of life. This distinction is the more to be
acknowledged, as it is shown to one whose pen has never gratified the
prejudices of particular parties, or the vanities of particular men.
Whatever the success may prove, I shall never repent of an undertaking in
which I have experienced the candour and friendship of so many persons of
merit; and in which I hope to pass some of those years of youth that are
generally lost in a circle of follies, after a manner neither wholly
unuseful to others