In the most important events of his life's history the most of his biographers agree; namely, that he became blind early in life, after which he completed the Iliad and composed the Odyssey; was a wandering minstrel; that the age in which he lived was unworthy of so great a genius; and that he lived and died in the most abject poverty. It is not the design of the present writers to hazard any conjectures of their own respecting the age in which he lived, or which of the seven illustrious cities-Smyrna, Colophon, Chios, Salamis, Rhodes, Argos, or Athenea, had the honor of giving birth to so great a prodigy; nor will we here offer any comments upon his merits. Some suppose Homer to have flourished three hundred and forty years after the siege of Troy; but according to Herodotus about one hundred and sixty-eight years, and six hundred and twenty-two years before the expedition of Xerxes. The place of his nativity is not certainly know » But the most prevalent opinion among historians is, that he was born at Smyrna, nine hundred years before the Christian era. His mother's name was Crytheis, an orphan left to the care of one Cleonies, her father's friend, by whom she was seduced. This coming to the knowledge of her guardian, he was anxious to conceal it, and accordingly sent her to Smyrna. Crytheis being near her time, went one day to a festival which the inhabitants were celebrating on the banks of the river Melis, where she was delivered of the immortal Homer, whom she named Melesigenes. Crytheis was afterwards married to Phemius, a teacher of music and literature in Smyrna, who likewise adopted her son, and, soon found in him marks of extraordinary genius. After the death of Phemius, Homer was left to the management of his father's school; but he was soon after induced to embark on a voyage with a person named Mentes. Having then commenced writing his Iliad, he was anxious to visit the places he should have occasion to mention; and he accordingly traveled through all Greece, Asia Minor, and many other places. From Egypt he brought the names of all their gods, the chief ceremonies of their religion, and a more improved knowledge of the arts. He next sailed to Africa and Spain, and on his return touched at Ithaca, where he was detained for some time with a disease of the eye, which ended ultimately in total blindness. Here he was hospitably entertained by a friend of Mentes, named Mentor, a man of wealth, from whom he learned many things relating to Ulysses, which he afterward made use of in composing his Odyssey. Mentes, on his return to Ithaca, took Homer with hiin to Colophon; from thence he returned to Smyrna. Being now reduced to the most extreme want, and still cherishing the fond hope that something might yet be done to restore his sight, our poet removed to Cuma. Here he was received with great joy, and his poems highly applauded. But when he proposed to immortalize their city by writing a poem in its 66 praise, on condition that he should be supported by the public treasury by an annual income, he was tol there would be no end of maintaining the Homeroi or blind men. From this he received the name Ho mer. Finding his generous offer so ill deserved by the citizens of Cuma, he left that city, uttering this imprecation : May no poets ever be born in Cuma to celebrate it by their poems." He afterward wandered for several years from place to place, as a minstrel, and finally settled at Chios, where he established a school of poetry, and composed his Odyssey. From this he realized a small profit, married, and had two daughters, one of whom died young; the other became the wife of a very dear friend at Bolyssus. Having now determined to visit Athens, he embarked in a vessel for that city, but was driven on the Island of Samos, where he spent the winter singing at the houses of the great, for a bare subsistence. On the opening of spring he again set sail for Athens; but, landing by the way at Ios, he fell sick, died, and was buried on the sea shore. "Narrow is thy dwelling now, Low their pillow of rest. When shall it be morn in the grave! To bid the slumberer awake." Ossian. According to some Grecian traditions, both the Iliad and Odyssey were written by Homer after his blindness. Longinus, an eminent Greek critic and philosopher, compares the former to the mid-day, and the latter to the setting sun; and observes, “that though the Iliad claims an uncontested superiority over the Odyssey; yet, in the latter, the same force, the same sublimity and elegance prevail, though divested of their most powerful fire; and that it still preserves its original splendor and majesty, though deprived of its meridian heat.” These two celebrated poems are so frequently met with in this land of books, and so universally admired, that whatever we might here offer in praise of their author's wonderful inventive powers, the purity of his style and his godlike conceptions, would seem superfluous. He has been very justly called the father of Epic Poetry. So charmed was Alexander the Great with his compositions, that he commonly placed them, together with his sword, under his pillow. The Iliad he carefully deposited in one of the most valuable caskets of Darius, in order, said he to nis courtiers, "that the most perfect production of the human mind, may be enclosed in the richest casket in the world." It is related of Alcibiades, that he once gave a rhetorician a sound box on the ear, for not having the writings of Homer in his school. The Battle of the Frogs and Mice, and several epigrams, have been ascribed to him; but the most probable opinion is, that there are none of his writings now extant, except the Iliad and Odyssey. By many of the ancients, Homer was worshiped as a Divinity, and sacrifices were offered to him. But not until after his death did fame breathe aloud his praise. It has since been echoed through each succeeding age, by applauding millions. "Our au thor's work," says Mr. Pope, "is a wild paradise, where, if we cannot see all the beauties so distinctly as in an ordered garden, it is only because the number of them is infinitely greater. It is like a copious nursery, which contains the seeds and first productions of every kind, out of which those who followed him have but selected some particular plants, each according to his fancy, to cultivate and beautify. If some things are too luxuriant, it is owing to the rich ness of the soil; and if others are not arrived to perfection or maturity, it is only because they are overrun and oppressed by those of a stronger nature." In speaking of the growing interest of the Iliad, and the poet's fancy, he says: "It is, however, remarkable that his fancy, which is everywhere vigorous, is not discovered immediately at the beginning of his poem in its fullest splendor: it grows in the progress, both on himself and others, and becomes on fire, like a chariot wheel, by its own rapidity. Exact disposi tion, just thought, correct elocution, polished numbers, may have been found in a thousand; but this poetic fire, this‘vivida vis animi,' in a very few.” The inimitable writings of Homer, as translated by Pope, we have read with enthusiastic delight. How it is that the blind can derive any degree of satisfaction from descriptive poetry, has long been a subject of speculation and doubt. Nor can we reflect much |