PREFAАСЕ. In undertaking a continuation of the tale of Troy divine, the author of the Achillead is desirous to offer a few explanatory remarks upon the principal reasons which have induced him to attempt this enterprise. The grand and magnificent poem of the Iliad, which, for nearly three thousand years, has maintained, with unrivalled splendour, its exalted position in the eyes of succeeding generations, originated the idea of the Achillead. In the Iliad of Homer we find mingled with rich profusion all that is sublime and beautiful in poetical imagery :—the antiquity of this charming poem sheds a sacred radiance over the whole composition. In our earliest years the splendid Iliad has been the subject of our classical studies, and of our profound admiration: the adventures of Hector, the noble chief of Troy, in his martial career, and in his domestic occupations-the sorrows of the good old Priam-the wrath of the divine Achilles, and the exploits of the regal chieftains engaged in the terrific contests on the plains of Troy, agitate the mind of the reader with alternate emotions of admiration, amazement, and sympathy. Every line of this poem breathes the purest spirit of poetry, and we arise from the contemplation of the whole with feelings similar to those which must have pervaded the mind of Nestor when he described to Telemachus the scenes in which he had formerly mingled. Homer's descriptions of the different regions of the earth carry us forward in imagination into their charming recesses; and even, from the perusal of these narratives, we seem to feel a degree of corporeal fatigue, which we might have expected to have experienced only in our wanderings through their romantic regions. He has, indeed, marshalled the instruments of thought in such a manner, that the ideal association appears in the garb of physical reality. Alexander the Great enthusiastically extolled the Iliad, and hailed with classical veneration the waters of the divine Scamander; associated, as they were, with all that was beautiful in poetry, and interesting in narration. The funeral of Hector terminates the Iliad; but, in what a position do we leave the most exalted characters of that poem! they are all upon the field of battle, ready to renew the contest, like lions of the forest; and Achilles, arrayed as the god of battle, has but just put forth his terrific hand to crush the city of Ilium, and all her martial inhabitants; Hector he has subdued, and Troy trembles on the very verge of |