The Lord Chancellor Thurlow, after His Retirement from Office, and generally from Publick Life, was accustomed to pass His Mornings in the Study of the great Greek and Roman Poets, and other Authors of Antiquity. It sometimes happened, that in His own Reading, or in directing my Studies, which He superintended with a Kindness and Care, which never seemed to be weary, His Mind would be struck with some Passage of eminent Beauty; and He would amuse Himself with translating it into Verse. Thus He translated the Chorus from Euripides; and the Battle of the Frogs and Mice from Homer; if indeed it be Homer's. These I have subjoined; for I think Milton could not have excelled the first; and that there is no finer Specimen of Mock-Heroick in our Language, than the Second. Thus in the mere Pursuit of Amusement, in His old Age, He has equalled what other, and greatest, Minds have done, setting for themselves Tasks of Labour, by which to arrive at the Accomplishment of Fame.
Page:Moonlight, a poem- with several copies of verses (IA moonlightpoemwit00thuriala).pdf/35
