the name of an epic poem composed by Homer, which, when compared with the Iliad, exhibits its author as the setting sun, whose grandeur remains without the heat of his meridian beams.

The poet's design in the Odyssey was to paint the miseries of a kingdom in the absence of its supreme governor, and the evil consequences resulting from a disregard of law, and of that subordination without which society cannot exist. With this view he sets before his countrymen the adventures of a prince who had been obliged to forfeit his native country, and to head an army of his subjects in a foreign expedition; and he artfully contrives, without interrupting the narrative, to make the reader acquainted with the state of the country in the absence of its sovereign. The chief having gloriously finished the enterprise in which he was engaged, was returning with his army; but in spite of all his eagerness to be at home, he was detained on the way by tempests for several years, and cast upon several countries differing from each other in manners and in government. In these dangers his companions, not strictly obeying his orders, perish through their own fault. In the mean time the grandees of his country abuse the freedom which his absence gave them; confine his estate; conspire to destroy his son; endeavour to compel his queen to accept one of them for her husband; and indulge themselves in every species of violence, from a persuasion that he would never return. In this they were disappointed. He returns; and discovering himself only to his son and some others who had maintained their allegiance, he is an eye-witness of the insolence of his enemies, punishes them according to their deserts, and restores to his island that tranquillity and repose to which it had been a stranger during the many years of his absence.

Such is the fable of the Odyssey, in which there is no opportunity of displaying that vigour and sublimity which characterize the Iliad. "It descends from the dignity of gods and heroes," and warlike achievements; but in recompense we have more pleasing pictures of ancient manners. Instead of that ferocity which reigns in the other poem, this presents us with the most amiable images of hospitality and humanity; entertains us with many a wonderful adventure; and instructs us by such a constant vein of morality and virtue which runs through the poem," sometimes in precepts, and always in the conduct of the hero, that we should not wonder if Greece, which gave the appellation of wise to men who uttered single sentences of truth, had given to Homer the title of the father of virtues, for introducing into his work such a number of moral maxims. As a poem, however, the Odyssey has its faults. The last twelve books are tedious and languid; and we are disappointed by the calm behaviour of Penelope upon the discovery of her long lost husband.