The fair critic, (whom I have before mentioned as accusing me of
borrowing from Tasso,) has discovered, that for this image I am indebted
to Homer; and to this latter charge I believe I must plead guilty, as
well as to the still greater offence of miserably deteriorating what I
have stolen: but the first of these faults was unintentional, and I need
scarcely say that the second was inevitable.
---- ῶς ὅτις ψάμαθον ῶάἵς ἄγχι δαλάσσης,
Ὂστ’ ἐῶεἰ οῦν ῶοιήσή άθυρμαια νηῶιέησιν,
Αψ ἀυτις συνέχευε ῶοςἰν καἰ χερσιν, ἀθύρων.
Iliad, XV. 362.