In this Foulis edition of the Iliad, the quoted passage occurs in Book VI, lines 466-485 (pages 158, 159).
There are other references to Homer in the
Thoughts on English prosody, and his immortality is summed up by Jefferson in a passage near the end:
when young, any composition pleases which unites a little sense, some imagination, and some rhythm, in doses however small.
but as we advance in life, these things fall off one by one, and I suspect we are left at last with only Homer and Virgil
perhaps with Homer alone. He like ‘Hope travels on nor quits us when we die’ . . .
Jefferson expressed his opinion of Homer in various letters. Writing to Michel Guillaume St. Jean de Crèvecoeur, from Paris,
on January 15, 1787, he quoted a passage from the Iliad: “
I see by the Journal of this morning that they are robbing us of another of our inventions to give it to the English. the
writer indeed only admits them to have revived what he thinks was known to the Greeks, that is, the making the circumference
of a wheel of one single peice. the farmers in New Jersey were the first who practised it, & they practised it commonly. D
r. Franklin, in one of his trips to London, mentioned this practice to the man, now in London, who has the patent for making
those wheels. (I forget his name) the idea struck him. the Doctor promised to go to his shop & assist him in trying to make
the wheel of one peice. the Jersey farmers did it by cutting a young sapling, and bending it, while green & juicy, into a
circle; and leaving it so till it became perfectly seasoned. but in London there are no saplings. the difficulty was then
to give to old wood the pliancy of young. the Doctor & the workmen laboured together some weeks & succeeded, & the man obtained
a patent for it which has made his fortune. I was in his shop in London, he told me the whole story himself, and acknowleged,
not only the origin of the idea, but how much the assistance of D
r. Franklin had contributed to perform the operation on dry wood. he spoke of him with love & gratitude. I think I have had
a similar account from D
r. Franklin, but cannot be certain quite. I know that being in Philadelphia when the first set of patent wheels arrived from
London, and were spoken of by the gentleman (an Englishman) who brought them as a wonderful discovery, the idea of it’s being
a new discovery was laughed at by the Philadelphians, who in their Sunday parties across the Delaware had seen every farmer’s
cart mounted on such wheels. the writer in the paper supposes the English workman got his idea from Homer. but it is more
likely that the Jersey farmer got the idea from thence, because ours are the only farmers who can read Homer: because too
the Jersey practice is precisely that stated by Homer; the English practice very different. Homer’s words are (comparing a
young hero killed by Ajax to a poplar felled by a workman)--
| (‛ο) δ’ εν κονιησι χαμαι πεσεν, αιγειρος ‘ως, |
| ‛Η ρα τ’ εν ειαμεν(¸η) ελεος μεγαλοιο πεφυκει, |
| Λειη· αταρ τε ο(‛ι) οζοι επ’ ακροτατ(¸η) πεφυασι· |
| Την μεν δ’ (‛α)ρματοπηγος ανηρ αιθωνι σιδηρ(¸ω), |
| Εξεταμ’, οφρα ιτυν καμψ(¸η) περικαλλει διφρ(¸ω), |
| ‘Η μεν τ’ αζομενη κειται ποταμοιο παρ οχθας· |
"
literally thus ‘he fell on the ground, like a poplar, which has grown, smooth, in the wet part of a great meadow; with it’s
branches shooting from it’s summit. but the Chariot maker, with his sharp axe, has felled it, that he may bend a wheel for
a beautiful chariot. it lies drying on the banks of the river.’ observe the circumstances which coincide with the Jersey practice.
1. it is a tree growing in a moist place, full of juices, & easily bent. 2. it is cut while green. 3. it is bent into the
circumference of a wheel. 4. it is left to dry in that form. you, who write French well & readily, should write a line for
the Journal, to reclaim the houour
[
sic
--
Ed.
]
of our farmers.”
The quoted passage is from Book IV (page 100 in this edition).
In a letter to Joseph Priestley, dated from Philadelphia, January 27, 1800, Jefferson expressed his opinion on
