There was published a few years ago a translation into English verse of the works of the Greek Tragic Poets. The book was safely launched and survived the first breakers of criticism. The author's delicacy of feeling was commented upon, and his sympathetic interpretation of the original spirit of the tragedies. Somewhat later it transpired that the author did not know a word of Greek and drew his materials entirely from earlier English translations in prose. But in the meantime the book had achieved permanent success.

It is perhaps irrelevant to connect a doubtful metrical translation of Greek tragedies with the University's series of lectures on the four great epic poets given by eminent authorities. But both accomplish the same purpose; a sympathetic appreciation of the spirit of the originals. Few undergraduates read Milton thoroughly, still fewer know Virgil and Dante beyond a few memorized lines repeated parrot-fashion, and relatively a handful have ever dipped into Homer. For the rest, and for this intellectual aristocracy as well, Professor Palmer's lecture this afternoon will open a vista into an unknown world.

Professor Palmer is the last of the "Harvard Immortals", the associate of James and Royce. Illustrious as a philosopher and a scholar, he is even more often remembered by the hundreds of students who have had the privilege of working under him, as the man who made Homer "real". A Harvard graduate thirty years out declared that the greatest experience of his college career was listening to Professor Palmer lecture on Homer. This experience is again made possible today.