one of thefe, ftrange to tell! occurs in Mr. Pope's translation of the Iliad. The fecond rule, which relates to the affimilation of style and manner, is illuftrated with much taste and judgment. The deficient, or too concife interpreters, and thofe who fubftitute the vulgar cant of the ftreets for the humour of the Roman authors, among whom Echard holds a confpicuous place, are adduced. We wish rather to copy the remarks on the more elegant verfions. The tranflations of Mr. Vincent Bourne are very juftly and properly praised: they are indeed exquifitely beautiful, and highly polifhed; nor can we object to any thing, but that an additional fentiment is fometimes introduced. It is done generally with caution and propriety: it is commended alfo by the critic, on whofe judgment and tafte we have fome confidence; but it feems, we fpeak it with diffidence, to detract from the fidelity to be expected in a tranflation. The duke de Nivernois' tranflation of Horace and Lydia is almost a perfect one in the freer ftyle: we think it not fufficiently known, and shall confequently transcribe it. • Horace. Plus heureux qu'un monarque au faite des grandeurs, J'ai vu mes jours dignes d'envie, Tranquiles, ils couloient au gré de nos ardeurs : Vous m'aimiez, charmante Lydie. Lydie. Que mes jours étoient beaux, quand des foins les plus doux Vous payiez ma flamme fincére! Venus me regardoit avec des yeux jaloux ; Horace. Par fon luth, par fa voix, organe des amours, Si le Deftin jaloux veut épargner fes jours, Lydie. Le jeune Calaïs, plus beau que les amours, Si le Destin jaloux veut épargner ses jours, Horace. Quoi, fi mes premiers feux, ranimant leur ardeur, Si, perdant pour jamais tous fes droits fur mon cœur, Lydie. Calais eft charmant: mais je n'aime que vous, Heureufe également en des liens fi doux, De perdre ou de paffer la vie.' It is not, we have faid, a close translation; and our author X 3 thinks thinks the concluding stanza wants the happy petulance of the original: perhaps it is a greater objection that the fentiment is, altered. In the original, no juftification is neceffary: love, almighty love, overturns every argument, without waiting for reafon to juftify her conduct. Mr. Cumberland's tranflations of the fragments of the comic poets, the critic praises with great propriety and juftice; but, as he wishes to know where they are to be found, he will allow us to add, that many occur in the Cambridge edition of the Poetæ Minores. All are not in that collection, but there are fome paffages, of fingular merit not noticed by the author of the Obferver. The rule, refpecting the imitation of ftyle, muft be limited, our author tells us, by the genius of the language. The La tin admits of a brevity which cannot be fuccefsfully imitated in English: the French is, he thinks, more advantageous in this refpect. We shall quote one example. Pliny to Minutianus, Lib. 3. Ep. 9. fays, towards the end of his letter: Temerè dixi-Succurrit quod præterieram, et quidem ferò: fed quanquam prepofterè reddetur. Facit boc Homerus, mulique illius exemplo. Eft alioqui perdecorum: a me tamen non ideo fut, It is no doubt poffible to tranflate this paffage into English which a concifenefs almoft equal to the original. But in this experiment we must facrifice all its eafe and spirit. "I have faid this rafhly recollect au omiffion - fomewhat too late indeed. It hall now be fupplied, though a little prepofteroully. Homer does this and many after his example. Befides, it is not unbecoming; but this is not my reafon." Let us mark how Mr. Melmoth, by a happy amplification, has preferved the fpirit and eafe, though facrificing the brevity of the original. "But upon ret collecting, I find that I muft recall that laft word; for I perceive, a little too late indeed, that I have omitted a material circumftance. However, I will mention it here, though fomething out of its place. In this, I have the authority of Homer, and seve ral other great names, to keep me in countenance; and the critics will tell you this irregular manner has its beauties; but, upon my word, it is a beauty I had not at all in my view." These remarks are, in general, juft; but we may afk whether Mr. Melmoth, in this tranflation, has not facrificed the abrupt hafty manner of Pliny in his more elegant flowing verfion? The fame error feems to pervade the whole of Mr. Melmoth's attempt: manner is facrificed to elegance, and idiom to ease. The inverfions of the Greek and Latin are inconfiftent with the English, and confequently limit the rule. The inverted conftruction of Mr. Gordon's Tacitus, and Mr. Macpherson's Homer, Homer, are mentioned, and the latter is ftyled a work otherwife valuable, as containing a most perfect transfusion of the sense of his author. In our review of it we had occafion to form a very different opinion. The English is also incapable of numerous ellipfes admiflible in the Greek and Latin; but all these defects are probably compenfated by other advantages, and, with care, concifenefs, in an English verfion, may be very compatible with elegance. The question, whether a poem may be tranflated into profe, is difcuffed very judiciously. If it be only melody of language, an uniform measure, and regular return that is required, these are not incompatible with profe; but poetical images, the nobly daring language of the poet, is unfuitable to profe, becaufe not ufually connected with it. Fenelon is juftly praised for only giving his language a degree of elevation confiftent with a highly polifhed profaic compofition. The third rule is, that a tranflation fhould have all the cafe of original compofition. Mr. Melmoth has fucceeded in the familiarity of the epiftolary ftyle; but, as we have faid, he fucceeds by facrificing manner. The old tranflators of Lucian have carried this familiarity to a faulty extreme. When we confider those restraints within which a translator finds himself neceffarily confined, with regard to the fentiments. and manner of his original, it will foon appear that this last requifite includes the most difficult part of his task. To one who walks in trammels, it is not eafy to exhibit an air of grace and freedom. It is difficult, even for a capital painter, to preferve in a copy of a picture all the ease and spirit of the original; yet the painter employs precifely the fame colours, and has no other care than faithfully to imitate the touch and manner of the picture that is before him: if the original is eafy and graceful, the copy will have the fame qualities, in proportion as the imitation is juft and perfect. The tranflator's task is very different he ufes not the fame colours with the original, but is required to give his picture the fame force and effect. He is not allowed to copy the touches of the original, yet is required, by touches of his own, to produce a perfect resemblance. The more he studies a fcrupulous imitation, the lefs his copy will reflect the eafe and fpirit of the original. How then fhall a tranflator accomplish this difficult union of eafe with fidelity? To ufe a bold expreffion, he must adopt the very foul of his author, which must freak through his own organs." These rules are easily given, but perhaps never to be followed, except where a fimilarity of genius renders this adoption cafy; and, to employ an eastern allufion, when the foul can be tranfmitted, and animate the clay-cold body. Poetry muft be allowed a little liberty on account of the rigid feverity of modern metre; and this is the fecret caufe of the lofs of the. vital fpirit, and the neceffary transfufion of fome additionalfire: the tyrant must be obeyed. Inftances of excellence are adduced from fome tranflations of Horace's Odes by Lowth, Hughes, and Dryden; but we recollect tranflations of Dryden from Horace fuperior to thofe now quoted. That part of the 29th ode of the third book, which begins 'cui licet in diem dixiffe vixi,' and, indeed, the whole is rendered with an energy and poetic fire, fcarcely inferior to what Horace has difplayed in the original. Our author quotes the stanza. which begins fortuna fævo læta negotio,' as well as that which immediately follows. In the chapter on the verfion of idiomatic phrases, fome happy inftances are quoted from Cotton's tranflation of Montaigne and from Echard; though the laft author affords more numerous inftances of faults in this refpect. Tranflations of the names of streets, &c. very often have a ludicrous effect; and indeed proper names of every kind should not be tranflated. The point of an epigram is almost in every instance blunted, fometimes totally deftroyed, in a new language. Some of the poems ftyled epigrams by the Greeks have been tranflated with aftonifhing elegance, and many are fully equal to the originals. Among the idiomatical authors Don Quixote is mentioned, and Motteux's tranflation preferred to Smollett's. It contains certainly many happy transfufions of idiom, though it offends the more elegant tafte, and the nicer ear. Smollett, it is faid, we believe without reafon, copied almost wholly from Jarvis, whofe language hé alfo corrected and polished. Voltaire's tranflations are treated very properly, but these afford no new remarks. We fhall preferve the little fpace that remains for fome fpecimens of a French tranflation of Hudibras, a work that was fuppofed impracticable. We have been almoft led to fufpect that this pretended tranflation is one of the piæ fraudes, and that, in reality, no more has been tranf Jated than what appears. After a very diligent enquiry among the admirers of French literature, we have been able to difcover no fuch verfion of this truly English poet.- The paf fage which begins, So learned Taliacotius from, &c.' is thus rendered. Ainfi Talicot d'une feffe Savoit tailler avec addreffe Nez tous neufs, qui'ne rifquoient rien Mais fi le cul perdoit la vie, Le nez tomboit par fympathie.' Again, For his religion it was fit, &c.' Sa réligion au genie For Hudibras wore but one fpur, &c.' • Car Hudibras avec raison Ne fe chauffoit qu'un éperon, Qu'un coté marchant, l'autre arrive." We fhall add only one more paffage, 'For he by geometric fcale, &c.' 'En geometre raffiné Un pot de bierre il eut jaugé ; A quelle heure il fonne midi.' On the whole, this work may, perhaps, be most advantageoufly confidered as a fpecimen of a more extensive one. It certainly may be more full, more varied, and in fome instances probably more correct: yet it deferves no flight commendation; and the author might, without difgrace, have added his name. Rights of Man. Part the Second. Combining Principle and Practice. By T. Paine. 8vo. 35. Jordan. 1792. IF we had thought it poffible that the virulence of party, the difappointment of foaring ambition, or the rage of innovation could, for a moment, have contributed to bestow a temporary celebrity on ignorance and abfurdity, blended with the low vulgarity of colloquial errors, and boldly depending on infig nificance |