Phaon, the fame author has added a witticifm, which is lefs reprehenfible, because it accords with the ufual manner of the poet whom he translates: yet it cannot be termed an improvement of the original:

"Scribimus, et lachrymis oculi rorantur abortis, "Afpice, quam fit in hoc multa litura loco."

See while I write, my words are loft in tears,
The lefs my fenfe, the more my love appears.

POPE.

BUT if authors, even of taste and genius, are found at times to have made an injudicious use of that liberty which is allowed in the tranflation of poetry, we must expect to see it miserably abufed indeed, where thofe talents are evidently wanting. The following speci

men

CHAP. V.

Second General Rule: The Style and Manner of writing in a Tranflation fhould be of the fame Character with that of the Original.Tranflations of the Scriptures;-Of Homer, &c.;—A juft Tafte requifite for the difcernment of the Characters of Style and Manner. Examples of failure in this particular ;— The grave exchanged for the formal;The elevated for the bombaft;—The lively for the petulant ;-The fimple for the Hobbes, L'Eftrange, E

childish.
chard, &c.

NEX

EXT in importance to a faithful transfufion of the fenfe and mean

ing of an author, is an affimilation of

the

the ftyle and manner of writing in the tranflation to that of the original. This' requifite of a good tranflation, though but fecondary in importance, is more difficult to be attained than the former; for the qualities requifite for juftly difcerning and happily imitating the various characters of style and manner, are much more rare than the ability of fimply understanding an author's fenfe. A good tranflator must be able to difcover at once the true character of his author's ftyle. He muft afcertain with precision to what clafs it belongs; whether to that of the grave, the elevated, the easy, the lively, the florid and ornamented, or the fimple and unaffected; and thefe characteristic qualities he must have the capacity of rendering equally confpicuous in the tranflation as in the original. If a tranflator fails

in this difcernment, and wants this capacity, let him be ever fo thoroughly master of the sense of his author, he will present him through a distorting medium, or exhibit him often in a garb that is unfuitable to his character.

THE chief characteristic of the hiftorical ftyle of the facred fcriptures, is its fimplicity. This character belongs indeed to the language itfelf. Dr Campbell has justly remarked, that the Hebrew is a fimple tongue; "That their "verbs have not, like the Greek and “Latin, a variety of moods and tenses,

nor do they, like the modern lan"guages, abound in auxiliaries and "conjunctions. The confequence is, "that in narrative, they express by "feveral fimple fentences, much in the way of the relations used in "converfation,

"converfation,

what in most other

"languages would be comprehended in "one complex fentence of three or "four members *" The fame author gives, as an example of this fimplicity, the beginning of the first chapter of Genefis, where the account of the operations of the Creator on the first day is contained in eleven separate sentences.

1. In the beginning God created the "Heaven and the Earth. 2. And the "earth was without form, and void.

3. And darkness was upon the face "of the deep. 4. And the Spirit of "God moved upon the face of the wa5. And God faid, let there be "light. 6. And there was light. 7. "And God faw the light, that it was

❝ters.

"good. 8. And God divided the light "from

P 2

• Third Preliminary Diff. to New Translation of the four Gofpels.