untranflatable into others; the adoption of fuch words, instead of the multiplication of our fynonymous terms, might be a real acceffion of literary wealth, and, by faving the neceffity of circumlo cutions, would bring with it very material advantages in respect to brevity of phrafe, and fimplicity of expreffion. In the course of fuch an enquiry, he would often fall upon very pleafing discoveries of the ftrong connexion between language and manners, and might difcern, through this medium, many of the diftinguishing features of ancient and modern times. Thus "fentiment" is a word of modern origin, and explains in a manner, by its date, an effect of the Gothic inftitutions of chivalry. In the Latin word " orbitas," for which we can find no correfponding term, we perceive fome intiination of the confequence and immunities which were gained among the Romans by a numerous progeny. The complexional peculiarities of the English have produced a variety of appropriate words, fuch as "comfortable,” “hu"mour," and a hundred others; of which lity are, “appétiffant,"-" piquant,”-naïveté,”

**ennui," in the French.

qua

But

But it is not in fingle words only, that one language bids defiance to another; they are as often irreconcileable in their combinations; and there are sentiments in every language which can neither be literally nor virtually tranflated. That accidental force which is communicated to words by those circumstances and incidents, those trivial localities which leave their impreffions on a language long after they expire themselves, impart alfo to certain phrases, an untranflatable quality, an effential inherent virtue which baffles imitation. Thus, in fome writers, who are most intimately acquainted with the fecret refources of their language, we obferve a delicacy which will not bear removal, a vivacity which dies in the handling, a charm which fades with expofure. This is that curiofa felicitas by which Horace is diftinguished above other writers, and which adheres to the language as a painting to its canvas. Who can exprefs, in other words, the "ftrenua inertia," the "facili fævitia," the "fimplex munditiis," and a hundred other phrases of that most exquifite poet? They are among the awaž ugnuva, once faid, and never to be faid again.

It is flattering to our natures to find excufes for human failures, and to lodge the blame rather with the inftruments with which we work, than with ourselves. In the bufinefs of tranflation, we are fure that no perfection of intellect can remedy or fupply the deficiencies of language; yet, in the specimens which our country's literature exhibits, we perceive a fufficient number of errors, for which no reason can be given, but the falfe tafte, ignorance, or pride of translators. It may be fairly attributed to one of thefe caufes, when we fee an author's meaning grofsly mistaken, a new drefs given to his fentiments, or new fentiments fubftituted in their place. Thus I lofe my patience, when I fee what was meant metaphorically by the author, interpreted literally by his tranflator; or a thought caft into a metaphor, which was fimply intended. This is only warrantable in cafes where one language cannot be accommodated to the spirit or idiom of another; but it is plain to be perceived, how often it fprings from a pragmatical interference in the tranflator, who is fo continually led away by the conceit of improving upon his original.

A vanity

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A vanity of this, fort feems to have strongly poffeffed themind of the celebrated tranflator of Cicero's and Pliny's Epiftles, who not seldom facrifices his original to an overspun delicacy of phrafe, and is, in fome refpects, too fine a gentleman for a faithful tranflator. Epiftola enim "non erubefcit"-Thus Tully, in his famous letter to Lucceius; which his tranflator has englifhed, "For a letter fpares the confufion of a "blufh." Had he rendered it literally, its strength and its brevity might have been preferved in the tranflation. He has too much of what the Greeks express by the term axpCua, a word whofe force cannot be reprefented by any fingle word of any language with which I am acquainted.

There is no fault into which the pride of improving more frequently betrays modern tranflators, than this aberration from the fimple meaning and fpirit of their authors. The circumftance, indeed, which ftill fecures to the ancients their poetical pre-eminence, is that fuperior vein of fimplicity by which, in general, they are diftinguished. As the drefs of thepherdeffes becomes fome women beft, fo fome thoughts are best adorned in the plainest attire.

3

attire. The modern tranflator is for tricking out every thing in a meretricious splendour; is for covering with a corrofive cofmetic, the vivid bloom of nature, and for hiding her original whiteness with a cold and lifelefs enamel.

This difference of character between ancient and modern compofitions, is marked in nothing fo strongly as in the taste for allegorical representa tions. The emblems of the moderns are diftinguished by their complication and confufion; those of the ancients, by their fimplicity and propriety. The fame oppofition of character runs through the whole range of metaphor and allufion. The ancient designs with two or three strokes; the modern is always filling up and retouching: the one imagines you can never have enough; the other is afraid of giving you too much. It was a risk more perilous than he thought, for an ancient to have indulged his genius: his boldness is fure to be outraged by his tranflator; if he be witty, he is converted into a conjuror : all his conceits are wrought up into conundrums; his native elegance is refined into coxcombry; and, if his natural

VOL. III.

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