However, I do not mean to say that every learner should be interdicted the use of all translations. On the contrary, they may be made to serve a useful purpose, by presenting them to him for the exercise of judgment and criticism, taste and choice. But this can only be done when he is more advanced in years, and has already become a good scholar; at a time when the drudgery of grammar and dictionary are in a great measure at an end, and the object is to ripen fruit now well developed, to polish the diamond now released from its bed.

But in the second place, allowing to the fullest extent which the objector can desire, that the following version is not correct poetry; and admitting, for the sake of argument, that the cause of poetry may be damaged by the defect, it remains to be considered whether the numerous prose translations which are abroad are correct prose, and whether, therefore, prose is not as much outraged by them as poetry is by the other.

However, it is better to view the matter more abstractedly, without reference to any effort that has been made in either direction. It being assumed that the object to be attained is a close, accurate, literal translation, where each word of the original is represented by its exact parallel in English, when that is possible, and, when not, by the nearest equivalent that the case allows: the question is,—can obviously not the place to dwell upon these, or any other details of instruction. However, I cannot resist the temptation of suggesting to the tutor the usefulness of occasionally labouring at a lesson along with his boys, as if he were one of themselves. Let him take his seat among them, assume ignorance, and act the learner. With nothing before him but text-book, grammar, and various dictionaries, let him proceed to work out the lesson, giving audible expression to the kind of thoughts and reasonings which would pass through the mind of a diligent and sensible boy, when engaged in such a process. It is wonderful what interest this will arouse, while it will imperceptibly convey a sound, thorough, solid way of encountering difficulties, and mastering a task.

it be secured in unexceptionable prose? Can it be so effected, that an English reader shall be unconscious that he is reading a translation?* I hold it to be quite impossible: the idioms of the dead languages differ too materially from those of the living to admit of it. Make a translation pure prose, and you render it wholly unfit for the young, who will be far more seriously damaged by its laxness than improved by its elegance. But as it is past possibility to provide one in pure prose, so it is as certainly out of any one's power to supply it in pure poetry. The only question, then, that remains for consideration is, whether the best that can be produced in both styles are equally bad in their way. Now this is a point which, I conceive, cannot be settled at present, at least with regard to Virgil, inasmuch as while numberless prose translations of him have been before the world for very many years, not one, so far as I know, has ever appeared on the present plan. One man's failing, especially where but one has tried, can be no proof that another will not succeed. However, unless such a version as is contended for shall be found on experience, after repeated efforts, to be very far inferior to its parallel in prose, it can scarcely help having a clear superiority over its antagonist, inasmuch as it must come nearer to the spirit of the poet, who is equally the original of both. For what tutor will say that, if he wanted for the use of his pupils a close version in Latin of Homer's Iliad, he would prefer a composition by Cicero to one from the pen of Virgil? Or if he required a version in English, that he would seek it at the hands of Dean Swift rather than from Pope? Is not the true canon of

* "Translations seldom afford just specimens of a language, and least of all those in which a scrupulous and verbal interpretation is endeavoured, because they retain the phraseology and structure of the original tongue.”—Dr. Johnson, History of the English Language.

translation for scholastic purposes this:-to render each word in the original by the same word that there is reason to believe would be employed by a standard English writer under similar circumstances, while adhering as closely as possible to the metaphor wrapped up in the Greek or Latin term? He cannot mould his sentences in exactly the same idiomatic way, for the reason already mentioned. Now let terms which Milton, for instance, uses,- —a writer of the same class as Virgil,―be introduced into a prose translation of this poet, and, unless I am greatly mistaken, the result will involve a serious offence against the refined judgment. It is possible, of course, that by the version of a poet into what might be called "poetical prose," no small enjoyment may be raised in the mind of an English reader. But this is not because the style of the version is correct, but because the ideas of the original possess such a native charm, that even when thus diluted, there is savour and strength enough left to nourish and to please. Thinner draughts may be had even than Virgil and water. But the real point is, whether such a style is suitable? is it a style to which the young should be trained? A poetical passage in prose may be legitimate enough; but if it be too long sustained, it becomes impertinent and offensive; and even if it were not, under such circumstances to wield the full power of poetry would be simply unbearable. That the forgeries of Macpherson contain some poetical ideas, may readily be allowed; but if any one can derive unbroken pleasure from the mode in which they are continuously presented to the reader, all that can be said is, de gustibus nil disputandum. Such a person must have a strange fancy for seeing people stumbling on stilts.

* See Mason's "Inscription under a Picture of the Editor of Shakspeare's Manuscripts."

The student, then, having once secured his words and phrases from the English poets, Virgil having supplied the ideas and imagery, let him throw what he has acquired into rhythm, more regular, of course, than prose would demand, and he has gained the nearest approach to the true object of search. If he secure metre, so much the better; but if he fail of metre, or, at least, of a rhythm in excess of that of prose, I confess he is in a sad difficulty. Trying to avoid prose, he has missed the form of poetry, and hit upon something very like bombast. Still, I am persuaded that by the time that he is at all able to move by himself, a little practice will give him ease, interest, and success, in the pursuit. Yet, after all, whether the youth is to translate into quasi-poetry or quasi-prose, his tutor must be every thing to him for a long period. A knowledge of suitable terms, with the power of using them, can only be acquired by age, reading, and experience, — qualifications which are obviously quite beyond his present condition. Assuming the truth of the foregoing argument, he must be fed on poetic diet; the tutor must take example by the bees, who, when the royal cells are tenantless, at once proceed to provide an ordinary larva with royal food, in order to metamorphose it into a queen.

This leads me to speak of a subject, upon which I would far rather maintain silence, from the fear of being misunderstood. It has been said, in replying to an objection against the plan of the present work, that it is not directly designed for young students: the question, therefore, at once presents itself;-for whom is it designed? I trust it will not be thought a piece of presumption on my part, if I make the avowal, that I have intended it for the tutor's use; but if it should, perhaps a little explanation may serve to relieve me from any such suspicion. I take for granted that no prudent, not to say faithful, teacher,

will ever engage in hearing his pupils construe any portion of a classical author, without having previously secured the complete mastery of it himself, whether as to construction, history, or translation. Now, with regard to the last, there are probably but few who could venture to depend upon their memories for the supply of terms, which, perhaps years before, they had fixed upon as the most suitable. If, indeed, they agree with the principle of the present work, it would be absolutely impossible to elaborate such a translation as they would desire at the moment. Even if nothing beyond a prose version, of Virgil for instance, were aimed at, how often will weariness and want of spirit, headache and exhaustion, the consequences of mental exertion, lead the tutor to hail almost any translation as a boon! In such hours of debility perhaps the present may not prove unacceptable to him; in the midst of unavoidable indigence it may prove something of a help. At other times, too, when his energies are more alive, and he is able to cast a more critical eye over its pages, the accidents of the book, as a mere book, may facilitate his object. The distance between the lines. in the text, along with a margin of reputable extent, will probably furnish sufficient room for the insertion of those emendations, which his own superior scholarship, or judgment, or taste, may render necessary. Unless he is supplied with a private translation of his own composition, -in all likelihood the case with no great number,—he will here meet with one, which may serve as the groundwork of a worthier structure.

Having already said that I consider a translation in the hands of the junior student to be a serious evil, while the price of the present must prevent its falling into them, it is obvious that the only chance of the system, which I am advocating, making any way at all is through the in