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Not otherwife in arms untaught to yield

Rome's burden'd foldiers feek the iron field,
And fix e'er fame's fwift voice prevents their way,
Mid unfufpecting foes their war array.

In the former paffage, the defcription is clear and complete, in the latter it is obfcure and paraphraftic; and the most important circumftance of all is omitted pofitis caftris, which conveys an astonishing idea of the rapid and dauntlefs operations of the Roman legions.

Dryden has fometimes taken the liberty of subftituting one image for another, but with fingular propriety and fpirit. Take for inftance the beautiful apoftrophe to Nifus and Euryalus :

O happy friends! for if my verfe can give
Immortal life, your fame fhall ever live,
Fix'd as the Capitol's foundation lies,
And Spread where'er the Roman Eagle flies 9.

But after all, may we not apply to Translations, the remark made by Philip of Macedon to a perfon who prided himself upon imitating the notes of the Nightingale? I prefer the Nightingale herself.

The defects and difficulties of the translator are increased by the inferiority of his language. The

"Fortunati ambo, fi quid mea carmina poffint!
Nulla dies unquam memori vos eximet ævo,
Dum domus Æneæ Capitoli immobile faxum
Accolet, imperiumque Pater Romanus habebit."

VOL. I.

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claffics

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claffics are characterised by a native elegance and dignity of thought, a peculiar precifion of ftyle, a copious flow of period, and a regular conftruction of fentence: in addition to which their poetical works are adorned with the harmony of numbers and the various beauties of metrical verfification. The modern languages poffefs fome of thefe beauties in an inferior degree, and of others they are totally deftitute. If therefore the flowers of eloquence and poetry, which bloom in the fields of Cicero and Virgil, be tranfplanted into a lefs genial foil, and a colder climate, their vigour declines, and they lofe the brightnefs of their colours, and the richness of their fragrance..

The fragments of the annals of the Pontiffs, and the laws of the Twelve Tables, are fufficient to prove the rude and imperfect ftate of the Latin language, during the early times of the republic. Two of the firft hiftorians of Rome compofed their works in Greek and even Brutus, the contemporary of Cicero, wrote his epiftles in the fame.

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My own practice may afford an apt illuftration of the inferiority of a translation to an original: for I have reprefented in feeble English the juft and beautiful obfervations which Gravina, an eminent writer of Latin, has conveyed in strong and Ciceronian periods. (Opufc. p. 183.)

Ce qu'il y a des plus délicat dans les penfées, et dans les expreffions des auteurs, qui ont écrit avec beaucoup de justesse, 'fe' perd quand on les veut mettre dans une autre langue: à-peu-près comme ces effences exquifes, dont le parfum fubtile évapore quand on les verfè d'un vafe dans un autre. Bohours, Perfées Ingéniufes, p. 195:

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language. That great orator wrote a Greek Hiftory of his own confulfhip; and his friend Atticus produced a Greek work upon the fame fubject. The Latin was not only for a confiderable time an unpolished, but a defective language. Its poverty of expreffion was a fubject of complaint, as foon as it began to be regularly ftudied. Cicero and Lucretius were fenfible of the want of terms adapted to philofophical topics. Even the names of phyfics, dialectics, and rhetoric, were unknown before the former of thefe authors introduced them into. his works; and the latter laments that his native tongue was not calculated to communicate with adequate ftrength and copioufness of expreffion, the wonders and the beauties of Grecian philofophy. Its defects were not fo great, when applied to fubjects more congenial to the manners of the Romans. From their conftant occupations in domeftic and foreign wars for many centuries, their language took a deep and peculiar tincture, and the marks of it were evident from many modes of expreffion. Virtus, for inftance, denotes virtue as well as courage; Exercitus, which fignifies an army, conveys likewife in its original import the idea of ftrong bodily exercife; Imperator, originally appropriated to a general, was afterwards applied to the fupreme civil magiftrate of the empire; and the term Hoftis, which was employed in contradiftinction to a native of Rome, in its primary meaning, denoted a ftranger'. The Roman

Hoftis enim apud majores noftros is dicebatur, quem nunc peregrinum

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gentlemen were called Equites, which had a reference to the military service performed on horseback by perfons of their quality, in the early ages of the commonwealth, when a foldier and a citizen were the fame.

1. Latin Claffics.

It might naturally enough be fuppofed, on comparing the Comedies of Plautus with thofe of Terence, and the Poems of Lucretius with Virgil, that they had lived at the diftance of feveral centuries from each other: and yet they were in reality feparated by no long interval of time. Plautus flourished about thirty years before Terence, and Lucretius about fifty before Virgil. The rapid progrefs of the Latin tongue to perfection will appear lefs extraordinary, when we remark the labour bestowed upon its cultivation by perfons as eminent for their tafte and learning, as for their rank and talents. Scipio Africanus was the affiftant of Terence in his comic productions; and Cicero and Cæfar promoted the improvement and refinement of their language, not only by examples of correctnefs in their inimitable writings, but by compofing treatifes on grammar.

peregrinum dicimus. Indicant 12 tabulæ, aut ftatus dies cum hofte, &c. Cicero de Officiis, lib. i. c. 12.

Virtus is probably derived from vis or vir, as Afɛrn is from Apas. "Virtute femper prævalet fapientia." Phædrus.

All

All the Latin authors, who were remarkable for pure and elegant diction, flourished within the fpace of a century and a half, viz. from the time of Scipio Africanus to the death of Auguftus.. During that period, it was evident with what great fuccefs the Roman language could be adapted to every fpecies of compofition. The profe writer expanded his ideas in flowing periods, or condenfed them into concife fentences. The poet adapted the various kinds of metre to the melodious notes of the lyre, or, aided by the fancied infpiration of the epic mufe, poured forth the more regular numbers of heroic fong.

The pureft, and as it is fometimes called the golden age of Latin compofition, commenced with TERENCE, who introduced the characters of his elegant comedies, converfing in terfe and perfpicuous language. LUCRETIUS gave to the Epicurean philofophy the wild but captivating charms of a vigorous fancy, and nervous expreffion. His verfification is fometimes rough and unpolifhed, and fometimes rifes into fo much grace and fmoothnefs as to refemble the hexameters of Virgil. The principal inftances that confirm this affertion are, the beautiful exordium of his poem, his defcription of the manfions of the Gods, and his highly fanciful account of the origin of mufic from the finging of birds. There is a wild fublimity

* Lib. iii. 1. 18. &c. Lib. v. 1. 1377.

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