830 OEIGETAL AETICLES. 



by Dr. Strack, and is a faithful version of the text, but with very 

 few notes. The English version, by Taylor, we have not seen, 

 and if the Stagyrite has not met with better usage at his hands 

 than Plato and Plotinus have done, our loss is small. As Lobeck 

 savs of him, "saepe grammaticam, saepissime sensmn pervertit." 



The qualifications required on the part of a translator of the 

 Natural Historv of Aristotle, are much more varied than those 

 which suffice for rendering an ordinary classic into a modem 

 tongue. In translating such a work, the scholarship is the smallest 

 difficulty, as the language is the easiest to master of any Greek 

 author, and the text is now nearly as perfect as it ever can be. In 

 executing a translation, the edition by Schneider should be chosen, 

 as being the one naturalists are in the habit of consulting, and 

 because it is followed by a Latin translation, and a valuable apparatus 

 of notes and dissertations, and we may add, because the editor was 

 both an able naturalist, and a learned scholar. But while Schneider 

 should ser\'e as the basis, a constant reference should be had to the 

 more recent and amended text of Eitter. 



An indispensable requisite on the part of a translator is, that he 

 should possess the most familiar acquaintance with the other Aris- 

 totelian treatises on the physical sciences. He must know not 

 merely the Greek language, but the Aristotelic language, and be 

 master of his philosophy of nature. In the History of Animals 

 there are many things which are but briefly indicated, and apparently 

 out of all natural connection with the subject, which can only be 

 understood by the more copious illustrations to be found in other 

 works. To understand the natural history, we must consult the 

 long series of treatises from the Meteorology to the De Atdma. Of 

 the danger of neglecting this we shall soon have to give examples. In 

 addition to this, an extensive knowledge of zoology and comparative 

 anatomy is essential. In this respect such knowledge as is drawn 

 from books alone is insufficient ; the translator must be a practical 

 anatomist, and from long experience, skilful in the diagnosis of 

 species. "With this preliminary discipline, even a moderate amount 

 of scholarship will enable a naturalist to overcome difficulties which 

 would perplex a Scaliger or a Bentley. Unless he know the structure 

 of the ovum of the cuttle-fish, the history of the Hectocotyle, the 

 envelopes of the embryo in the different classes, he will find great 

 difficiilties in mastering the text of Aristotle. 



It is time to apply these remarks to the translation of the first 

 chapter of the History of Animals, which appeared in the la.st 

 number of the Eeview. We are surprised to find the word ravpa 

 translated 7ierve. Xow in Aristotle and all authors before him up to 

 Homer, this word is never used in the sense of our English word 

 nerve, it always means ligament or tendon. This is a serious error ; 

 for a knowledge of the nervous system was the weakest point in the 

 anatomy of the Stagyi-ite. Of the nerves he knew almost nothing ; 

 and it was Erasistratus, said to have been the grandson of our philo- 



