Of HISTORICAL COMPOSITION. 107 



at the court of a Macedonian prince * ; and has accordingly in- 

 curred the juft, but reluctant blame of LONGINUS f. Or would 

 you have a modern hiftorian, in giving an account of the 

 fpeeches in the Hoxife of Commons, give us the Irifh of one, 

 the broad Scotch of another, or vulgar Englifh of a third ? Or, 

 in telling us the converfation of fome foreign minifter, ignorant 

 of the Englifh tongue, would you have him deliver it in the 

 original German or Dutch ? In fuch cafes we make ufe of 

 tranilation. Yet the idioms of modern European languages are 

 fo different from one another, that we fhall find it, on many 

 occafions, utterly impoffible to give a literal tranflation of the 

 very words. We mufl have recourfe to circumlocution, and 

 to fuch metaphorical expreflions, as prefent very different images 

 from thofe of the original. HELVETIUS has been charged, 

 and I think not unjuftly, with having offered to the public, as 

 an original poem, a tranflation of the firfl fcene of ELFRIDA if ; 

 yet the difference between the two performances is much greater 

 than that between prefenting the views and arguments of a pu- 

 blic fpeaker, as delivered by himfelf, or as related by an hi- 

 ftorian. Add to all this, that there can be no violation of ve- 

 racity, when there is no intention of deceiving, much lefs when 

 the reader is warned of his danger, and, in the very manner 

 in which fpeeches are introduced, is guarded by the writer him- 

 felf againfl impofition. TACITUS introduces the fpeech of 

 GALGACUS with the words, " in hunc modum locutus fertur," 

 " is faid to have harangued after the following manner ;" and 

 the fpeech of AGRICOLA with " ita differuit," " thought pro- 

 per thus to addrefs them." THUCYDIDES prefixes to a fpeech 

 by the Corinthian ambaffadors, " inrw ^onSl" " they fpoke fuch 

 things ;" and to that of STHENELAIDAS," && y AaxtJaipono.f '," 



02 "he 



* Lib. v. 1 8. 



)- De Sublim. feft. 3. 



\ MASON'S Memoirs of the life and writings oMr GRAY, p. 296. edit. 410. 



