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are reproduced among us or how tbey have affected our composi- 

 tions ; or I might take English literature, and beginning with 

 the earliest period, examine to what extent each period has been 

 indebted to its acquaintance with ancient classics ; or I might, 

 and I shall prefer this course, divide my subject into its two de- 

 partments, epic and dramatic, and see how much each depart- 

 ment owes to its prototype in antiquity. 



In what way are we to know that an English poet has followed 

 an ancient poet as his model ? What are to be our tests ? We may 

 say that it is some similarity of subject combined with similarity 

 of treatment or style which we must look for when we wish to 

 ascertain whether an Englisli work has been indebted to an 

 ancient one for its inception, but there may be imitations in 

 minuter particulars, such as in the use of peculiar expressions, 

 strange and irregular arrangement of words, literal translations 

 of idioms, and so forth. 



With these limitations and precautions we can enter more 

 boldly upon the consideration of our subject. The first class of 

 writings I shall take is one about which we need have no doubt : 

 in translations of ancient authors the indebtedness is admitted : 

 we have several successful attempts to reproduce in English the 

 leading works of antiquity, and we have many iinsuccessful 

 attempts : in the case of the successful valuable accessions to our 

 literature have been made : the translation has really become an 

 English classic, as much as if the poem had been an original 

 composition : and by a multiplicative process, we are in some 

 instances indebted to one ancient work for several English works 

 which may be really cherished as modern classics. From the 

 famous poems of Homer we have derived several translations 

 which have each of them admirers, which all have varied excel- 

 lences, and which may yet be improved upon by translations still to 

 come. There are difficulties in translation as tliere are in other 

 things ; one class of translators rigidly adheres to the text, leaves 

 no word of the original unrepresented in the reproduction, refuses 

 to amplify or expand, scarcely ventures to alter the form of ex- 

 pression ; the other class desires to set forth the spirit of the 

 original, to clothe the ancient in a modern vesture, does not 

 shrink from a paraphrase when a passage seems difficult to re- 

 produce tastefully, enlarges, contracts, according to the temper 

 and feeling of the translator. Between these two classes there 

 are intermediate grades, one man inclining more to the first 

 class or the literal one, another leaning to the second or free one. 

 And each of these grades has its admirers, so that it is impossible 

 for any one to say that any translation is the most perfect : he 

 can only express his own feelings on the matter. Now some 

 would perhaps be inclined to say that the literal method was the 

 legitimate method, that in exhibiting an ancient work to a 

 modern reader no freedom of expansion or contraction was allow- 



