432 
«Nox: erat, ‘ct placidum® carpebant) fessa 
soporem 
Corpora per terras, silveque et szeva qnierant 
Aequora, quum medio volyuntur sidera 
lapsu, 
Quum tacet omnis ager; pecudes, pictaque 
volucres, 
Queque tenent. lacus liquidos, queque 
1 aspera dumis 
Rura tenent, somo posite sub nocte silenti 
Lenibant curas, et corda oblita laboruin. 
At non infelix animi Phoenissa, &e.” 
Zim. iv. 522. 
The picture of Virgil is taken from 
the great features of nature, into which 
man is not admitted with any distinc- 
tion from other objects of the scene, and 
is drawn with the greatest majesty and 
race; that of Apollonius is princi- 
pally derived from subjects of human 
concern and employment, from cities 
and men in their various occupations on 
sea and land, and if it yield in dignity, 
is perhaps more tou¢hing to the mind 
than that of his imitator. The follow- 
ing is a literal translation; “ Night then 
brought darkness on the earth, the sai- 
lors on the sea were looking from their 
ships on the Bear, and the constellation 
of Orion; the traveller and the watch- 
man of the gates now longed for sleep ; 
and deep lethargic slumbers encom- 
passed the mother of dead children, nor 
was the barking of dogs or the busy hum 
heard within the city, but silence held 
the blackened shades: yet did not sweet 
sleep take possession of Medea.”” There 
is perhaps this impropriety in the first 
circumstance introduced by Apoilo- 
nius, that it does not present an image 
of absclute repose; the rest of the cre- 
ation, though tranquil, is not in this 
picture wholly dead. Without decid. 
ing between their merits, it may be said 
that few passages in any writers are more 
striking than these kindred and rival 
descriptions, on a subject most favour- 
ably calculated for poetical display. 
From Apollonius we pass to his 
translator, and shall introduce him as 
giving to his reader the following ac- 
count of his undertaking. 
¢T shall not presume to say. how the Eng- 
lish translators -of Apollonius, who have 
ne before me, have succeeded in their task. 
It would ill become me, to speak in degrad- 
ing terms of those gentlemen, whose taste 
led them to precede me, in the meritorious 
province of endeavouring to do justice to this 
delightful, and too much neglected, writer. 
Their performances are before the public; 
and itis the privilege of the public, to ap- 
ANCIENT CLASSICS. 
preciate the lahours of writers. Tt may ap- 
pear to many, that a new translation of an. 
author, who has been twice translated, migh 
well be spared—yet, in one point of view, 
hope my attempt will appear allowable, and 
free from the imputation of vanity. What- 
ever may be the demerits of the present trans~ 
lation ; 1 flatter myself they will find indul- 
genee and pardon from the eandid reader ; 
for the sake of the concomitants, of which 
this version is introductery. He will find 
large extracts from the Greck scholia, which 
deserve to be well known to the classical rea- 
der—a variety of hints, critical, historical, 
and explanatory, some few of them extracted 
from those of Fawkes, and the Oxford edi- 
tor, but, for the most part, wholly mew, of 
which some may not be altogether unaccept- 
able, even to those who read Apollonius, in- 
the original text.—And, lastly, certain essays, 
which if they shall succeed in making the 
reader an admirer of this delightful poet, 
they will have contributed to an act of jus- 
lice. 
‘* It is but fair to apprise the reader, with 
respect to the translation, which I now, with 
much diflidence, offer to his hand ; that he 
will find it, in general, rather paraphrastic 
than strict ; in many places, more eh ay 
than I could wish. J must own, that I have 
endeavoured to follow rather the spirit than 
the letter of the original. But, Pitne st 
have not been unfaithful to the general 
sense, to the substance of what the Greek 
text meant to say. Shall I own it ?—I some- 
times had the vanity of aiming at another 
sort of translation—a kind of portrait trans- 
lation:—a version, not of the matter merely, 
but of the style and manner of my original. 
How I may have succeeded in this—alas, I 
fear—{ feel—but the reader, ,who is capable 
of comparing the version with the text, must 
judge for himselfi—And, in judging, the 
test is, if the version reads, in English, like 
an original work.” 
From the perusal of his work we judge 
Mr. Preston to be a hberal scholar,much 
attached to literature, and especially to 
poetical studies, and extensively acquaint- 
ed with writers of this description, in his 
own tongue, as well as in other lan- 
guages, both ancient and modern. Of 
the Greek he appears to be a sufficient 
master to have apprehended in general, 
though not uniformly, the meaning of his 
author. His translation is in many places 
by much too paraphrastic and diifuse ; 
in many others sutiiciently close and 
faithful, while it still possesses a due de- 
gree of ease and freedom. We regard 
it as in general of unequal execution ; its 
tenor is frequently fluent and uncoristrain- 
ed, there are sometimes passages which 
aspire to excellence ; while, on the other 
hand, instances too frequently occur of 
