CHARACTERS. 



729 



sell, and copied the keys of the 

 Chinese language, whicli he wished 

 to learn. 



From Althorpe he removed in the 

 spring of iTGS'o \\ imblt'don, where 

 he receircd a proposal from Mr. 

 Sutton, then under-secretary to the 

 duke of Grafton, the account of 

 which we shall relate nearly in his 

 own words. 



The king; of Denmark, then upon 

 a visit to this country, had brought 

 with him an eastern manuscript, 

 containing the life of Nadir Shah, 

 which he was desirous of having 

 translated in England. The secre- 

 tary of state, with whom the Danish 

 minister had conversed upon the sub- 

 je6t, sent the volume to Mr. Jones, 

 requesting him to give a literal 

 translation of it in the French lan- 

 guage; but he M'holly declined the 

 task, alk'dging for his excuse, the 

 dryness of the subject, the difficulty 

 of the style, and chi"tly his want 

 both of leisure and ability, to enter 

 upon an undertaking so fruitless and 

 laborious). He mentioned, however, 

 a gentleman, with whom he was not 

 then acquainted, but who had dis. 

 tingnislu'd himself by the translation 

 of a Persian history, and some po- 

 pular tales from the Persic, as capa- 

 ble of gratifying the wishes of his 

 Danish majesty. Major Dow, the 

 wrircr alluded to, excused himself 

 on account of his numerous engac;e- 

 ijients, and the application to Mr. 

 Jones was renewed. It was hintod 

 that his compliance would be of no 

 small advantage to him, at his en- 

 trance into life; that it would pro- 

 cure him some mark of distinction, 

 which would be p!e;i>ing to him; 

 and, abovi! all, that it would be a 

 relle^ttion u|)t)n this country, if the 

 ]f.'iug should b obliged to cairy his 

 Oiauuscript into Fiance. Incited by 



these motives, and principally the 

 last, unuilling to be thought churl- 

 ish Oi- morose, and eager for repu- 

 tation, he undertook the work, and 

 sent a specimen of it to his Dniish 

 majesty, who returned his approba- 

 tion ol the style and method, but 

 desired that the whole translation 

 might be perfectly literal, and the 

 oriental images accurately preserv- 

 ed. The task would have been far 

 easier to him if he had been direct- 

 ed to finish it in F^atin ; lor the ac- 

 quisition of a French style was inli- 

 nitely more tedious, and it was ne- 

 cessary to have every chapter cor- 

 rected by a native of France, before 

 it could be otiered to t!ie discerning 

 eye of the public, since in every 

 language there are certain peculi- 

 arities of idiom, and nic- shades of 

 meaning, which a foreigner can ne- 

 ver attain to perfection. The work, 

 however arduous and uni)leasant, 

 was con plt'ted in a year, not with- 

 out repeated hints from the secre- 

 tary's office, tliat it w ns expected 

 with great impatience by the court 

 of Denmark. I'he translation was 

 not ptiblished until 1770. Forty 

 copies, upon iarse paptT, we're sent 

 to Copenhagen, one of them, bound 

 with uncommon elegance, for the 

 king himself, and the others as pre- 

 sents to his courtiers. 



What marks of ditini^tion he re- 

 ceived, or what fruits he reaped 

 from his labours, he tho-ighf it would 

 ill become him to mention at the 

 head of a work, in which he pro- 

 fe-.sed to be the historian ol' Others, 

 and not of himself ; but to lepel the 

 false assertions which appeared in 

 an advertisement on tills tubjr<^t in 

 the public [japers, containing a most 

 unjust relle^tion on the king of 

 Dinmark, he considered it as a duty 

 imposed upon him by the laws of 



jusficu 



