l 



VERTEX. 



VESTA. 



622 



dered from one language into another without varying much from the 

 form of the original Works which have more of an nrtistie character 

 present greater difficulties, whether they are historical, critical, or 

 poetical. Poetry presents the greatest difficulties, because, in addition 

 to the general difficulty of transferring the meaning of ona language 

 into another, there is the difficulty of reproducing the rhythmical 

 form of the original, and this is sometimes impossible. Horace suc- 

 ceeded in introducing the Greek lyric metres into the Latin language 

 in his translations or imitations ; but Horace was a master of his art, 

 and he had a language which was sufficiently near to his original. The 

 translations of Voss from the Greek and Latin poets have the advantage 

 of being in a language which, from its copiousness, its grammatical 

 forms, and its capacity of combining words, renders such an under- 

 taking practicable in skilful hands. The English language has copious- 

 ness and energy, but less flexibility than the German, and the imitation 

 of the rhythmical forms of other languages is sometimes impossible in 

 au English version ; and without this imitation the translation of poetry 

 ig incomplete, for the metrical form is a part of poetry. It is indeed 

 often as easy to express in a prose translation the ideas of poetry as 

 those of prose composition, for the essential qualities of poetry are not 

 destroyed by reducing it from its metrical into a prosaic form. In this 

 form it may still fill the mind with the images of the original, but it will 

 not equally affect the passions ; for the passions are most vehemently 

 moved by direct sensuous impressions, and the sensuous character of 

 poetry is its metrical form. All attempts therefore at poetical transla- 

 tion from one language into another can only be partially successful 

 unless the character of the two languages admits of a perfect metrical 

 imitation in the translation. 



A translator should show his judgment by the choice of hia eubjeot 

 a* well sa by his manner of handling it. He will not choose what is 

 incapable of being rendered adequately. He will not attempt to fashion 

 his form of expression to that of the original by doing violence to his 

 own idiom. He will neither servilely follow the division of sentences 

 nor the form* of expression. He will labour to penetrate through the 

 author'* language to his meaning, and he will then strive to express 

 that meaning in hi* own language. He must rigidly scrutinise the 

 mult of hit labour, to see if it conveys the same meaning as the 

 original, and neither more nor less. When this is accomplished, his 

 translation will be sufficient, though it may not be perfect It will 

 be all that a translation often can be a sufficient copy of the original. 

 But there may be something wanting. Kvery writer has peculiari- 

 ties which constitute his style. One writer is sententious, compressed, 

 and energetic, but perhaps obscure ; another is diffuse, flowing, and 

 redundant, but fills the ear more than the mind ; a third may be per- 

 spicuous and simple, but withal feeble. Now a translator who should 

 so far mistake his original as to give a diffuse version of a sententious 

 writer, or to express any original in a form which should be altogether 

 unlike it, would show that be had ill appreciated the writer's character, 

 and this would not be the only blunder that we might expect from 

 him. A version of a prose writer which should possess a general cha- 

 racter altogether unlike the original, would as little merit the name of 

 a translation as a dull prosy version of the 'Iliad' would deserve the 

 name. To fix a true medium between a close imitation of the style of 

 the original and a wide departure from it, belongs to that department 

 of the business of translation in which taste is concerned It is some- 

 thing wherein precise rules can never be laid down, and yet the best 

 critics will not disagree in their judgment. It is a gross error which 

 we see in some attempts to translate Tacitus, to reproduce the original 

 with all its obscurity and brevity : it is a grosser blunder to weaken 

 his sententious energy by a profusion of words, many "f which, being 

 impertinent and idle, only form a stronger contrast with those of the 

 original, which have been selected and arranged with studious care. 



Like portrait painting, translation has only one rule, nnd that not a 

 rule which shows us how to act, but only prescribes a certain end. 

 Make your copy like the original : let no man mistake it. Many 

 copies may be made, and all may be pronounced to be likenesses. 

 Compare the likenesses with one another, and you will find oue which 

 shall be more like than the rest. Ask the master how he made it : he 

 will siy that he copied the original ; but how he did it you cannot 

 understand, nor can he say. 



VERTEX, a name given to any remarkable or principal point, 

 particularly when that point is considered as the top or summit of a 

 figure. Thus we have the three vertices of a triangle, the vertex of a 

 cone or pyramid, Ac. 



VERTICAL. The zenith being considered as a vertex, which in 

 fact it is, when the word vertex means summit, a vertical plane is one 

 which passes through the line drawn from the spectator to his Kenith , 

 a vertical plane therefore merely means one which is perpendicular to 

 the horizon, and a vertical line has the same meaning. 



VERTICAL, ANGLE OF THE. A name given to the angle made 

 by the diameter through any point of the earth, supposed a spheroid, 

 with the direction of gravity at that point, or the perpendicular to the 

 tanxent pl.uin. 



VERT1DIXE. A bsjie, not yet analysed, contained in shale tar. 



VERTIGO, or giddiness i a peculiar sensation depending probably 

 on tome dii-turbanra of the circulation in the brain. It need not 

 be described, {or whoever has not felt it may do so at once by 

 turning round a few times rapidly. The nature of the ohang* pro- 



duced in the brain by the numerous causes of giddiness is altogether 

 unknown ; probably the sensation may be the result of several differ- 

 ent conditions, for it ensues alike when the pressure of the blood upon 

 the brain is diminished by bleeding and when it is increased in 

 plethora, or what is called determination of blood to the head : it is 

 a sign too as well of deficiency of food as of repletion ; and of the 

 various continued movements by which the steady flow of blood 

 through the braiu may be disturbed, though the rotatory motion is 

 the most general cause of giddiness, yet the movement of the head 

 backwards and forwards or from side to side will produce it as effectu- 

 ally and the vertical movement, such as is endured in the pitching of 

 a ship, more certainly still. At present therefore it must be concluded 

 that whatever disturbs the movement or the pressure of the blood 

 within the brain may produce giddiness ; and that in some eases it 

 occurs without any cause of this kind, as a sympathetic or purely 

 subjective sensation, dependant on the state of the substance of the 

 brain itself. 



As a sign of disease vertigo by itself indicates very little. No judg- 

 ment can be formed from it except by taking it in connection with 

 the other characters of the affection of which it is a part, and these 

 will generally be sufficiently indicative. Its most common cause 13 

 some disturbance of the digestive organs, and it may be safely treated 

 in that view, except in those who are prone to apoplexy or other cere- 

 bral disease, in whom it must be always regarded with four. 



VESICANTS. [BLISTERS.] 



VESTA. [ASTEROIDS ] 



VESTA ('ECTTIO or 'lo-rii), Hestia, or Histie), one of the great divinities 

 of the ancients, and common both in name and mode of worship to the 

 Greeks and Romans. According to Hesiod, she was the first-born 

 daughter of Kronos and Rhea, and sister of Zeus, and the Romans 

 therefore made her the daughter of Saturn and Ops. She was a maiden 

 divinity, and was said to have vowed eternal virginity by the head 

 of Zeus. 



Vesta was the goddess of the hearth ; and as the hearth was with 

 the ancienU the centre of the family, where the members met, con- 

 versed, and took their meals, Vesta w.is regarded as the goddess of 

 domestic union and happiness. Strangers and friends were hospitably 

 received at the hearth ; suppliants sought safety and protection there ; 

 and there the members of a family swore fidelity to one another. Tne 

 fire burning on the domestic hearth, the symbol of domestic union, 

 was also regarded as the symbol of Vesta herself. As according to 

 the notions of the ancients the state was formed on the model 

 of a single family, each political community, city, or stiite had its 

 public hearth or altar of Vesta, on which a perpetual fire was kept 

 burning. At Athens the public hearth of Vesta was in the Prytaneum, 

 and here the guests of the state and foreign ambassadors wei-e received 

 and hospitably treated. The public hearth was to the members of a 

 civil community what the domestic hearth was to the members of a 

 family ; and when a state sent out colonists, they took from the public 

 hearth of the metropolis the fire which was henceforth to blaze on the 

 public hearth of the colony. Larger communities than a mere town 

 or city had likewise their public hearth and centre of union. Thus the 

 common hearth of the Greeks was at Delphi, and that of the Latins at 

 Lanuvium, the metro|>olis of the Latins. Later speculators and inyatios 

 extended this idea even farther, and spoke of a central lire or a common 

 hearth of the earth and the universe Vesta, as the protectress of the 

 family, is intimately connected with the Penates, and she herself is 

 sometimes called a Penas or Uea Penetralis. Her connection with the 

 house led some ancients even to ascribe to her the art of building 

 houses. 



In Greece, Vesta had very few temples, because every house and 

 every prytaneum was regarded as her sanctuary, aud because she had 

 her share in all the sacrifices which were offered to other gods ; and at 

 all sacrificial feasts the first and last libations were offered to Vesta. 

 But at Hermioue in Argolis she had a special temple, though, like her 

 temple at Rome, it contained no image of the goddess. The sacrifices 

 ottered on her altar consisted of seeds, fruit, libations of water, oil, or 

 wine, and of young cows. 



^Eneas was believed to have brought the sacred fire of Vesta together 

 with the Penates and the Palladium from Troy to Italy ; and at Rome 

 the worship of Vesta was said to have been introduced by Romulus or 

 Numa. Her worship at Rome was of much greater importance than 

 in Greece. Her temple, which was of a round form, stood in the 

 forum near that of the Penates ; it was open during the day and closed 

 by night. According to Ovid's description, its walls consisted in the 

 earliest times of wicker-work, aud the roof of reeds. The temple con- 

 tained the altar of the goddess with her sacred fire, the extinction of 

 which was regarded as an omen of the greatest oal mity to the 

 republic, and priestesses (at Athens and at Delphi widows, and at 

 Rome virgins) were appointed to keep the fire alive. With the 

 exception of the Pontifex Maximus, no male being was allowed to 

 enter the temple of Vesta ; and hence we never hoar of the senate 

 meeting in it as in other temples. The Roman prseturs, consuls, and 

 dictators, on entering \ipon their offices, ha I to offer xacriti. es to the 

 Peaates and to Vesta at Lanuvium. Representations of Vesta in 

 works of art were not frequent in antiquity, as she was worshipped in 

 the form of the (acred bre burning on the hearth. But some are 

 mentioned by Pauoanias Mid Pliny, and she was represented in the grare 



