446 D'ALEMBERT, 



de plus etroit et de plus glissant que 1'usage de la 

 parole," says La Bletterie. " Aussi ne restoit-il a 

 1' eloquence qu'un sentier etroit et bien glissant," says 

 another. I have dwelt upon this passage because it is 

 a special favourite of the author, who gives four pages 

 of commentary on his version. So in the famous pas- 

 sage on Domitian, the highly wrought diction and vivid 

 imagery of Tacitus is not sufficient to satisfy the trans- 

 lator. " Prascipua miseriarum pars erat videre et aspici ; 

 cum suspiria subscriberentur ; cum denotandis tot homi- 

 num palloribus sufficeret saevus ille vultus et rubor quo 

 se contra pudorem muniebat." (' Vit. Ag.' c. XLV.) 

 " La fureur de Domitien etait plus cruelle que les sup- 

 plices meme ; nos soupirs etoient comptes ; et le visage 

 du tyran, inflamme par le crime et inaccessible a la 

 honte, rendit plus touchante la paleur du tant de mou- 

 rans." (xiii. 267.) It is not too much to say that 

 D'Alembert, with all his admiration of Tacitus, thought 

 he had greatly improved upon him ; though while affirm- 

 ing that his author had lost " nothing by the transla- 

 tion," he candidly admits " that the original is at least 

 as fine." (Cor. Part. (Euv. xiv., 392.*) It is, however, 

 now admitted by all critics that a good translation of 

 Tacitus into any modem language is impossible I re- 

 member Dr. Parr once saying, in answer to a learned 

 person who asked, or rather took the liberty of asking, 

 his opinion which was the best translation of Tacitus, 

 " Sir, I thought every one had long since admitted 

 there can be none." 



Among D'Alembert's other writings of the inferior 

 kind, to which I have been referring, must be reckoned 

 his * General Reflections on Eloquence.' They are 

 superficial and inaccurate, though, like most of his 



* Numberless examples of failures could easily be given ; but I have 

 only selected a few to show the consequences of his absurd theory of trans- 

 lation. T n the character of the Fenni (De Mor. Germ.) " Fennis mira 

 feritas, fceda paupertas," D'Alembert renders this most tamely and most 

 imperfectly, " tres-feroces et tres-pauvres :" thus getting rid entirely of the 

 sense of the Latin (xiii. 233.) 



