D'ALEMBERT. 463 



" 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 passage on Domitian, the highly wrought 

 diction and vivid imagery of Tacitus is not sufficient to 

 satisfy the translator. " Prsecipua rniseriarurn pars erat 

 videre et aspici ; cum suspiria subscriberentur ; cum deno- 

 tandis tot hominimi palloribus sufficeret ssevus ille vultus 

 et rubor quo se contra pudorem inuniebat." ('Vit. Ag.' c. 

 XLV.) " La fureur de Domitien etait plus cruelle que les 

 supplices ineme ; 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 mourans." 

 (xiii. 267.) It is not too much to say that D'Aleinbert, 

 with all his admiration of Tacitus, thought he had 

 greatly improved upon him ; though while affirming that 

 his author had lost "nothing by the translation," he 

 candidly admits "that the original is at least as fine." 

 (Cor. Part. (Euv. xiv., 392."") It is, however, now ad- 

 mitted by all critics that a good translation of Tacitus 

 into any modern language is impossible. I remember 

 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 



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

 have only selected a few to shew the consequences of his absurd 

 theory of translation. In 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.) 



