HISTORY AND USAGE OF THE WORD 171 



cognate ways of thinking, cognate ways of expressing what 

 they think, through being members of one race and using one 

 national language. An Italian cannot put into words exactly 

 the same shade of thought as a German, or an Englishman as 

 a Frenchman ; the genius of the mother tongue in each case 

 forbids identity of utterance. The truth of this has been 

 acutely felt by all who have attempted to translate the 

 poetry or the philosophy of another literature into their own 

 language. 



Style has therefore a double aspect, personal and national. 

 The difficulty of translation, to which I have alluded, may 

 serve to illustrate what is meant by this. Perfect translation 

 from one language into another is impossible, because the 

 personal and national peculiarities of any single composition 

 cannot be reproduced in a version which obeys the genius of 

 a different language, and displays the idiosyncracy of another 

 writer. The style of the '.ZEneid,' for example, was deter- 

 mined by the nature of Latin as used by Virgil. The style of 

 Dryden's translation is still further qualified by the peculiarities 

 of English as Dry den used it. If the style of the original is a 

 double quantity (Latin + Virgil), the style of the translation 

 is a quadruple quantity (Latin + Virgil combined with 

 English + Dryden). This is putting the case roughly, and 

 with a crudity which is almost grotesque. Not merely have 

 two languages and two poets co-operated to produce the final 

 result of the translation, but we have also to take into account 

 the mental and moral changes in the world at large, which 

 prevented Dryden from entering into exact sympathy with 

 his original. 



Thus, to sum up the main points of this section, we are 

 forced to regard style from two points of view : as something 

 which belongs to the individual through his mental and 

 moral qualities, and through his greater or less command of 

 language ; and also as something which the individual derives 

 from the tongue he uses, it being impossible to obtain precisely 

 the same effects in Greek and Latin, French and German. 

 The genius of the race and the genius of the man have both 

 to be considered. 



