52 Classic Literature. 



tions of classic authors which it produced. The 

 Greeks were almost, if not entirely strangers to 

 this kind of literary labour. The Romans had a 

 few translations, but they were little esteemed, 

 and gained their authors but small consideration in 

 the republic of letters. A number of performances 

 of this kind were produced in the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth centuries; but in the eighteenth they 

 more than ever abounded, and attained a degree 

 of excellence altogether without example. A few 

 of the most valuable of these may be mentioned, 

 without attempting to furnish a complete list. 



The following translations of Greek classics into 

 the English language, during the late century, de- 

 serve particular notice. The Iliad and Odyssey of 

 Homer, by Pope' and Cowper; Herodotus, by 

 Lyttlebury,Beloe, and Lampriere; Thucydides 

 and Xenophon, by Smith; parts of the works of 

 Aristotle, by Twining, Pye, Ellis, and Gillies; 

 Lacian, by Franklin and Carr; Demosthenes, by 

 Leland; Epictetus, by Carter;' Plutarch, by 

 Langhorne; Longbms, by Smith; Polybius, by 

 Hampton; Isocrates, by Gillies; Is<?us, by 

 Jones; Hesiod, by Cooke; Theocritus, by Pol- 

 w t hele; ^Eschylus, by Potter; Sophocles, by Pot- 

 ter and Franklin; Euripides, by Potter and 

 Woodhull; and Callimachus, by Tytler. 



The translations of Roman classics during the 

 same period were still more numerous. Of a very 

 long list the following may be considered as a 

 specimen. The Eneidoi Virgil was presented in 

 an English dress by Pitt and Beresford, and the 

 Eclogues and BhiolitiA of the same illustrious Ro- 



j The translation of the Iliad by Pope is pronounced, by Dr. Johnson, 

 to be " a poetical wonder; a performance which no age or nation can pre- 

 tend to equal; a work, the publication of which forms a grand era in the 

 history of learning." Life of Vote. 



t Mrs. Elizabeth Carter is another instance of great classical erudi-i 

 tion and taste in, a female of the eighteenth century. 



