Q3S Classic Literature. [Chap. XIII» 



succession^ come France, and other countries on 

 the continent of Europe. Greek literature in France 

 was at a low ebb during the greater part of the 

 period of this retrospect, and is still but little cul- 

 tivated in that country. 



But the eighteenth century is especially distin- 

 guished by the number and value of the Transla- 

 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 attemptiitg to furnish a complete list. 



The following translations o^ 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 

 Littlebury, Bcloe, and Lcmpriere ; Thueydides and 

 Xenophon, by Smith; part of the works o\^ Aris- 

 totle, by Twining, Pye, Ellis, and Gillies ; Liician, 

 by Franklin and Carr; Demosthenes, by Leland j 



not to mention several others who might with propriety be intro- 

 duced into the same list, revived the taste for this kind of learn- 

 ing, and will probably produce still more extensive effects. 



* The translation of the lUuii by Pope is pronounced, by Dr. 

 Johnson, to be *' a poetical wonder j a performance which no age 

 or nation can pretend to equal j a work the publication of which 

 forms a grand aera in the history of learning." Life »A*Pope. 



