462 D'ALEMBERT. 



lators for being so " superstitiously attached to their 

 authors, that they fear to embellish them even in feeble 

 passages ;" and contends, by a ridiculous sophism, that as 

 we must often fall short of the originals, so we ought 

 to take compensation by surpassing them when we can. 

 He tells us that he sketched his translations with much 

 rapidity to avoid coldness, and afterwards corrected with 

 great care a proceeding not perhaps much to be con- 

 demned; but, he adds, that he has occasionally taken 

 the liberty of altering the meaning when "the Latin 

 presented a puerile image or idea, and when Tacitus 

 appears to be below himself/' (Ib. 26.) Thus he lends 

 Tacitus a little wit, a metaphor, indeed, in the celebrated 

 description of Tiberius, whose dislike alike of freedom 

 and of flattery made men's words difficult and slippery, 

 or perilous. " Angusta et lubrica oratio sub principe qui 

 libertatem metuebat, adulationem oderat." (Ann. 11, 87.) 

 " Tant la servitude mme marchoit par une route etroite 

 et glissante, sous un prince qui detestoit la flatterie et 

 craignait la liberte." (QEuv. xiv. 167.) Can any one 

 doubt that this is a total perversion of the sense? 

 Tacitus does not say, nor could he with truth say, that 

 the one noble quality of the crafty but able tyrant, his 

 detestation of flattery, made all the actions of men 

 slippery and doubtful. He knew well that in every 

 other respect submissive obedience was their only care; 

 but the dislike of flattery only created some doubt when 

 they were to write or to speak. Accordingly, other 

 translators have preserved the sense of the original with- 

 out losing the fine and picturesque expression of " An- 

 gusta et lubrica." "Rien de plus etroit et de plus 

 glissant que Tusage de la parole/' says La Bletterie. 



