146 



Mr. Taylor on Professor Wilson's 



[JULV 



scholars of his day ; but in the first place it is perfectly well known 

 that European gentlemen of Mr. Clarke's rank do not servilely labour at 

 translations themselves, the rough work alwavs being done for them by 

 natives; in the second place I am sure, arguing a priori from the above 

 reason and a posteriori, from the false translation ascribed to him, that 

 Mr. Clarke did not write that passage, while his eye rested on the origi- 

 nal paper, and his hand traced the alleged rendering by him — it would 

 be a libel on that gentleman to say so ; though it is none to presume 

 that, in the general way, he may have passed and authenticated the 

 translation by his signature, without reference to critical niceties ; in 

 the third place, I pledge myself that the exact words of the original 

 manuscript represented in Roman characters, are given above, and not 

 all the learning, ingenuity, and talent, even of Mr. Clarke could render 

 them fairly in any other way than I have done. For these three rea- 

 sons, to adduce the mere authority of a "magnum el venerabile nomen" 

 as set off against a false translation, or to confirm a conclusion based on 

 an erroneous one, is in my view irrelevant to the question. 



If, quitting this particular instance, there were any person's transla- 

 tions that I would admit, it would be those of Mr. Wheatley, whose 

 office and profession was that of a translator, not solely de nomine but 

 de Jide ; yet his principle of accommodating to the ideas of Europeans, 

 and paraphrastic rendering, comports not with my principles of trans- 

 lation ,* nor with, abstractedly speaking, correct principles of transla- 

 tion: if so without knowing any thing of Mr. Clarke's labours, what 

 opinion could I antecedently have formed of native translations for Col. 

 Mackenzie, of a portion of which in the Professor's own words, " the 

 " value* is much diminished by the very imperfect manner in which 

 " they have been executed, the English being frequently as unintelligi- 

 " ble as the original : with a very few exceptions, the translations are 

 " the work of natives alone." 



I am bound to give the Professor considerable praise for the tact with 

 which he handles an advantage given to him by a passing expression 

 concerning the Supplementary Manuscript, which it is added, "we con- 

 sider as trustworthy." But this expression is cut out from the context, 

 as noticed before in a similar case, and so obtruded, by no means gives 

 the sense of the entire connection in which that expression is found. It 

 occurs, vol. 2 p. 75 while at p. 72, the particular discrepancy quoted by 

 the Professor is discussed ; the fictions (universal among Hindus) as to 

 the long reign of Vicramaditya are also sifted, and reduced to something 

 like order in various parts of the work : in p. 73 it is said " Vicrama- 

 ditya ruled in reality about a hundred years," a large allowance by the 



* Des ; Cat : Intro ; p. XXI. 



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