1810.] 
youthful days. He appears from these 
to have been led in this manner from the 
study of the bible to that of Homer, 
and the other classical authors of Greece; 
whose language he had learnt, and whose 
treasures have never been despised by 
the writers of any sect of christians, 
But he was soon so captivated by the 
charms of Grecian learning, that he 
resolved to attach himself entirely to it; 
and by degrees, from a divine, he be- 
came merely a man of letters, Though 
a Prussian by birth, he was a French- 
man not only by descent, but also by 
alfection, and the habitual use of a lan- 
guage which Frederic, and all men of 
education in his kingdom, preferred to 
their own. It cost him therefore no 
trouble, on devoting himself to litera- 
ture, to write constantly in the language 
of his ancestors. : 
In entering on this new career, his 
views were directed toward the country 
of his origin : to become wholly a French- 
man, was his highest ambition; and to— 
be able to ssttle at Paris, was the ob- 
ject of all his efforts and his wishes. 
But he felt that the best means of be- 
coming naturalised in a country where 
he had ceased to have any relations, and 
had not yet acquired any friends, would 
he, to get adopted jnto the great family 
of men of letters, by producing some 
work that should deserve such adoption. 
There is more than one honourable 
rank in the empire of Learning: an aspi- 
ring to the highest, is sometimes less a 
-mark of genius than of presumption ; 
and a writer may often serve both his 
own interests, and those of literature, 
more eflectually in some of the lower 
stations, which afford sutiicient scope for 
a noble exercise of the faculties of the 
mind in labours of utility. Among 
these labours, M. Bitaubé chose that 
of translation; which had the greater 
recommendations at that time (about the 
middle of the eighteenth century), as 
French literature was then iv possession 
of few translations worthy of being 
called so. Very soon afterward indeed, 
productions of this description became 
so numerous, that whoever should under- 
take to sketch the literary portrait of 
that century, would not fail to mark this 
peculiarity as one of its distinguishing 
characteristics; and to add to the epi- 
thets which it has already obtained, of 
Age of Philosophy, of Uiumination, and 
of Prose, that of Age of Translations. 
_ The preceding century, which had 
heen the age of genius, aud of great 
— 
Memoirs of the Life and Writings of M. Bitaubé. 237 
productions in eloquence and poetry, 
was also that of the most profound and. 
most luminous erudition. It was by the 
side of the greatest orators and poets, 
that those able critics were formed, whose 
names and writings will command the 
respect of the remotest posterity. 
These orators and puets, who themselves 
spoke. a rich and harmonious language, 
were also well versed in Greek, and fam}- 
liar with the master-pieces which have 
reached us in that tongue. Racine and 
Boileau, Bossuet and Fenelon, as well 
as most other men of real learning, read 
Homer and Demosthenes in the original, 
as commonly as Cicero and Virgil are 
now read in Latin; so thatit may be 
said, that if the French nation had then 
but few yood translators by profession, 
this was because there was but lite want 
of translations. But since) a less strict. 
system of education has been introduced 
with regard to the ancient languages, 
there has arisen of course a necessity for 
versions from those languages, to render 
their treasures generally accessible. 
Before this period however, and sa 
early as the seventeenth century, a 
French woman celebrated for her eru- 
dition, and her enthusiasm for Grecian 
literature, had attempted to display the 
prince of poets to admiration in her lan- 
guage, and to avenge him of the insults 
of some modern wits who were incapa- 
ble ‘of reading himin his own. In order 
to appreciate the merits of Homer 
justly, it is not sufficient merely to uns 
derstand the tongue in which he wrote: 
it ig necessary to be familiar with the 
state of manners: which that great poet 
so faithfully delineates; and this delinea- 
tion is perhaps the most difficult part of 
his poems to transfuse into our modern 
languages with the dignity which ac- 
companies it in the original, 
The detractors of Homer, thinking 
that the progress of letters and the arts 
ought to keep pace in all respects with 
that of civilisation, and judging the age 
of Homer to be less polished than their 
own, inferred that his poems should 
yield to those of a more refined period, 
They erroneously drew conclusions from 
the state of the sciences which depend 
upon ubservation, to that of the imitative 
.arts; and persuaded themselves, that as 
those sciences had made great advances 
ainong the moderns, poetry and the arts 
of genius must have improved ia the 
same proportion, 
To these attacks from the enemies of 
Homer, and particularly from those who 
could 
