And though an English version may, in | poets," he says, "has ever affected a many qualities, approach nearer the certain uniform and harmonious recurexcellence of the orations of Cicero, the rence of sound, without which it were not best translation will still fail in some fine poetry, and which is scarcely less indisassociations, in the more delicate shades pensable to the communication of its of thought, and in recondite allusions, influence than the words themselves, which nothing but the very words of the without reference to that peculiar order. Roman can suggest. In order, there- Hence the vanity of translation; it were fore, to undertake a translation with any as wise to cast a violet into a crucible, hope of success or credit, the translator that you might discover the formal prinmust possess a very intimate acquaint- ciple of its colour and odour, as seek to ance with the language which he has to transfuse from one language into another interpret with the social and political the creations of a poet. The plant must history of the people who spoke it-and spring again from its seed, or it will bear with their habits and customs, to which no flower-and this is the burthen of the their idioms and proverbial expressions curse of Babel."* This represents the lawould owe significance. More than this, bour of the translator as utterly hopeless. there must be a sympathy of habit and But the statement is not altogether correct, thought between the author and his in- as many admirable translations, even in terpreter. We would not, on this ac- poetry, do abundantly testify. In profane count, expect a suitable or happy trans- literature we are accustomed to regard lation of the Iliad or the Olympic Odes Dryden, Pope, West, Pitt, Rowe, Creech, from Lord Brougham, rarely accom- Grainger, Cowper, &c., as justly entitled plished as he is in Greek literature; nor to honourable and enduring fame for would we look for a fitting translation their translations in English verse. The of the matchless oration on the Crown, first of these authors has told us the or of the orations against Verres, from method and spirit in which he proceeded Wordsworth or Tennyson. Indeed, the in his work; and his account is highly task of translation can never be happily interesting and instructive. He had performed unless the translator is able made translations out of four several to think in the language, and assume the poets, Virgil, Theocritus, Lucretius and mood and intellectual habits of his au- Horace. "In each of these," he says, thor. But the difficulties which attend "before I undertook them, I considered the translation of any work in prose are the genius and distinguishing character obviously multiplied when the original is of my author. I looked on Virgil as a sucpoetic. For even apart from the peculiar cinct, grave and majestic writer; one who sphere and spirit of poetry, much of its weighed not only every thought, but every effect depends on its own music, and on word and syllable; who was still aiming the exquisite choice of words, which must to crowd his sense into as narrow a comappear the natural and living embodi- pass as possibly he could, for which reament of "thoughts which voluntary move son he is so very figurative that he reharmonious numbers." It is not to be quires, I may almost say, a grammar expected, that all those conditions of apart, to construe him. His verse is poetic excellence can be commonly trans- everywhere sounding the very thing in ferred to the terms of a different vocabu- your ears whose sense it bears: yet the lary, where the expression of the same numbers are perpetually varied to inidea cannot usually be accompanied with crease the delight of the reader, so that the charm of the same music. There is, the same sounds are never repeated twice therefore, some truth in the strong state- together. . . . The turns of his verse, ment of an author of reputation both in his breakings, his propriety, his numbers prose and verse, who, by the way, with and his gravity, I have as far imitated all his infidelity, could rarely compose a as the poverty of our language, and the paragraph without drawing an illustra- hastiness of my performance would altion from the Bible. "The language of | • A Defence of Poetry. low."* That is to say, Dryden aimed at making his translation in the style and terms which he thought Virgil would have employed, had he been writing in English. But the excellence or fault of this rule depends on the manner in which it is carried out. There were many circumstances in the poetical world which influenced Dryden as a translator, and induced him to adopt a style opposed to the severe and literal method of Ben Johnson, Feltham, and Sandys. Instead of merely clothing the thoughts of Virgil in an English garb, he brings his author to England -he surrounds him with English scenes and customs-he indoctrinates him with English ideas. The Mantuan sees with the eyes of the Englishman, and is manacled with his prejudices. But this produces something more than a mere translation-it creates a new, independent, rival poem-it is somewhat of an impudently avowed plagiarism-it defeats one of the most important purposes for which any translation is needed-it is a violence done to the integrity of an author. Accordingly we find, especially in the Georgics, as translated by Dryden, continual traces of an alien and incongruous element, and observe, with surprise and disgust, the moral characteristics of the reign of Charles II. forced into the literature of the reign of Augustus. But in the Eneid the translation is much more faithful, and in the fragments of a version of Lucretius, Dryden has given us, perhaps, the best specimen, in all profane literature, of a translation in verse. It is, of course, admitted, that if a translation must be in verse, a certain liberty of paraphrase must be allowed, to enable the translator to give to his work the necessary form, and "build the lofty rhyme;" but, as a general rule, the best translation will always be that which has used this liberty with the most reluctant and sparing hand. If these remarks be warrantable-if we are entitled to demand that the translator of Homer, or Virgil, or Dante, or Goethe, shall introduce no extraneous or foreign ideas, but provide for us an intelligible and elegant transcript n our Preface to Dryden's Translations. own language of the very songs of these great poets—if it be right to censure Dryden for interweaving unauthorised lines and thoughts, and to commend Cowper for the singular fidelity and excellence of his translation of Homer, a work never yet properly appreciated—it is of infinitely greater importance that we be jealous of any unfaithful rendering of the Word of God. In dealing with Virgil, Dryden communed with a poet whose gifts, though in one respect greater, were not so diversified as his own. Pope, as the interpreter of Homer, while he willingly yields him the prize for sublimity, may justly claim a superiority to the Greek in grace and elegance. But in dealing with the Holy Scriptures, we are conversing with no rival for fame, with no author whose faults we may correct and whose omissions we may supplybut we come into direct contact with the Word of God, and it behoves us to regard it with devoutest reverence. The author of all truth-the God of all the earth, has said, "The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all these things hath mine hand made, and all these things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." Now, some translators of the Psalms have adopted a rule much more loose in practice than Dryden's. They seem to regard the compositions of David as only worthy of being named as a text or motto for their own poems, and they set themselves to amplify and amend the work of the Psalmist. The best known author of this class is Dr. Isaac Watts, who makes no secret of his purpose, and shows no misgivings in performing it. He explicitly says, "My design is to accommodate the Book of Psalms to Christian worship. And in order to this it is necessary to divest David and Asaph, &c., of every other character but that of a psalmist and a saint, and to make them always speak the common sense and language of a Christian." * There is far nore in Preface to Dr. Watts' Psalms. this than at first meets the eye; but | translates the Psalms. It is necessary before animadverting on it, let me give a to give the prose version, that we may specimen of the mode in which Dr. Watts compare it with the metrical. AUTHORISED TRANSLATION. Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen on me. When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. I made sackcloth also my garment, and I became a proverb to them. They that sit in the gate speak against me, and I was the song of the drunkards. Were translations like this presented to the world as merely sermons or discursive effusions in rhyme, founded on texts in the book of Psalms, the serious objection which I have to urge against them would not apply. In that case, Dr. Watts and his coadjutors would be openly avowing that what they gave to the world was of their own device, and of no more authority than any sermon, whose orthodoxy must depend not on itself but on its agreement with the Word of God. But in giving a translation in prose or rhyme, of the Psalms or any other part of the Bible, I maintain that a man is bound by the most awful considerations to distinguish between his own discoursing, and that of the Holy Spirit. It is not enough to say that all that the translator has modified or introduced is true, and according to one or other part of Scripture. Are there not countless passages, which if not read in the very connexion in which they are DR WATTS' TRANSLATION. The Jews, his brethren and his kin, He felt and mourned them as His own. Wretches with hearts as hard as stones Gall was the food they gave him there, And mocked his thirst with vinegar. given us, would be contradictory and delusive? Do we need to be warned that any interference with the logical connexion and relation of passages of Scripture will hinder the mind from following the teaching of God, and may impose upon us for doctrines the commandments of men? The very blending of the human and the divine teaching in one undistinguishable doctrine is fraught with incalculable danger, and tends to destroy the sole authority of the Bible. We might as well print all the sermons preached in our pulpits, (and I have no reason to think that they teach heresy,) and supply them to the Christian world as authoritative standards of faith. The man who publishes a version of the Psalms as a translation, in which he interpolates the text, does not deal with the world, and especially the unlearned and most numerous class, with common fairness or honesty. He professes to do what he knows he is not doing. He is asking men, or at least allowing them, to believe his work to be a fair and legitimate interpretation of the very words of God's Book, on which everything for salvation depends; and yet he has intruded among those words many things which may be wrong, which may give a false representation of the passage, or which may conceal from the humble student, the very truths which the passage was intended to unfold. How is this practice of interpolation or amendment to be regulated? What are the limits which it may not exceed? Strange, strange it is, that extremes meet. The accommodated and modified translations of the psalms to which I have referred, are surely akin to the fettered editions of Scripture, issued by those who allow the people to receive the Bible only according to the sense and interpretation which the Church has pre-arranged. Will no man warn us to purpose against the popery which we hide under our protestantism! A translation of any part of the Bible, should be A TRANSLATION, and not a commentary or paraphrase, and should therefore simply express in equivalent terms the very ideas of the original. A metrical translation of the Psalms, in particular, must be no exception to this rule, for, when used as a manual of devotion, it exercises an influence on the heart and character, greater perhaps, than other parts of Scripture. What is committed to memory in early life-what is sweetly sung in the Sabbath class-what gives united utterance to the devotion of the House of Prayer, must have mighty advantages in educating the heart, and directing the spirit of Christian life. Therefore, for our own good, for the good of all who love God, let us have, as nearly as we may, the very thoughts of prophets and holy men, to enshrine our devotion and instruct our religious nature. Let there be no interference with the progression and tenor of their ideas. Let us realise their very meditations. Let us learn how they passed from fear to faith, from thoughts of God's holiness to humility and vows of new obedience, from reflections on God's goodness to assurance of safety in the valley of the shadow of death. Let us inspire ourselves in the great congregation and in the sanctuary of home, with the pure sentiment and reasoning of inspiration; and in following the very associations and trains of thought of the saints, let us try to learn their spirit and follow their faith. We cast no slight or imputation on the attainments and piety of any man when we turn away from his discursive expositions, and prefer, with all our hearts, to follow the unaltered thoughts of Moses or Asaph, and instruct ourselves in the uninterpolated musings of David. For all these considerations I maintain that strict unswerving fidelity to the original is the first and greatest qualification of a metrical version of the Psalms, and that nothing can compensate for the want of it. In asserting this, I do not undervalue the importance of elegant and perspicuous diction; but such is the peculiar excellence of Scripture, that it mightily helps the translator, so that any version which is faithful to the original has singular advantages for being distinguished by dignified simplicity. Wherever this is not the case, the failure is unpardonable. A metrical version of the Psalms should therefore, in its fidelity, be likewise characterised by the total absence of complicated construction, by simplicity of expression, by severe purity of phrase, by musical cadence, by accuracy of rhyme. So thought Milton, who has given us superior specimens of what he considered befitting, and who, in some of his translations, was even careful to mark every word which is not expressly represented in the original. In the following quotation, the unauthorised words are printed in italics, and we have an example of the value of fidelity. What a contrast do these verses make to the rude and unintelligible rhymes of our modern edition!PSALM lxxxiv. 4. Happy, who in thy house reside, Where Thee they ever praise; As through a fruitful watery dale, It also seems obvious, that a metrical | from the Hebrew than from the classical version of the Psalms should exhibit con- authors of Greece or Rome. The cirsiderable variety of metre, suited in every cumlocution and paraphrase which often case to the peculiar spirit and tone of are indispensable in translating the latter, the Psalm. No man of correct taste will are rarely required in the interpretation allow, that the same metre which is suit- of Hebrew. The quotation just given able for the thirty-eighth Psalm can be from Milton is a fair instance of this equally well adapted for the ninety-sixth. truth, and shows that a strictly literal The one is a wail of deep distress, the translation is excellent and easy. The other is a shout of rejoicing. Even in Scriptures of the Old Testament were individual Psalms, where the spirit of not intended only for the study of the the composition is altered, where the sons of Abraham, but were to instruct all author passes from sadness to serenity, people and kindreds and tongues, and from the depths of affliction to faith and therefore we find, that the language in hope, as in the hundred and second, it which they were composed possesses might be an advantage were a corre- facilities for being translated, which are sponding change observed in the measure. unknown to any other. The Greek of Such a change is always observable in the New Testament is profusely leavened the original. This variety of metre would with the same element, and Hebraisms ead to a higher proficiency in sacred abound in all the writings of the Evanmusic than this country has ever yet gelists and Apostles. Such also is the reached, would force into attention the facility with which even Hebrew idioms necessity of selecting appropriate tunes, can pass unresolved into other languages, and would ultimately prevent the merely that we trace them in all the modern mechanical adaptation of music, which, speech of Christendom, but find them even by precentors of skill, so often chiefly abounding where the Word of offends the intelligence and taste of edu- God has free course. Our own lancated worshippers. guage, in particular, has been enriched and adorned by our version of the Bible, which happily imitates the simple majesty of the original, and, in general, adopts without change the Hebrew forms of expression. No reader is perplexed by them. No reader asks for a learned explanation of the meaning of the children of God, or of the significance of the future tense in the commandments on the two tables of stone. These views are admirably stated by Addison. He remarks that "there is a certain coldness and indifference in the phrases of our European languages when they are compared with the Oriental forms of speech; and it happens very luckily that the Hebrew idioms run into the English tongue with a particular grace and beauty. Our language has received innumerable elegancies and improvements from that infusion of Hebraisms which are derived to it out of the poetical passages in holy writ. They give a force and energy to our expression, warm and animate our language, and convey our thoughts in more ardent and intense phrases, than any that are to But if it be so difficult a thing to make a faithful translation of the works of Greece and Rome, with whose literature we can become familiar as with household words-if such a man as Dryden often found it necessary to leave his author behind him, and such a man as Pope thought it expedient to adorn his original,-is it possible that a faithful version can be obtained of the far nobler poetry of Asaph and David, composed in a language known only to a few, and the very pronunciation of which has been lost for two thousand years? True it is, that the sacred songs of Israel are immeasurably superior in thought and diction to all others-true it is, that the Hebrew language is almost the peculiar study of the more learned ecclesiastic and antiquarian-true it is, that the Hebrew will never again be a living language, for the development of truth passes not backwards to the exclusive privileges of a single nation, but onwards as tidings of great joy to all people; but it is also true, that it is a far easier matter to translate literally |