place as a critic, that the reader may judge of the foundnefs of thofe principles, upon which his tranflation is avowedly made, In the elegant and judicious, though concife, life of the historian, which is prefixed to the firit volume, the tranflator thus fpeaks of the ftyle and veracity of his author, while he lays down the principles that guided him in his arduous attempt to clothe the most ancient hiftorian of Greece in an English drefs. "The ftyle of Herodotus might well demand a separate differtation: this, perhaps, is not the propereft place to fpeak at any length upon the fubject. It has been univerfally admired for being, beyond that of all other Greek writers of Profe, pure and perfpicuous. Cicero calls it fufum atque tractum, at the fame time copious and polished. Aristotle gives it as an example of the is sigon, which is literally, the connected ftyle; but, as he explains himself, it means rather what we should call the flowing tyle; wherein the fentences are not involved or complicated by art, but are connected by fimple conjunctions, as they follow in natural order, and have no full termination but in the close of the fenfe. This he opposes to that ftyle which is formed into regular periods, and rather cenfures it as keeping the reader in uneasy fufpenfe, and depriving him of the pleafure which arifes from forefeeing the conclufion. The former, he fays, was the method of the ancients; the latter of his contemporaries. (Rhet. iii. 9.) His own writings afford an example of the latter ftyle, cut into fhort and frequent periods, but certainly much lefs pleafing than the flowing and natural fmoothness of Herodotus. Plutarch, who wrote a treatife exprefsly to derogate from the fame and authority of Herodotus, in more places than one, fpeaks of his diction with the highest commendation. Longinus alfo, as may be seen in various paffages which I have introduced, and commented upon in the progrefs of my work, added his tribute to the univerfal praife & "Every "f The following are among the paffages in Cicero's works, in which he makes honourable mention of Herodotus. "At qui tanta eft eloquentia, ut me quantum ego Græce fcripta intelligere poffum, magnopere delectet.-De Oratore, 1. 11. "In his Brutus he fays, "Sine falebris quafi fedatus amnis fluit. "In his Hortenfius, Quid aut Herodoto dulcius aut Thucydide gravius? Quintilian, in his ninth book, obferves, "In Herodoto vero cum omnia, ut ego quidem fentio, leniter fluant "Every one knows, who has made the experiment, how diffi calt and almost impoffible it is to affimilate to the English idiom, the fimple and beautiful terfenefs of Greek compofition. If any fcholar therefore, who may choose to compare my verfion with the original Greek, fhall be inclined to cenfure me for being occafionally diffufe, I would with him to remember this.-I would defire him alfo to confider, that it was my duty to make that perfpicuous to the lefs learned reader, which might have been conveyed in fewer terms to the apprehenfions of the more learned or the more intelligent. "On the fubject of tranflations in general, I entirely approve of the opinion of Boileau. In a preceding publication, I have before referred to this, but I fee no impropriety in its having a place here, in the words of lord Bolingbroke. "To tranflate fervilely into modern language an ancient author, phrafe by phrafe, and word by word, is prepofterous: nothing can be more unlike the original than fuch a copy; it is not to fhew, it is to disguise the author. A good writer will rather imitate than tranflate, and rather emulate than imitate: he will endeavour to write as the ancient author would have written, had he wrote in the fame language."-Letters on Hiftory. "Perhaps I ought not to omit, that many eminent writers, both of ancient and modern times, accufe Herodotus of not having had a fufficient regard to the auftere and facred dignity of historic truth. Ctefias, in Photius, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Aulus Gellius, and, above all, Plutarch, have made firong and violent objections to many of his affertions. Ctefias pretends to question his accuracy in what he relates of the Medes and Perfians, but fluant tum ipfa dialectus habet cam jucunditatem, ut latentes etiam numeros complexa videatur. "And again in the following book, where he draws a comparifon between Herodotus and Thucydides, he fays, dulcis, et candidus et fufus Herodotus. "The following paffage from Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus is too remarkable to be omitted.- Herodotus very much furpaffed all others in the choice of his words, the juftice of his compofition, and the variety of his figures. His difcourfe is compofed in fuch a manner, that it refembles an excellent poem, in its perfuafive art, and that charming grace, which pleases to the highest degree. He has not omitted any of the beautiful and great qualities, unlefs it be in that manner of writing adapted to contefts and difputes, either because he was naturally not made for it, or that he defpifed it, as not agreeable to history: for he doth not make ufe of a great number of orations, nor fpeeches to promote contention, nor has he the neceffary force requifite to excite the paffions, and amplify and augment things." what he fays hardly merits refutation. Manetho finds very much to blame in what he writes concerning the Egyptians. Thucy. dides alfo, in one or two paffages, feems obliquely to glance at Herodotus. Strabo is more definitive, and remarks that the hif torian writes pleafantly enough, and introduces in his narratives many wonderful tales to fupply the want of fongs, verfes, &c. The following paffage in Juvenal has alfo been applied to him. Creditur olim Velificatus Athos, & quicquid Græcia mendax To many general cenfures which on this account have been aimed against the fame of our hiftorian, I have made reply in various parts of my notes: and the plausible but unjust tract of Plutarch, on the Malignity of Herodotus, has been carefully examined, and satisfactorily refuted, by the Abbé Geinoz, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres. Thus much must be allowed on all hands, that throughout his works there is the greatest appearance of candour and fimplicity. Seldom or ever does he relate extraordinary or marvellous things, without qualifying his narrative with fuch expreffions as thefe, I have heard, it is faid, this does not appear credible, &c. In what he fays of Egypt in particular, which has drawn upon him the unjust cenfure of Manetho, he invariably obferves, that he learned what he communicates, from the Egyptian priefts. But what, perhaps, is of more confequence to his character for veracity than any thing that can be adduced is, that it is determined by the most learned men, that the writings of Herodotus are more conformable to the facred Scriptures than thofe of Xenophon, Ctefias, and other ancient hiftorians." Vol. I. p. 14. This is furely juft criticifm. The ftyle of Herodotus is exactly what it is here faid to be; and the reply which the tranflator has, in his notes, made to the charges brought against the veracity of the hiftorian, the reader will, in moft inftances, find fatisfactory. On one or two occafions, he will probably be difappointed, as we have been, at finding no extracts from Mrs. Guthrie's Tour through the Tauride or Crimea, in which fome of the relations of Herodotus, which his countrymen deemed utterly incredible, are completely vindicated; but Mr. Beloe, to illuftrate his author, has confulted and read fo many works, ancient and modern, that it is not furprising that he fhould have overlooked one. The principles, on which he has made his verfion, are obvioùfly just; but if the reader entertain the flightest doubt about them, he will do well to confult An Effay on the Prin ciples of Tranflation, printed for Cadell and Davies in 1791, and and republished with confiderable improvements in 1797*. In that ingenious and claffical work, it is fhown, with the clearness of demonftration, that " a tranflation fhould give a complete tranfcript of the ideas of the original work; that the ftyle and manner of writing fhould be of the fame character with that of the original; and that the tranflation should have all the ease of original compofition." How attentive Mr. Beloe has been to these rules it is now our duty to furnish the learned reader with an opportunity of judging for himself; but where every thing is curious, and in fome degree interefting from its antiquity, it is difficult to make a felection of paffages. The following extract gives fuch a picture of Babylonian manners, as muft furprife the mere English reader, whilft it cannot fail to make every ferious reader rejoice in the light of that revelation, through want of which a nation, otherwife highly polifhed, and contending with Egypt for being the fource of civilization, fell into fuch enor We fubjoin the tranflator's notes in vindication of mities. the author's veracity. "In my defcription of their (the Babylonian) laws, I have to mention one, the wifdom of which I must admire; and which, if I am not misinformed, the Enetit, who are of Illyrian origin, ufe * The first edition of that Effay was published before the commencement of our Review; but it is noticed with just approbation in our fifth vol. p. 219. The fecond we unaccountably over. looked. It is known to be the performance of Alexander Frafer Tytler, Efq. now one of the judges of the Court of Seffion in Scotland, by the title of Lord Woodhoufelec, and is a complete proof that a man of genius and induftry may find leifure to culti vate polite literature amidst the feverer ftudy of law. Rev. Eneti.]-This people, from whom perhaps the Venetians of Italy are defcended, Homer mentions as famous for their breed of mules: The Paphlagonians Pylæmenes rules, Where rich Henetia breeds her favage mules. Before I proceed, I muft point out a fingular error of Pope; any reader would imagine that Pylæmenes, as it ftands in his tranflation, had the penultimate long; on the contrary it is fhort. There is nothing like rich Henetia in Homer; he fimply fays, EVET. Upon the above lines of Honer, I have fomewhere feen it remarked, that probably the poet here intended to inform us, that the Eneti were the first people who purfued and cultivated the ufe alfo. In each of their feveral diftricts this cuftom was every year obferved: fuch of their virgins as were marriageable, were at an appointed time and place affembled together. Here the men alfo came, and fome public officer fold by auction 253 the young women one by one, beginning with the most beautiful. When fhe was difpofed of, and as may be fuppofed for a confiderable the breed of mules. They were certainly fo famous for this he terogenous mixture, that Evers and ETO, denote that particular foal of the horse and the mule, which the Eneti bred.-See Hesyckius. "A remarkable verfe occurs in Genefis, fee chapter xxxvi. verfe 24. "Thefe are the children of Zibcon; both Ajah, and Anah: this was that Anah, who found the mules in the wilderness, as he fed the affes of Zibeon his father." Does not this mean that Anah was the firft author and contriver of this unnatural breed? This mixture was forbidden by the Levitical law.-See Leviticus, ch. xix. ver. 19. "Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverfe kind." "Is it impoffible that from Anah the Eneti might take their name? Strabo informs us that the Eneti of Afia were called afterwards Cappadocians, which means breakers of horses; and he adds, that they who marched to the afliftance of Troy, were efteemed a part of the Leuco-Syri.—T, 953 Sold by auction.]-Herodotus here omits one circumftance of confequence, in my opinion, to prove that this ceremony was conducted with decency. It paffed under the inspection of the magistrates; and the tribunal whofe office it was to take cognizance of the crime of adultery, fuperintended the marriage of the young women. Three men, refpectable for their virtue, and who were at the head of their several tribes, conducted the young women that were marriageable to the place of affembly, and there fold them by the voice of the public crier.-Larcher. "If the custom of difpofing of the young women to the best bidder was peculiar to the Babylonians, that of purchafing the perfon intended for a wife, and of giving the father a fum to ob tain her, was much more general. It was practised amongst the Greeks, the Trojans, and their allies, and even amongst the deities.-Bellenger. "Three daughters in my court are bred, And each well worthy of a royal bed: Laodice, and Iphigenia fair, And bright Chryfotkemis with golden hair. Her let him choofe, whom moft his eyes approve ; I afk no prefents, no reward for love.- Pope's Iliad.” fum, |
