CHAP. V.

Second General Rule: The Style and Manner of writing in a Translation should be of the same Character with that of the Original.-Translations of the Scriptures ;Of Homer, &c. ;-A just Taste requisite for the Discernment of the Characters of Style and Manner.—Examples of failure in this particular;-The grave exchanged for the formal;-The elevated for the bom bast -The lively for the petulant ;—The simple for the childish. -Hobbes, L'Estrange, Echard, &c.

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EXT in importance to a faithful transfusion of the sense and meaning of an author, is an assimilation of the style and manner of writing in the translation to that of the original. This requisite of a good transla

tion, though but secondary in importance, is more difficult to be attained than the former; for the qualities requisite for justly discerning and happily imitating the various characters of style and manner, are much more rare than the ability of simply understanding an author's sense. A good translator must be able to discover at once the true character of his author's style. He must ascertain with precision to what class it belongs; whether to that of the grave, the elevated, the easy, the lively, the florid and ornamented, or the simple and unaffected; and these characteristic qualities he must have the capacity of rendering equally conspicuous in the translation as in the original. If a translator fail in this discernment, and want this capacity, let him be ever so thoroughly master of the sense of his author, he will present him through a distorting medium, or exhibit him often in a garb that is unsuitable to his character.

THE chief characteristic of the historical style of the Sacred Scriptures, is its simplicity. This character belongs indeed to the

language itself. Dr Campbell has justly remarked, that the Hebrew is a simple tongue; that "their verbs have not, like the "Greek and Latin, a variety of moods and

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tenses, nor do they, like the modern languages, abound in auxiliaries and conjunctions. The consequence is, that in "narrative, they express by several simple

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sentences, much in the way of the re"lations used in conversation, what in "most other languages would be compre"hended in one complex sentence of three 66 or four members *.” The same author gives, as an example of this simplicity, the beginning of the first chapter of Genesis, where the account of the operations of the Creator on the first day is contained in eleven separate sentences. "1. In the "beginning God created the Heaven and "the Earth. 2. And the earth was without "form, and void. 3. And darkness was upon the face of the deep. 4. And the

spirit of God moved upon the face of the 5. And God said, let there be

❝ waters.

*Third Preliminary Dissertation to a New Translation of the Four Gospels.

light. 6. And there was light. 7. And "God saw the light, that it was good. 8. "And God divided the light from the "darkness. 9. And God called the light day. 10. And the darkness he called

night. 11. And the evening and the "morning were the first day." This," says Dr Campbell," is a just representa"tion of the style of the original. A more perfect example of simplicity of struc

ture, we can no where find. The sen"tences are simple, the substantives are not "attended by adjectives, nor the verbs by "adverbs; no synonymas, no superlatives, no effort at expressing things in a bold, emphatical, or uncommon manner."

CASTALIO'S version of the Scriptures is entitled to the praise of elegant Latinity, and he is in general faithful to the sense of his original; but he has totally departed from its style and manner, by substituting the complex and florid composition to the simple and unadorned. His sentences are formed in long and intricate periods, in which many separate members are artfully

combined; and we observe a constant endeavour at a classical phraseology and ornamented diction *. In Castalio's version of the foregoing passage of Genesis, nine sentences of the original are thrown into one period. 1. Principio creavit Deus cælum et terram. 2. Quum autem esset ter ra iners atque rudis, tenebrisque effusum profundum, et divinus spiritus sese super aquas libraret, jussit Deus ut existeret lux, et extitit lux; quam quum videret Deus esse bonam, lucem secrevit a tenebris, et lucem diem, et tenebras noctem appellavit. 3. Ita extitit ex vespere et mane dies primus.

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"His affectation of the manner of some of the poets " and orators has metamorphosed the authors he interpreted, " and stript them of the venerable signatures of antiquity, "which so admirably befit them; and which, serving as in"trinsic evidence of their authenticity, recommend their "writings to the serious and judicious. Whereas, when ac "coutred in this new fashion, no body would imagine them "to have been Hebrews; and yet, (as some critics have justly remarked), it has not been within the compass of Castalio's art, to make them look like Romans." Dr Campbell's 10th Prelim. Diss.