The reason the classics are not read is because there still lingers a
tradition, handed down from the eighteenth century, that it is useless
to read them unless in the original. A tone of sarcastic contempt is
maintained towards the person who shall presume to peruse Xenophon not
in the original Greek, or Virgil not in the original Latin.
In the view of these critics it is the Greek, it is the Latin, that is
valuable, not the contents of the volume. Shakespeare, however, the
greatest genius of England, thought otherwise. It is known that his
ideas of Grecian and Roman history were derived from somewhat rude
translations, yet it is acknowledged that the spirit of the ancient
warriors and of the ancient luxury lives in his _Antony and Cleopatra_,
and nowhere in all the ancient writers is there a poem breathing the
idea of Aphrodite like his _Venus and Adonis_. The example of so great a
genius may shield us in an effort to free the modern mind from this
eighteenth-century incubus.
The truth is, the classics are much better understood in a good
translation than in the original. To obtain a sufficient knowledge of
Greek, for instance, to accurately translate is almost the work of a
lifetime. Concentration upon this one pursuit gradually contracts the
general perceptions, and it has often happened that an excellent scholar
has been deficient in common knowledge, as shown by the singular
character of his own notes. But his work of translation in itself is
another matter.
It is a treasure; from it poets derive their illustrations; dramatists
their plots; painters their pictures. A young mind full of intelligence,
coming to such a translation, enters at once into the spirit of the
ancient writer. A good translation is thus better than the original.--R.
JEFFERIES. _The Dewy Morn._
'THAT SILLY VANITY OF IMPERTINENT CITATIONS'
'Twas this vain idolizing of authors which gave birth to that silly
vanity of impertinent citations, and inducing authority in things
neither requiring nor deserving it. That saying was much more
observable, _That men have beards and women none_, because quoted from
Beza; and that other, _Pax res bona est_, because brought in with a
'said St. Austin'. But these ridiculous fooleries, to your more generous
discerners, signify nothing but the pedantry of the affected sciolist.
'Tis an inglorious acquist to have our heads or volumes laden as were
Cardinal Campeius his mules, with old and useless baggage.--J. GLANVILL.
_The Vanity of Dogmatizing._