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be decisive. But where he has rational grounds for forming a judgment, what he judges to be the sense, he ought to express with clearness.

§ 28. I HAVE oftener than once had occasion to observe, that wherever propriety, perspicuity, and the idiom of the tongue employed, permit an interpreter to be close, the more he is so, the better. But what it is to be literal, I have never yet seen defined by any critic or grammarian, or even, by any advocate for the literal manner of translating. A resemblance in sound, by the frequent use of derivatives from the words of the original, cannot, where there is no coincidence in the sense, confer on a translator, even the slight praise of being literal. Who would honour with this denomination one who, in translating Scripture, should render ovμφωνια symphony, υπερβολη hyperbole, παροξυσμος paroxysm, φαρμακεια pharmacy, συκοφαντείν to play the sycophant, παραδοξα paradoxes, ιδιωτης idiot? Yet some of the consecrated words have no better title to this distinction.

91

I once met with a criticism, I do not remember where, on a passage in the Epistle of James ", in which God is called the Father of lights, rap' & vx ενι παραλλαγη, η τροπης αποσκιασμα. The critic profoundly supposes, that the sacred penman, though writing to the Christian converts, of the dispersed Jews, amongst whom there certainly were not many

91 James, i. 17.

noble, or rich, or learned, addressed them in the language of astronomy; and therefore renders лαραλλαγη parallax, and τροπη tropic. If this be to translate very literally, it is also to translate very absurdly. And surely the plea is not stronger, that is urged in favour of those interpreters who, without regard to usage in their own language, scrupulously exhibit, in their versions, the etymologies of their author's words, especially compound words. Such, if they would preserve consistency, ought to translate evnens well-bred, padispуia easy work, σлερμоhoуos seed-gatherer, navspyos all-working, γλωσσοκομον tongue-case, and παμπολυς all-many. The similar attempts of some, at analysing phrases, or idiomatical expressions, in their version, which are but a looser sort of composition, fall under the same denomination. Both the above methods, though differing greatly from each other, are occasionally patronized as literal, by the same persons. There is a third particular, which is considered as, perhaps, more essential to this mode of interpreting, than either of the former, and which consists in tracing, as nearly as possible, in the version, the construction and arrangement of the original. This, if not carried to excess, is less exceptionable than either of the former.

§ 29. BUT, it deserves our notice, that translators attempting, in this way, to keep closely to the letter, have sometimes failed, through their attending more to words and particles, considered separately,

whole sentence.

than to the combination and construction of the Thus, the words of our Lord 92, Πας γαρ ο αιτων λαμβανει. και ο ζητών ευρισκει, as rendered in the common translation, For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth ; err in this very way. Ὁ ζητων ευρισκει, taken by itself as a separate sentence, cannot be better rendered than he that seeketh, findeth. But in this passage it is only a clause of a sentence. The words πας γαρ, wherewith the sentence begins, relate equally to both clauses. The version here given, For whosoever asketh, obtaineth; whosoever seeketh, findeth, is, in fact, therefore, more close to the letter, as well as to the sense: for, by the syntactic order, the second clause evidently is πας ο ζητών ευρισκει. The Vulgate is both literal and just, Omnis enim qui petit, accipit; et qui quærit, invenit. Here omnis, like was, belongs to both members. Had our translators, in the same manner, said, Every one that asketh, receiveth; and that seeketh, findeth; leaving out the pronoun he, they would have done justice both to the form and to the sense. But they have chosen rather to follow Beza, who says, Quisquis enim petit, accipit; et qui quærit, invenit; where, though the second member is the same as in the Vulgate, the expression in the Gospel is in effect differently translated, as quisquis cannot, like omnis, be supplied before qui. I acknowledge that there is not a material difference in meaning. Only the second clause in

92 Matth. vii. 8. See the note on that verse.

Beza is expressed more weakly, and appears not to affirm so universally as the first clause. The clause, as expressed in Greek, has no such appearance.

30. FOR a similar reason, the words o08 σκώληξ αυτών 8 τελευτα, και το πυρ 8 σβεννυται, are, in my opinion, more strictly rendered, where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched, than as in the common version, the fire is not quenched. The manner in which the clauses are here connected, rendered the repetition of the pronoun in the second clause unnecessary, because in Greek it is in such cases understood as repeated. Whereas in English, when the fire is said, the pronoun cannot be understood. It is excluded by the article, which is never by us joined with the possessive pronoun. Could we, with propriety, imitate the Greek manner entirely, making the personal pronoun supply the possessive, and saying, where the worm of them dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, the pronoun might be understood in English as well as in Greek. But such an idiom with us would be harsh and unnatural. It gives an additional probability to this explanation, that, in the passage in the Old Testament referred to 94, it is expressly their fire, as well as their worm. In Hebrew the affixes are never left to be supplied. This remark regards only the exhibition of the con

93 Mark, ix. 44. 46, 48.

94 Isaiah, Ixvi. 24.

struction, for the sense is not affected by the dif ference.

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95

§ 31. THE words of John, Ὁ ποιων την δικαιοσυνην δικαιος εςι, καθως εκεινος δικαιος εςι ", are, in my judgment, more literally rendered, He that doth righteousness is righteous, even as God is righteous, than as it stands in the English translation, even as he is righteous. The English pronoun he does not correspond to the Greek exevos so situated. In English, the sentence appears, to most readers, a mere identical proposition: in Greek it has no such appearance, exεvos plainly referring us to a remote antecedent. As no pronoun, in our language, will here answer the purpose, the only proper recourse is to the noun whose place it occupies 96. The intention of the three examples just now given, is to show that, when the construction of the sentence is taken into the account, that is often found a more literal (if by this be meant closer) translation, which, to a superficial view, appears less so.

32. I SHALL here take notice of another case in which we may translate literally, nay, justly, and perspicuously, and yet fail greatly, in respect of energy. This arises from not attending to the minute, but often important, differences in structure, between the language of the original, and that of the 96 Luke, ix. 34.

95 1 John, iii. 7.

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