4

"Il ne faut ni me prier, ni me preffer. Je fuis ado66 rateur de la poefie, & j'ai pour vous une tendreffe que rien n'égale. Ne doutez donc pas que je ne "faffe avec autant d'exactitude que de joie ce que vous m'ordonnez. Je pourrois déja vous mander 66 que rien n'eft plus beau, & ne mérite mieux de "paroître; du moins autant que j'en puis juger par "les endroits, que vous m'avez fait voir; fi pourtant

66

votre pronunciation ne m'a point impofe; car vous "lifez d'un ton fort impofteur. Mais j'ai affez bonne

opinion de moi, pour croire que le charme de l'har"monie ne va point jufqu'à m'ôter le jugement. Elle "peut bien le furprendre, mais non pas le corrompre "ni l'alterer. Je croi donc déja pouvoir hazarder "mon avis fur le corps de l'ouvrage. La lecture "m'apprendra ce que je dois penser de chaque partie. "Adieu."

I shall examine but one fingle paffage in this letter, which is not the leaft difficult, nor the leaft beautiful. Confido tamen me non fic auribus duci, ut omnes aculei judicii mei illarum delinimentis refringantur. Hebetantur fortaffe & paululum retunduntur; revelli quidem extorquerique non poffunt.

To make youth thoroughly understand this paffage, we must begin with explaining the metaphor to them, in which all the beauty and difficulty of it confifts. This metaphor is contained in the word aculeus, which fignifies a sharp point, as the point of a dart or fpear, defigned to pierce through and penetrate. Now three things may either weaken or abfolutely hinder this effect; if the edge of it be taken off, hebetari, retundi; if it be broken, refringi; and laftly, if it be entirely plucked off from the wood, to which the iron is faftened, revelli, extorqueri.

Pliny expreffes the penetration of the judgment by the image of a point, which might indeed have its edge taken off by the impreffion, which a graceful pronunciation had made upon his ears, but could not be broken, much lefs totally carried away.

It

で

It may be queftioned, whether these two ideas delinimenta and refringunt fquare well together, the one expreffing gentleness and allurement, and the other force and violence. But I think we should carry the matter too far, if we required fo ftrict an exactness, as not to be content that the charms of pronunciation Thould produce the effect here mentioned upon the judgment, without being able to find out fomething gentle in nature, that may take off the edge of a point, break it, or pull it off.

The tranflator has rendered the paffage thus; J'ay affez bonne opinion de moi pour croire que le charme d'barmenie ne va point jufqu'à m'ôter le jugement. Elle peut bien le furprendre, mais non pas le corrompre, ni l'alterer. I make no doubt, confidering his good tafte, but he ufed his utmost endeavours to express the Latin metaphor. But seeing that our language was not capable of, it, and that if he should fervilely keep to the expreffion, he fhould lofe the beauty of the thought, he followed, Horace's advice upon the occafion, and quitted a fubject he defpaired of handling well,

& Et

quæ

Desperat tractata nitefcere poffe, relinquit.

And thus preferving the main of the thought, he has given it another turn, which feems more natural, and is no lefs beautiful than that of the Latin.

"This is one of the principal rules of tranflation, which fhould be well inculcated into youth, and is particularly neceffary with refpect to metaphors, which are ufually the torture and defpair of tranflators, and cannot poffibly be expreffed in another language, without an alteration of all their beauties.

C. PLINIUS MAXIMO SUOS. Nuper me cujufdam amici languor admonuit, optimos effe nos, dum infirmi fumus. Quem enim infirmum aut avaritia aut libido follicitat? Non amoribus fervit,

26.

Mongault. M. St. Real tranflated only two books of thefe letters; M. Mongault, without being frighted at the difficulty of the undertaking, has published them all, and by that means done great fervice to abundance of perfons, who are hereby enabled to read with certainty and pleasure, the most curious part of Tully's works relating to the hiftory of his own time, though the moft difficult and obfcure.

Ep. xvII. from Tully to Atticus, B. I.

The argument of the letter. Quintus Cicero, brother to the famous Orator, had married Pomponia, the fifter of Atticus. But refufing to ferve as lieutenant in Afia, under his brother-in-law, it contributed not a little to a mifunderstanding between them, which occafioned very bitter complaints on the part of Quintus Cicero, and caused a kind of rupture. This is the fubject of the first part of this letter, to which I shall confine myself.

CICERO ATTICO SA L.

Num. 1. Magna mihi veritas voluntatis, & diffimilitudo opinionis ac judicii Quinti fratris mei, demonftrata eft ex literis tuis, in quibus ad me epiftolarum illius exempla mififti. Qua ex re & moleftia fum tanta affectus, quantam mihi meus amor fummus erga utrumque veftrum afferre debuit; & admiratione, quidnam accidiffet, quod afferret Quinto fratri meo aut offenfionem tam gravem aut commutationem tantam voluntatis.

Num. 2. Atque illud a me jam ante intelligebatur, quod te quoque ipfum difcedentem a nobis fufpicari videlam, fubeffe nefcio quid opinionis incommoda, fauciumque ejus animum; & infediffe quafdam odiofas fufpiciones. Quibus ego mederi cum cuperem antea fæpe, & vehementius etiam poft fortitionem provinciæ, nec tantum intelligebam ei effe offenfionis, quantum literæ tuæ declarant nec tantum proficiebam, quantum volebam.

Num. 3. Sed tamen hoc me ipfe confolabar, quid non dubitabam, quin te ille aut Dyrrachii, aut in iftis locis

ufpiam vifurus effet; quod cum accidiffet, confidebam, ac mihi perfuaferam, fore ut omnia placarentur inter vos non modo fermone ac difputatione, fed confpectu ipfo congreffuque veftro. Nam, quanta fit in Quinto fratre meo comitas, quanta jucunditas, quam mollis animus & ad accipiendam & ad deponendam offenfionem, nihil attinet me ad te, qui ea nofti, fcribere. Sed accidit perincommode, quod eum nufquam vidifti. Valuit enim plus quod erat illi nonnullorum artificiis inculcatum, quam aut officium, aut neceffitudo, aut amor vefter ille priftinus, qui plurimum valere debuit.

Num. 4. Atque hujus incommodi culpa ubi refideat, facilius poffum exiftimare quam fcribere. Vereor enim, ne, dum defendam meos, non parcam tuis. Nam fic intelligo, ut nihil a domefticis vulneris factum fit, illud quidem, quod erat, eos certe fanare potuiffe. Sed bujufce rei totius vitium, quod aliquanto etiam latius patet quam videtur, præfenti tibi commodius exponam. Num. 5. De iis literis, quas ad te Theffalonica mifit,& de fermonibus, quos ab illo & Romæ apud amicos tuos & in itinere habitos putas, ecquid tantum. caufæ fit ignoro; fed omnis in tua pofita eft humanitate mihi fpes hujus levande moleftia. Nam, fi ita ftatueris,

irritabiles animos effe optimorum fæpe hominum, & eofdem placabiles; & effe hanc agilitatem, ut ita dicam, mollitiemque naturæ plerumque bonitatis ; &, id quod caput eft, nobis inter nos noftra five incommoda, five vitia, five injurias effe tolerandas; facile hæc, quemadmidum fpero, mitigabuntur. Quod ego, ut facias, te ero. Nam ad me, qui te unice diligo, maxime pertinet, neminem effe meorum, qui aut te non amet, aut abs te

non ametur.

Num. 6. Illa pars epistolæ tuæ minime fui neceffaria, in qua exponis, quas facultates aut provincialium, aut urbanorum commodorum, & aliis temporibus, & me ipfo co fule, prætermiferis. Mihi enim perfpecta eft ingemuitas magnitudo animi tui; neque ego inter me atque. te quicquam intereffe unquam duxi, præter voluntaiem inftituta vita, quod me ambitio quædam ad honorum VOL. I. Studium,

F

ftudium, te autem alia minimæ reprehendenda ratio ad honeftum otium duxit. Vera quidem laude probitatis, diligentia, religionis, neque me tibi, neque quemquam antepono. Amoris vero erga me, cum a fraterno amore domefticoque difceffi, tibi primas defero. Vidi enim, vidi, penitufque perfpexi in meis variis temporibus & folicitudines & lætitias tuas. Fuit mihi fæpe & laudis noftræ gratulatio tua jucunda, & timoris confolatio grata.

Num. 7. Quin mihi nunc, te absente, non folum confilium, quo tu excellis, fed etiam fermonis communicatio, que mihi fuaviffima tecum folet effe, maxime deeft. Quid dicam in publica re? Quo in genere mihi negligenti effe non licet. An in forenfi labore? Quem antea propter ambitionem fuftinebam, nunc, ut dignitatem tueri gratia poffim. An in ipfis domefticis negotiis ? In quibus ego cum antea, tum vero poft difceffum fratris, te fermonefque noftros defidero. Poftremo, non labor meus, non requies; non negotium, non otium; non forenfes res, non domeftica; non publicæ, non privatæ; carere diutius tuo fuaviffimo atque amantiffimo confilio ac fermone poffunt.

The tranflation of the pre- The tranflation of the ceding letter by M. de

St. Real.

Num. 1.

fame letter by M. Mongault.

Autant parvo- Num. 1.

•A

tre lettre, que par la copie que vous m'envoiez de celle de mon frere, je vois une grande altération dans fon amitié pour vous, & même dans fon eftime. J'en fuis auffi affligé, que ma tendreffé pour tous les deux m'y oblige, & auffi furpris qu'on le peut être, ne fachant

d'où

JE vois, & par

votre lettre, & par la copie que vous m'avez envoice de celle de mon frere, qu'il y a une grande altération dans les fentimens & dans les difpofitions où il étoit à votre égard. J'en fuis auffi affligé que ma tendreffe pour vous deux le demande, & je ne conçois pas ce qui a

pu