fhall be the conclufion of the First Book of the Georgics. As. the paffage is fhort, we shall give the translations of it fully. DRYDEN. "Ye home-born deities of mortal birth, Goddefs unmro'd, whofe guardian arms extend For the part crimes of curft Laomedon: Heaven wants thee there, and long the Gods, we know, WARTON. "Ye greater guardian Gods of Rome, our prayer, At leaft permit this youth to fave the world, The Gods, oh Cæfar! envy and complain, N ERIT. CRIT. VOL. XVII, FEB. 1801. As As when four furious courfers whirl away 66 DELILLE. O père des Romains fils du Dieu des batailles! SOTHEBY. "Ye native Gods, ye tutelary powers, Sates vengeful Gods, for Troy's perfidious guilt. This paffage, for the fake of greater diftin&tnefs of comparifon, may be divided into four parts: the invocation to the Gods of Rome; the praife of Auguftus, which that invocation introduces; the picture of the itate of anarchy, which his government was to remedy; and the comparifop, by which the unbridled rage of that wretched ftate is reprefented to the fancy. The invocation is not only inelegantly, but unfaithfully tranflated by Dryden. The words which we have marked with italics in his firft couplet, are wholly unjustified by the original. The "Di patrii indigetes," undoubtedly meant only the native Gods of Rome, the local and national deities who more peculiarly prefided over the fortunes of the city. No Roman could have had an idea that they were "bome-born," ftill lefs that they were of mortal birth." Dryden, in the hafte of his tranflation, feems to have been led into this confufion by the mention of Romulus. But Romulus and Vefta are invoked, in addition to thefe national deities (whoever they were) and Romulus was himself confidered, not as" of mortal birth," but as the fon of Mars. In the fecond and third verfes, the language addrefled to Vefta is extremely unhappy. The imagination is diverted from the Goddess Vefta, to the earth itself. In other parts of poetry, it may fometimes be allowed to fubftitute the name of the deities who are fuppofed to prefide over certain objects, for the clafs of objects over which they prefide, as Mars for war, Bacchus for wine, &c. and the reverse. But this never can be tolerated in invocation, because prayer muft fuppofe the perfonal exiftence of thofe beings who are addreffed. The expreflions which we have marked in the fifth couplet are fo inelegant, not to fay vulgar, that they muft difpleafe and difguft even the mere English reader, whofe tafte does not receive the additional difpleasure, which arifes from a contraft of the meanness of these lines with the majesty of the original. But all the lines which follow are truly Drydenic. They are nervous and mufical, fpirited and lofty. They have that air of immediately flowing from the infpiration of genius, which diftinguishes their great author, and which no other English poet in rhyme. has been able to copy. The reader in this paffage, as in many others of Dryden, rifes from the perufal with mingled feelings of admiration and regret; he admires the powers which can produce fuch excellence, and he deplores the hafte which could fuffer fo many errors to escape. For the memory and talents of Dr. Warton, we have great refpect; but we can scarcely prevail on ourselves to doubt, that our readers must think his tranflation the worst of those which we have laid before them. The first and third couplets of his verfion, are made up of as N 2 bad bad lines, as are perhaps to be found in the works of any verfifier of reputation; fince Pope has taught correctness to verfifiers, and faftidioufnefs to the public. The fubfequent lines are a clofe and feeble imitation of Dryden, with the exception of one improvement." Difponoured lies the plough" reprefents a triking idea of the original which Dryden had omitted, probably more from indolence and hurry, than from want of talte. But this phrafe, though not unhappy, is much inferior to the correfponding expreffions of Mr. Sotheby. The first lines of the Abbé Delille's verfion feem to us to be as exact a reprefentation of the fober majefty and finished elegance of the original, as it is poffible to give. In the fourth line, indeed, fome part of the ideas of Virgil are wanting; but the fifth couplet is perhaps one of the moft fortunate fpecimens of tranflation which literature can boaft. The fequel is not always laboured with equal fuccefs. The line which we have marked, is an example of a fimple and interefting circumftance being weakened by the common places of mythology. The merits of Mr. Sotheby's verfion may be, in a great meafore, cftimated by a review of the faults of his predeceffors, which he has judiciously and happily avoided. To compare him to Warton would be injuftice; and we will prefume to fay, that, without danger to his reputation, he may be compared with Dryden. In the invocation and panegyric he is fuperior; and though, in the defcription which follows, Dryden gave the reins to his natural genius for vigourous invective, yet the prefent verfion, without being weak, is more Virgilian than that of Dryden. There is one line of Mr. Sotheby, at which a reader of taste will perhaps paufe. It is the fourth in this paffage. The idea is not in the original, and the expreffion and cadence are better fuited to the antithetic poignancy, and balanced measure of Pope, than to the general style of Virgil, or to the fimple majesty and pious fervour of a patriotic prayer. The words are antithetically placed, without any oppofition in the ideas; and, on the whole, it must be owned to be a line which adds more to the found and pomp, than to the force or beauty of the paffage. Yet this criticifm implies, perhaps, the greatest commendation that can be bestowed on Mr. Sotheby. A paffage, of which fuch a line is the chief blemith, must approach very near indeed to perfection. Dryden calls the Georgics, in his admirable Dedication," the belt poem of the best poet." There is nothing which entitles it more to this diftin&tion, than the confummate art with which the poet has varied the ftyle, which, though always perfectly elegant, and never deformed by thofe rugged lines, which fo much abound in his model Lucretius, is yet extremely various. The kind of of ornament is varied with every variation of the fubject. The defcriptions are enriched by all the artifices of poetical language. But the clearness of ftatement is never obfcured by profane ornament. Even the fimplicity is not uniform. In pathetic paffages it is a foft fimplicity. In precepts it is a fevere fimplicity, fuitable to that character of gravity and authority, which becomes thofe who inftruct or command. Perhaps there may be fome critics fo faftidious as to complain, that in Mr. Sotheby's verfion there is more uniformity and prodigality of adorned language, than the variety of Virgil admits. Whether this complaint be well or ill founded, the reader will judge from the following paffages of the original, and the tranflation. They are paffages of mere ftatement, in which Virgil feems ftudiously to have employed great frugality of ornament, or rather to have abftained from ornament altogether. Principio arboribus varia eft natura creandis ; Georg. lib. ii. v. 9—12.. "At first, by various ways, o'er hill and plain, "Nec verò terræ ferre omnes omnia poffunt SOTHEBY. Georg. lib. ii. v. 109-113. "Not every foil each varying race fupplies, And yews afcend 'mid tempefts wing'd with fnow." SOTHEBY. The lines which are marked in the tranflation are indeed harmonious and poetical; but they are perhaps mifplaced. They have more of the luxuriancy of a defcription of Thomfon than of the fobriety even of a Virgilian defcription; not to speak of the fevere fimplicity of a Virgilian statement. The happy effect of an occafional abftinence from ornament is** very remarkable in the laft of thefe two paffages. It is immediately followed by one of the moft fplendid parts of Vir git |