dell'inefatto, e talora anche dello ftrano e dell' ímprobabile': ma foftengo che i fuoi difetti fono affai più fcarfi di quel che poteva afpettarfi dalla fua età, e che fono fuperati di gran lunga da molte fue proprie, fingolari, e forprendenti virtù; ch' egli ha non folo tutte quelle che poteva dare il fuo feculo, fpinte ad un grado eminente, ma che egli, folo fra gli antichi, ne poffiede inoltre alcune altre che potrebbero far onore ai poeti dei fceoli piu raffinaté. Dati i coftumi, le opinioni, le circonftanze dei tempi, trarne il miglior uso possibile per dilettare, iftruire, e muovere con un linguaggio armonico e pittorefco: ecco il problemo che un poeta fi accinge a sciogliere colla sua opera; ed io osai credere, forfe a torto, ma non gia temerariamente, che Offian per piu d'un capo l'abbia fciolto più felicimente d'Omero. Del reftò non befogna mai sbagliare il punto di vifta fotto cui dee reguardarfi un poeta, ne collocarle in una claffe non fua. Non dèe ricercarsí da Offian la elegante aggiuftezza di Virgilio, ne la nobile, e conveniente elevatezza del Taffo, ne la vifte fuperiorí, l'interesse generale, la poefia della ragione ornato di tutti gl' incanti dello ftile che risplendono nel grande autor dell' Enriade. Offian e il genio della natura felvaggia: i fuoi poemi fomigliano ai boschi facri degli antiche fuoi Celti: Spirano orrore, ma visi sente ad ogni passo la divintà che vi abita." The reader will no doubt fmile at the exaggerated compliments paid to Taffo and Voltaire in this fhort extract; but allowance must be made for the national partiality of an Italian critic for Taffo: and the reader will recollect that this paffage was written during the period of Voltaire's deification, when men of letters on the continent feemed to vie with each other who should draw the longest bow in compliment to him. This is the only apology we can make for a writer whofe thoughts are, in other respects, manly, and in general juft. Taffo has without dispute painted one character in the moft delicate and bewitching ftyle, and coloured it with the freshest tint of nature; but unless it were for the character of Armida alone, we fhould not have known that ever the foul of Taffo had been able to penetrate into the mysterious mazes of the human heart. From the above extract, and the general ftrain of all his criticisms, it appears that the Abbé Cefarotti criticises Macpherson's tranflation of the poems of Offian as if they were the original works of the Celtic bard himself, and it is to this tranflation only that his criticifms can apply. But who is now to learn that a poem ftript of its original drefs is loft; loft, as an object of tafte, and only preferved as to the facts and fentiments it contains Without attempting to tranflate Milton's Paradife Loft into another language, let any one try to turn it into English profe, or English rhyme, and he will then perceive the force of our obfervation. All those beautiful inflexions of style, ftyle, thofe happy expreffions which convey an irrefiftible and indefinable charm, would there be loft; and though the basis of the thought fhould ftill be retained, yet, inftead of dwelling upon each favourite paffage with enthufiaftic rapture, the man of tafte would then wonder why he should have been so much delighted. This must be the cafe with every poem tranflated into another language; but if we give credit to the English translator, the works of Offian must have suffered more than any other poem of the epic ftrain that ever has been publifhed, because in the original they admit a variety of numbers that never has been admitted into any other poem of the epic kind. Shall then Offian, thus ftript of his moft glorious attire, be ftill able to fland a comparison with the firft poets in every age in their higheft perfection? Shall the British eagle,' in the emphatic language of his tranflator, which the flame of night met in the defert, and fpoil'd of half his wings,' fhall he even in this enfeebled ftate be judged worthy to be compared with others in their highest ftate of perfection? What then would be the refult of the trial, had he too been brought forward with equal advantage? But to drop the figure-If Offian is to be compared with Homer, Virgil, Taffo, or Voltaire, let not the profe tranflation of his works be compared with these several poems in the original; let it be compared with any tranflation of these that has been made, This juftice requires, if we wish to draw a parallel at all: but this our tranflator does not attempt. He ventures boldly to compare the tranflation with the original works. How poor is Taffo in his beft tranflation, when compared with the English Offian; and what a comparatively uninterefting character is even Armida when drawn in the coarse daubings of those who could not comprehend the meaning of the exquifitely delicate touches of their great mafter? And lives there a man who would dare to put in competition with the Henriade any tranflation of it that ever was attempted? The Italian tranflation, which may be faid to be but the shadow of a fhade, must be ftill farther removed from the original work than the English Offian ;—but it has been received with high applaufe. In one refpect the readers of that work have an advantage over the readers of the English Offian, the Italian tranflator having prefixed a general account of the Celtic mythology; the understanding of which renders many paffages clear, which were obfcure to English readers who never had thought on that fubject. What a confufed and unintelligible mass would the Iliad of Homer, and the Æneid of Virgil appear to a reader who never had heard the leaft account of the Grecian mythology? Cefarotti has endeavoured to imitate Offian by varying the measure of his verfes, having introduced feveral lyric pieces where Mr. Macpherson had indicated that it was fo in the original: but but out tranflator, though in the general narrative he is nervous, perfpicuous, concife, and more happily renders the original he copied than we could have expected, yet in his lyric pieces we do not think he has equally fucceeded. In these we neither find that enchanting felicity of expreffion in varied rhymes which fo peculiarly delight every clafs of readers in the lyric pieces of Metaftafio, nor that fedate majefty, and harmonious flow of unrhyming cadences, which fo happily characterize the Paftor Fido of Guarini. Cefarotti's talents feem to be better adapted to the majestic movements of heroic verse than to the lighter elegancies of lyric compofition. As a fpecimen of the execution of this work we fhall felect a few paffages; chiefly fuch as have been taken notice of for fome peculiar excellencies, as these will be more readily recollected by English readers without obliging them to turn to the book itself. The following addrefs of Cuchullin is toward the end of the first book of Fingal: • Dolce è la voce tua, Carill, e dolce DEн, tocca l'arpa e fammi uder le lodi Dell' ofcura Dunfgaglia; ah tocca l'arpa, A ricovrarti, e alle paffate gioje This paffage is in general as well rendered as a poetical translation readily admits of: and Cefarotti has been more than ufually happy in the fimile towards the beginning, ella fomiglia, &c.' But perhaps the most natural, if not beautiful paffage of the 6 * Dunfcaich, nome del palagio di Cuculline. whole whole in Macpherfon, O Connal, fpeak of wars and arms, and fend her from my mind, for lovely with her raven hair is the white-bofom'd daughter of Sorglan,' lofes much of its beauty by that tame introduction ma tu fido Conal.' And the epithet buon Sorglan is by no means pleafing here, nor authorised by the original. The beautiful addrefs to the moon, in the beginning of the poem called Darthula, is thus tranflated: Figlia del ciel, fei bella, e di tua faccia E in oriente i tuoi cerulei paffi Chi ti pareggia, o della notte figlia A poet who had had a stronger bias for lyric compofition would have thrown this addrefs into that form, efpecially as Macpherson fays the original is fo. This paffage, we think, affords no favourable fpecimen of the tranflation. The following address to the fun is more happily executed: • Sento il Sole, o Malvina; al mio ripofo Pallida Pallida e fredda: tu pel ciel deferto Fuor delle nubi, e alla tempefta ridi. Del mattin che ti chiama. O dunque esulta Raggio di luna, allor che fplende incerte Thefe paffages fufficiently prove that a tranflated poem muft be in all cafes confidered as a work altogether different from the original, when viewed as an object of tafte. There is not indeed a physical impoffibility of this fecond work excelling the original, but experience fufficiently proves that the probability is at least a thousand to one that it fhall be worse. And good reafons might be given why it fhould be fo. But be it better, or be it worse, it till is a different work: and therefore no juft criticism on the Author can be founded on any translation what ever. ART. XXXVI. 1 Hiftoire Litteraire de Geneve, &c. i. e. The literary History of Ge, neva. By the Rev. M. JOHN SENNEBIER. 3 Vols. 8vo. Ge AN N ardent spirit of patriotifm feems to have engaged the learned and ingenious M. SENNEBIER to undertake the work here announced; but this alone would not recommend it to the perufal of readers, who, by their birth and fituation, are little |