Mr. Martin's in respect of this union of qualities. It is in good taste, but it is not lively. Many versions of it have a vulgar liveliness, which is not in good taste. But, after all, tɔ the composition of a good translation of the Odes there needs something more than a previous study of the intricate question of suitable metre, and even than a steadfast eschewal of the slipshod style, which wrecks about five translations of Horace out of every six. It is essential, though some do not scem to think so, that a translator should be familiar with the meaning and interpretation of his author; and this not generally and superficially, but specially and deeply. We could fill pages with the blunders of pretenders, who have simply not known, or not cared to know, what the Latin which they professed to English imported. And there is no excuse for this in the present day, as in almost every passage Professor Conington's version is, as might be expected, a faithful exponent of the meaning of Horace. There have been great pains too bestowed, but recently, on editing Horace in such a manner as to serve the needs of intending translators. Mr. J. E. Yonge's Horace, with its careful text, apt and not wearisome notes, and, above all, its rich apparatus of parallel passages from our own poetry, might preclude, if systematically consulted, the danger of an even illgrounded translator knocking his head against the meaning of a passage. And it is to be hoped that the new and cheaper edition of Dean Milman's Horace may do something also in this direction, if its beautiful getting up can only tempt those who profess to be fond of Horace to look into the inside of it, and to examine the soundness of its text in cases where there is a dispute as to readings. It is no use to attempt translation without a basis of scholarship; no use to try and represent Horace in English garb, unless we have some sort of insight into the original material we have to imitate. Professor Conington rightly discerns that one particular aim of a translator of Horace should be to preserve his sententiousness. It is this, 'perhaps more than anything else, that has made him a store'house of quotations. He condenses a general truth in a few 'words, and thus makes his wisdom portable. "Non, si male nunc et olim, sic erit; "Nihil est ab omni parte beatum;" ""Omnes eadem cogimur;"-these, and other similar expressions, ' remain in the memory when other features of Horace's style, ' equally characteristic, but less obvious, are forgotten.' (Conington's Horace, Pref. p. vii.) And we contend that it takes some understanding of the language of the original to know and feel one of these bits of portable wisdom, when one comes across it, so as to preserve its character in translation. Where Horace has 'Audax omnia perpeti Gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas :' there is manifestly some care to preserve his proverbial wisdom in Mr. Conington's :- 'Daring all their goal to win, Men tread forbidden ground and rush on sin.' But what feeling of the original is to be discerned in this representation ? Or who will tolerate as a fair equivalent for Horace's 'Durum sed levius fit patientiâ Quicquid corrigere est nefas,' (I. xxiv. ad fin.) this diluted slip-slop— 'Sad lot. But ever understand Patience makes each more lightly bear Evils which all alike must share;' when he may see in Conington's version the unadorned and almost literal counterpart 'Ah! heavy grief! but patience makes more light What sorrow may not heal.' What It was a goodly habit with our forefathers to esteem an acquaintance with their Horace creditable to English gentlemen long after their schooldays were a distant retrospect. may be in store for us we know not. Mr. Lowe regrets painfully that there was ever a day when his classical proficiency was rewarded with an edition of the worthless poems of Catullus. Perhaps his words may have the effect of discouraging the study of Horace and Virgil, and the rest of the Augustan poets, in the present generation; and in his latter days he may enjoy the monopoly of being able to quote them. But one thing we fervently hope, that if the study of the original language is to be snubbed, we may not be put off with translations, especially if they are so uneven and uncertain as to excellence as those of Mr. Brodie and Dr. J. W. Smith, or so barren of worth as those of Mr. Hughes and Mr. Mathews. Mr. Conington has indeed saved the memory of Horace from dying out, even if we, by common consent, forget our Latin as a nation. We have great hopes that the present silence of Mr. Calverley, and his apparent secession from the literary world, only betoken that he is engaged upon a complete translation of Horace, in which it may be demonstrated that he has solved the question of other metrical correspondences, and that he has been able to match each Horatian metre with a separate English counterpart. If our late Premier is not to be pressed, at his age and in his state of health, to the resumption of such studies as, in his case, have borne noble fruit in his Iliad, it may still be fondly dreamed that, in hours of relaxation, he may at least double or treble his specimens of translation from Horace. Our own firm belief is that good translations are calculated to induce a reaction, and to increase the study and appreciation of the classics, and not, as might be supposed, to provide a substitute for them. But they must be good; and to that end we counsel all second-rate translators of Horace, who have youth and leisure enough, to call in, or to forbear, hasty publication. It will always be a profitable occupation, as regards that poet, 'nocturna versare manu, versare diurnâ,' to plod again and again through his ever pleasant, ever instructive pages; for they teem with the wisdom needful for social life in all times. To say nothing of a well of quotation, which it is impossible to exhaust (although we do not recommend the experiment to any friend of ours; for the most intolerable of bores is he who never opens his mouth without observing as Horace says'), the uses to which a knowledge of this poet, minute enough to be at one's fingers' ends,' may be made to subserve, are endless. Not only from his Satires and Epistles, but even from his lyric pieces, may be gleaned hints to stand one who wishes in due season to graduate as a man of the world' in excellent stead. If not profound, they are at least never unpractical. And then, what a treasury is our poet of commonplaces for every occasion! Is a constant admirer gathering himself up for one last appeal to a fair one who has kept him dangling to her train for season after season? can he do better than utilize, in some form or other, the beautiful Ode of Horace to Ligurinus (iv. 10), which Conington tabooes on account of the objectionable associations of the original, but which Theodore Martin has shown us how to approach in such wise as to extract the honey, and leave behind whatever is foul and refuse? NO. CXLI.-N.S. TO A CRUEL BEAUTY. Ah! cruel, cruel still, And yet divinely fair, When Time with fingers chill D What Which now in many a wanton freak When fades the bloom which on thy cheek Ah! then, as in thy glass Thou gazest in dismay, As in my maiden bloom, when I Or, now that I would win them, why Is a young writer honestly seeking to express a sense of gratitude to an unselfish patron, and to give utterance to his thankfulness without donning a livery, or rendering himself liable to the charge of servility, he may point a compliment moulded on such an one as this of Horace to Mæcenas : 'Lay down that load of state-concern ; Now seeks his own.'--HOR. Od. III. viii. (CoN.) Or invite him to unbend and rusticate to the tune of 'Vile potabis modicis Sabinum' (Hor. Od. I. xx.). Sticking to the worldly-wise tact and self-respect of his Horace, a man may hold his own, and yet be popular and prized. Indeed, it is his thorough social prudence' which is the key to the universality of his charm. On this, in truth, is based that monument of which he had a prophetic foretaste, and which we will not wrong him by citing in any other words than his own :— 'Exegi monumentum ære perennius Quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens Annorum series et fuga temporum. Non omnis moriar, multaque pars mei Crescam laude recens.'-III. xxx. 35 ART. III.-A Memoir of Baron Bunsen. Drawn chiefly from Family Papers by his Widow, FRANCES, BARONESS BUNSEN. London: Longmans. THE views and opinions of Baron Bunsen in their general character and tendencies have been so long before the world, and have been subjects of such frequent discussion and allusion in these pages, that we believe we shall best consult the wishes and interests of our readers in collecting for their information the leading facts of the present Memoir. Two bulky volumes of biography are a serious undertaking for busy men, especially where they consist in large proportion of translations of German thought and speculation;—an undertaking needing more enthusiasm for their subject than can be looked for in our case. Not that we are complaining of the mass of matter and correspondence which is here brought together. As a man who lived his life' and left his mark as Bunsen did, his widow is justified in supposing that less would not have satisfied his admirers and surviving friends, and there is a unity in his life and the objects for which he lived which encourages to amplitude and detail. But he was a man especially for his friends and sympathisers. It is necessary to agree with him in order to think him a great man. He wanted largeness of mind to understand those who materially differed from him. He could not do them justice; and shows himself doubly insolent towards opponents, both as a German -and therefore by birth profound and clear-sighted-and with the added infection of English partisanship. We are the people' (that is, Bunsen leading and directing liberal English thinkers) might be the motto of the book, and 1,300 pages in this strain are apt to weary readers who find themselves invariably on the contemned side. It is an axiom with him that Germany furnishes the instructors of mankind: a very common impression among his countrymen; and they never seem to feel it more strongly than when they come to England. Not that Bunsen was insensible to the merits of English practice; he was more alive to it than others of his countrymen naturalized amongst us, but he wanted to change its foundation, and to put it on the basis of German thought, or, as we should term it, German scepticism. Have by all means a Church, a |