faithful, as possible, to the exact sense of his original. The following passage from one of his Letters to Mr. Park will shew how much he gratified his own mind by such scrupulous fidelity. In thanking his friend for a present of Chapman's Iliad he says:

Weston, July 15, 1793.

"I have consulted him in one passage,

of some difficulty, and find him giving a sense of his own, not at all warranted by the words of Homer. Pope sometimes does this; and sometimes omits the difficult part entirely. I can boast of having done neither, though it has cost me infinite pains to exempt myself from the necessity."

The late Mr. Wakefield in republishing Pope's Homer, has mentioned Cowper's superior fidelity to his original, with the liberal praise of a scholar, but he falls, I think, into injudicious severity on the structure of his verse-a severity the more remarkable, as he warmly censures Boswell for unfeeling petulance, and insolent dogmatism, in speaking of Cowper's Translation. Mr. Wakefield,

though a man of extensive learning, and acute sensibility, appears to me in some measure unjust both to Cowper and to Pope. He labours to prove, that Pope was miserably defective in the knowledge of Greek, and questions the exactitude of Lord Bathurst's testimony, in the Anecdote that seemed to vindicate the Translator's acquaintance with the original. It is in my power to strengthen

the credibility of that Anecdote by a circumstance within my own memory, which I mention with pleasure, to refute a strange uncandid supposition, that Pope did not read himself the Greek which he profest to translate; but trusted entirely to other translators. Many years ago I had in my hands, a small edition of Homer (Greek, without Latin) and it was the very Copy that Pope used in his Translation. It had a few memorandums in his own hand-writing, ascertaining the lines he translated on such and such days. I might have bought the Book for a price considerably above its usual value, but I was at the time unhappily infected with Warton's prejudice against the genius of Pope, and from the influence of that prejudice, I failed to purchase a Book, which, on my mended judgment, if I offend uot to say it is mended,” I should have rejoiced to acquire by doubling the price. May this petty Anecdote be a warning to every literary youth, of an ardent spirit, not to adopt too hastily ideas, that may lessen his regard for such celebrated writers, as time and experience will probably endear to his more cultivated mind.

66

It is indeed a prejudice not uncommon in the literary world, that little respect is due to poetical translators. The learned and amiable Jortin says, in his Life of Erasmus, "the translating of poets into other languages, and into verse, seems to be an occupation beneath a good poet; a work in which there is much labour, and little honour.”

Jortin

Jortinwas led to this idea by some expressions in a Letter from Erasmus to Eobanus Hessus, who translated Homer into very animated Latin Verse. As that Translator did not employ a living language in his version of the great Poet, his correspondent might justly apprehend that the credit of his work would not be answerable to its labour: But surely the case is very different, when Poets, who have gained reputation by original works in a modern language, devote their talents to make their countrymen (learned, or unlearned!) easily and agreeably intimate with the poetical favourites of the ancient world.

Jortin presumes that pecuniary advantage must be a primary motive with a translator of extensive works, but there is a nobler incentive to such composition, and one, that I am persuaded, was very forcibly felt both by Pope and Cowper; I mean the generous gratification that a feeling spirit enjoys in a fair prospect of adding new lustre to the glory of a favourite author, to whom he has been often indebted for inexhaustible delight. He labours indeed, but he frequently labours

"Studio fallente laborem."

Yet the magnitude of such works entitles them to no ordinary praise, when they are accomplished with considerable success. Every nation ought to think itself highly indebted to Translators who enrich their native language by works of such merit as the Homers of Pope and of Cowper, because a long translation to the

greatest

greatest masters of poetical diction is a sort of fatiguing dance performed in fetters. It certainly was so to Pope, and even to Cowper, whose versification in his Homer, thongh so excellent, that it gives to his Translation, what Johnson calls the first excellence ́of a Translator," to be read with pleasure by those who know not the original, yet seems not, in every part, to have that exquisite union of force, freedom, and fluency, which is felt so delightfully through all the books of the Task. It is there, that the versification of Cowper is most truly Homeric, that it perpetually displays what Plutarch describes as the characteristic of Homer's Verse, compared with that of Antimachus, a certain charm, superadded to other graces and power, an appearance of having been executed with dexterous facility."*

Perhaps of all Poets, ancient and modern, Homer, and Cowper, in his original composition, exhibit this charm in the highest degree. They both have the gift of speaking in verse, as if poetry were their native tongue.

The poetical powers of the latter were indeed a gift, and his use of them was worthy of the veneration, which he felt towards the Giver of every Good. Good. He has accomplished as a Poet, the su

blimest

* Η μεν Αντιμαχε ποίησις και τα Διονύσιο ζωγραφήματα, των Κολοφωνίων ισχυν έχοντα και τονον εκβεβιασμένοις και καταπονοις εοικε: ταις δε Νικομαχε γραφαις και τοις Όμηρο στιχοις μετα της άλλης δυναμεως και χαριτος, προσεστι το δοκείν ευχερώς και ραδίως απειργασθαι.

Plutarch: in Timoleone.

blimest object of poetical ambition-He has dissipated the general prejudice, that held it hardly possible for a modern author to succeed in sacred poetry-He has proved, that verse and devotion are natural allies—He has shewn, that true poetical genius cannot be more honourably, or more delightfully employed, than in diffusing through the heart and mind of man a filial affection for his Maker, with a firm and cheerful trust in his Word-He has sung, in a strain equal to the subject, the blessed Advent of universal peace; and perhaps the temperate enthusiasm of friendship may not appear too presumptuous in supposing, that his Poetry will have no inconsiderable influence in preparing the World for a consummation so devoutly to be wished.

Those who are little inclined to attribute such mighty powers to modern Verse, may yet allow that the more the Works of Cowper are read, the more his Readers will find reason to admire the variety, and the extent, the graces, and the energy of his literary talents: The universal admiration excited by these will be heightened and endeared, to the friends of virtue, by the obvious reflection, that his Writings, excellent as they appear, were excelled by the gentleness, the benevolence, and the sanctity of his Life. To the merits of such a Life I could wish, that a more early intimacy with my departed Friend had enabled me to render more ample justice: but affection has made me industrious in my endeavours to supply, from the purest sources of intelligence, all the deficiency

of