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    TRANSLATED POETRY.*

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    rp HE principles oil which poetic translation should be -L are better felt than expressed , better expressed than observed . It should neither be too literal nor too free . This , if we understand him rightly , is Mr . Martin ' s theory . He wishes to convey the impression produced upon-himself by the originals , and to be as literal and close as the difference between the languages will admhV _ But to be " too close is to be hopelessly prosaic , " and that Mr . Martin , would avoid by all means . He is ,. indeed , morbidly fastidious in this particular ; and to escape baldness sometimes runs into diffuseness—or substitutes the images and associations of modern for those of the Augustan times . The following , for instance , is clearly a

    case of substitution : — " Gloom is for age . Young hearts should glow With ' fancies bright and . free , Should court the crowded walk , the show , And at dim eve love ' s murmurs low Beneath the trysting tree . ; " The laugh from the sly corner , where , . ( bur girl is hiding fast , The struggle for the lock of hair , The half well-ple » sed , half angry , air . The yielded kiss at last . "

    Now is this version too free ? We are afraid that it is , and that Mr . Martin lias ventured top frequently on the licence . It gives to the translation an entirely modern air and spirit ; and the fault arises from Mr . Martin ' s desire to impart to Horace what never belonged to the poet . He wished to give him the feeling and sentiment of a modern lover , though conscious that never was poet so great a stranger to them as . the Latin lyrist . Of love itself we hold Horace to have been quite ignorant ; and it is suspected that most pf his erotics were indeed derived from Greek originals . They present passion at second-hand . Mr . Martin was not ignorant of all this ; but ho was afraid of the classical coldness that he had to interpret , and preferred a warmer slyle ; so ventured on a modernised colouring of " the antique cameos , " which we find , for the most part , copied after the fashion just illustruted . Let us , however , confess that this same ode " to Thaliarchus" is one of the happiest efforts in the volutne , and does Mr .. Martin infinite credit . stanza

    There are those , however , who will doubt whether the adopted -represents the original a $ it ought . . It certainly leads to diuuseness ; a ., d , in general , wolind that Mr . Martin hkes to allow himself room enough . Wo take it that the only real model for translating Horace is that set by Milton in . hit * version of the fi . HU ode , in the first book . Here , at once , are severity und elegance reconciled .. Mr . Martin ' s truncation of this ode suffers greatly m comparison . It is , moreover , very inferior to some other versions wo could name . Yet it him evidently been laboured , oven to the point of incurring grammatical inaccuracy in the search for poetical diction . .. ,. On this head perhaps nothing satisfactory can bo done until U »© English translator shall bo privileged to render unquestioned the ancient poet ' s meaning in the ancient measures . JJut tt requiresthat first these shouldhe naturalised in the Knglish language ; ana there are strong-mindod men who think Unit Una is quite possible . Hero we have , for instance , a . pamphlet of Lord Uedeadalos on the

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    Iris renown as a philosopher is wholly undeserved , though France places him at the head of philosophers . ; . , / . y What Protestantism originated , Protestantism has continued . With few exceptions—Malebranche' is one—the leading philosophers since the birth of Protestantism have been dissenters from the Papacy . This is natural enough . A Catholic philosopher is hampered at every step by the necessity of reconciling his system with authority ; and authority cannot fail to discountenance what harmoniseth iiot with its demands . Descartes proceeded hypocritically enough , for he said that everything belonging to faith he left in his speculations untouched . He then went forth on a voyage of universal doubt . How at the same moment faith could remam unassailed , while universal doubt was pursued , we are unable to understand . . , , . , , , ¦ Of the few German Catholics who , in recent days , have devoted themselves to the study of philosophy , oiieof the most conspicuous is Antony Gunther . He has written numerous works , which are remarkable for their eccentricities of style . His admirers claim for him profound originality 5 but the originality ^ if-tiny , is more in the manner than in the substance . Nut essentially from Cartesianisxn does his scheme of things differ . GiiNTHEE has been an ardent controversialist , arid has no love for systematic exposition . He dashes his thoughts at us with aphoristic brevity , polemical warmth , or caustic wit ; but in the main lie is an adherent of that dualism which German philosophy has rejected . GiiNTHEB was born at Lindenau , in Bohemia , in 1783 . He carried with liim to the school and the University those Catholic convictions in which lie had been educated . But these were somewhat loosened by an acquaintance with philosophy , though not quite abandoned . His parents wished him to devote himself feo theology ; this he refused , turning his attention to law . In 1810 he went from Prague to Vienna to become the tutor of the Prince Ferdi-NAKD yon Bretzenheim . 'Philosophy , which had led Guistther into scepticism , cured him of scepticism . " He became a priest , associating himself with the Jesuits about the time that , expelled from Russia , they found an asylum in Austria . For many years he has led the quiet life , of a student at Vienna . At the instigation of the Jesuits , the whole of Gunthisr ' s works were condemned at Rome * were placed among- prohibited books . This was in the'summer ' of 1857 . The same fate had lefallen the Italian Rosmini , and other enlightened Catholic philosophers , whose orthodoxy was unquestionable . . Gunther ' s condemnation has excited deep sympathy and strong indignation in the Catholic body . It was thought a strange reward for his services to Catholicism . GuNTHER is -ari eminently pure , pious , and self-denying' man . After he became a priest he had never sought a situation of any kind , and refused numerous advantageous offers . Living in poverty , he had been the disinterested champion of the Church ' s dogmas , had attaeked Atheism and Pantheism , had warred with the schools of Hegel and Herbert , had tried to give Christianity a broad and sure philosophical basis . But the Jesuits are never satisfied unless they can reign alone . They wisli the Church to terrify , and not to persuade . A virulent pamphleteer , like Louis Veuillot , is more to their taste than a humble worshipper like Anton y Gunther , who would show that faith , though unintelligible , is not therefore unreasonable . So far as logical consistency is concerned , they are undoubtedly right . Only in the clouds of Obscurantism can the papal Church prepare invincible . weapons in conflict with its determined foes . Our feeling of admiration , esteem , and pity for Antony Guntiier ought not to hinder us from seeing that such attempts as his , however well meant , would turn philosophy from its natural development . Kant was a Theist , but Fichte , Schejlling and Heqed were rt , H , in different fashions , Pantheists j though it would be extremely unfair ever to consider Pantheism as equivalent to Atheism . Pantheism may be ; and it often is , intensely religious . ' Ficiete ' s Pantheism tended to raise the irian into the demigod , the demigod into the god 5 it hud the same heroic aspirings as ancient Stoicism . The Pantheism of ScnELiaNG whs more of an Oriental land ,. Buch as wo find in tho Hindoo m . vthology . It made science , it made nature sublimely poetical . Heg , ei / s Pantheism was the idolatry of eternal reason . It was arid uiid withering , and we , love it not . The belief that Pantheism over leads to Materialism is a vulgar error . It is from ( lie visible to the invisible that Pantheism is always attracted . It i « not in forms , but in the life deeper than forms , that it dwells . We sire not , howover , vindicating it ; we are simply stating it . Whatever may bo its value , pr whatever its fruits , it has for sixty years been the dominating philosophy among our Germain brethren ; and Jacob Bqeiimce , and tho greatest of the mystics , have been called in to illustrate it , and , to help in its advocacy . The most interesting aspect of Pantheism is Sehol-Hngism in connection withBowhmuism . Since the death of Hegel , thirty years ago , Gorman philosophy has gone in throe directions . In tliti ' firat place , Hegoliunism has rushed into every possible oxtravagnnce . In the second place , thuro have been sentimental and Bpiritualist philosophies , ohlofly preached by those who dread legitimate , inexorable , philoHophioul consequences ; and , thirdly , in harmony with Germany ' s industrial triumphs , Bacoiiianism has been gaining ground ; a bustard .. Baeoiiianiani , that of Comtb , also finding- disciples . Gunnany , na the region of pure philosophy , can , never be satisfied with sentimental or upiritiuuist systems ,, or with Bacoflianisrn , either true or fulse . The most exalted , the most < expansive Ontologieal scheme ' , via contwttled with puny psychology , alone can fill and feed the ooloasul Gorman intellect . Our friend , then , Axvoyx GUnther , though clever and witty , uml shrewd and genial , though n good fellow aa well as an honout OutUi > Ho simply

    knows not ; he knows not whether a single seed will ever grow . Nevertheless , he scatters and scatters . Diviner than the cultivators in philosophy are the scatterers ; diviner than the architects are the cultivators ; the hodmen of whom we have so many are mere hodmen ; and they must not judge either the scatterers , the cultivators , or the architects . In philosophy England offers iis only hodmen—muscular mortals , who are totally useless where there is nothing to build . We are ourselves , we trust , no hodmen ; cultivators and architects we are certain that we are not . We sometimes , ia a joyous dream , imagine that we are scatterers of seed ; yet scatterers where it can never grow . With Antony Gunther let us part kindly . The old man , now nearly eighty years of age , has borne his courageous testimony . If not a mighty and magnificent philosopher , he is what is better—a martyr . Into the furrows ploughed by fourscore years on his brow , let us throw a gleam of sunshine if we can . Hail ! and farewell , truehearted Antony Gunther .

    blunders . Philosophy tries to see , and when it sees it tries to speak , tlie absolute truth . If so , then there has been no philosophy during the present century , except the German . There was a time when he who was the best cultivator in the field of thought was the greatest philosopher ; but now he is the greatest philosopher who is the best architect in the city of thought . The world ' s fitfsfc thinkers scatter seeds as they rush along- ; then come the cultivators ; then come the architects . The Germans are unsurpassed as philosophical architects . But when the vast and numerous edifices which they have built are overthrown , will not the same succession be repeated P He that hath any philosophical genius at this hour must be a scatterer of seed . On what soil it falls he

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    March 24 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 281

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    * Tfton E 3 PAX , h . ( X Ji . nnd Jumoa Parker . ) The Odos of Horace trawiWpi into Wnglifh Verso , With a Life an * Notas . By 'hiRODOnu MaiWN . ( John W . barker and Son . ) JTathan the Who ; a IJramaUc l * oem , in-JFtve Acts . » JT GoflW » w > & » Ejpuuaim taiwa . Tranelatod from the Qeanttn , with w ^ ° f ^ n Z JLkssino , and a Critical Survey of hie Position , Writings , &o . Wy AUOJ-phu » llEion . ( A . "W . li « nnott . )

    Translated Poetry.*

    TRANSLATED POETRY . *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 24, 1860, page 281, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2339/page/13/