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terror . The beauty of these circumstances , as of those which succeed them , depends entirely on the supposed ignorance of the poet as to the divinity concealed under the form of the child . Whilst , forgetting this , the translator has departed from the leading idea in the original ode , he appears to us to have injured it further by destroying the simplicity of its language . One instance will be sufficient to illustrate this observation . Anacreon
represents himself as wringing " the moist water from the hair" of Love : now this moist water Moore , by his all-transforming fancy , converts at once into crystals : < f Press from his dank and clinging hair The crystals of the freezing air . Moore is too good a poet to be a good translator ; he has too many beautiful images of his own to submit to the drudgery of copying or confining himself
to those of others . Over the simple beauties of Anacreon he has , therefore , thrown the flowers of an ever-budding fancy , which Anacreon had not , and which no poet ever possessed in so luxuriant a degree as himself . The character of Anacreon ' s poetry is , indeed , very different from that of Moore . The language of the former is altogether simple and unadorned , whilst that of the latter is highly figurative and embellished ; and though both wrote under the inspiration of the same passion , their verses are distinguished for opposite beauties . The song of the Grecian bard may be likened to an Arcadian shepherdess , divested of all ornament whatever , yet lovely in the
simple graces of natural beauty ; whilst that of the Irish minstrel resembles an Eastern queen , whose voluptuous charms are set off with all the pomp of dress and splendour of ornament . Thus differing in the character of their genius and the style of their composition , the one was not by nature fitted to catch the spirit and preserve the beauties of the other ; this he has not done , and though we cannot but admire his translation , it is for original charms of its own , not for the resemblance it bears to the original . There never was but one Anacreon , and we may safely prophesy there never will be a second Moore . J . B .
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Sir , Allow me to ask admission for a few observations whicli will not increase your responsibilities , speaking as they do only the thoughts of an individual . It may be all very well for Unitarians to comfort themselves , when alive to the comparatively slow progress of their opinions , by the reflection that it
is not in human power to secure success to the best directed efforts , that truth continually presented to the public eye will sooner or later be recognized and received , and that time will certainly do what they , the people of this generation , cannot do . But it is a far more useful , though an humbling and not very agreeable thing , to reflect how much might be done by the advocates of a ( comparatively ) purified faith which is sadly neglected by ourselves ; how man y just claims to the gratitude and affection of our fellow-creatures might be associated with the religion of Christ , and are not so associated .
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. Hints to Unitarians . 651
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HINTS TO UNITARIANS .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1827, page 651, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1800/page/19/
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