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SKETCHES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE;
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With Considerations on the Spirit of the Times , Men , and Revolutions ; by the Viscount de Chateaubriand . 2 volx . Colburn . 1836 . It is certainly one sound test of genuine wit that it can be translated into different languages , and without losing * its spirit . There may be sundry exceptions to this , but in general it will be found to hold good . The same test applies , to a still greater extent , that is , subject to fewer exceptions , and generally to a
greater degree , with respect to philosophy and to the most beautiful and profound sentiments and images of poetry . This is self-evident as to philosophy ; nor does it require much argument to prove that where you cannot abstract the " music and the measure" without destroying the poetry , such poetry is of a second-rate character , and can possess no inherent qualities of
universal truth and power . It Mould be invidious to give any " modern instances f suffice it to say , that we venture to think there are many of our second-Tate successful poets whose Muse
had better have had a mill-stone tied round her neck as soon as she was born , were it not for the consideration that these " moderate wigs ' of Apollo have served , and are serving to educate the vast mass of moderate intellects to a comprehension of the Sampsonian locks of radical strength and beauty , and the advancing philosophy of all things .
But to return to the question of translation : it seems clear that the finest wit and poetry can have no chance at all , unless , added to a thorough home-fee ling knowledge of the language , they are rendered through the medium of a congenial spirit . And this applies not only to substantive translators , but to those who would criticise the great works of a foreign country .
The Viscount de Chateaubriand is , in many respects , a superior and highly-talented individual ; but if , venturing with somewhat a profane and non-elect step into the temple of English literature , its glories have not quite singed away his own less potent laurels , the excess of light has evidently cracked his
spectacles . In short , lie has talked a good deal of nonsense on his subject , and said a number of fine things foreign to the question ; he Las substituted his good judg ment in some matters for his cii * - cumscribed knowledge of others , and his vanity has filled up his deficiencies and got the better of his reason , —a circumstance which those who have lived very long in the world and had great experience , have now and then witnessed before , so that
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589
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No , 118 . 2 It
Sketches Of English Literature;
SKETCHES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE ;
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1836, page 589, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2662/page/1/
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