and innumerable alterations have been made in the Text. There have been
added also, in the Third Edition, headings to the pages and a marginal
analysis to the text of each dialogue.

At the end of a long task, the translator may without impropriety point
out the difficulties which he has had to encounter. These have been far
greater than he would have anticipated; nor is he at all sanguine that
he has succeeded in overcoming them. Experience has made him feel that a
translation, like a picture, is dependent for its effect on very minute
touches; and that it is a work of infinite pains, to be returned to in
many moods and viewed in different lights.

I. An English translation ought to be idiomatic and interesting, not
only to the scholar, but to the unlearned reader. Its object should not
simply be to render the words of one language into the words of another
or to preserve the construction and order of the original;--this is the
ambition of a schoolboy, who wishes to show that he has made a good use
of his Dictionary and Grammar; but is quite unworthy of the translator,
who seeks to produce on his reader an impression similar or nearly
similar to that produced by the original. To him the feeling should be
more important than the exact word. He should remember Dryden's quaint
admonition not to 'lacquey by the side of his author, but to mount up
behind him.' (Dedication to the Aeneis.) He must carry in his mind a
comprehensive view of the whole work, of what has preceded and of what
is to follow,--as well as of the meaning of particular passages. His
version should be based, in the first instance, on an intimate knowledge
of the text; but the precise order and arrangement of the words may be
left to fade out of sight, when the translation begins to take shape. He
must form a general idea of the two languages, and reduce the one to the
terms of the other. His work should be rhythmical and varied, the
right admixture of words and syllables, and even of letters, should be
carefully attended to; above all, it should be equable in style. There
must also be quantity, which is necessary in prose as well as in verse:
clauses, sentences, paragraphs, must be in due proportion. Metre and
even rhyme may be rarely admitted; though neither is a legitimate
element of prose writing, they may help to lighten a cumbrous
expression (Symp.). The translation should retain as far as possible
the characteristic qualities of the ancient writer