speak to the Heart in _every_ Age, and in every Climate.

To _Scholars_ the fascinating music of the Latin tones and measures,
and the elegance with which Horace knew to select, and to regulate
them, recompense the obscurity which is so frequent in his allusions,
and in the violence of his transitions from one subject to another,
between which the line of connexion is with difficulty traced. What
is called a _faithful_ translation of these Odes cannot, therefore,
be interesting to _unlearned_ Lovers of Verse, how alive soever they
may be to _poetic beauty_.--A literal translation in the plainest
prose, will always shew the precise quantity of real poetic matter,
contained in _any_ Production, independent of the music of its
intonation, and numbers, and the elegance of its style.--The prose
translations of Horace' Odes evince that their merit does not consist
in the _plenitude_ of poetic matter, or essence, constituted by
circumstances of startling interest, by exalted sentiment,
impassioned complaint, or appeal, distinct and living imagery, happy
apposite allusion, and sublime metaphor; but in certain elegant
verbal felicities and general charm of style, produced by the force
and sweetness of the Latin Language, subservient to the fine ear, the
lively and exquisite taste of Horace. These are the graces which we
find so apt to _evaporate_ in Translation, while genuine POETIC
MATTER, as defined above, is capable of being transfused into any
other Language without losing a _particle_ of its excellence,
provided the Chemist, who undertakes the operation, has genius and
skill. The more this POETIC MATTER in an Author abounds, the more
close and faithful a Translator, who has judgment, may venture to
render his version--but to transfuse merely _verbal_ felicities into
another Language is an attempt scarcely less fruitless than to clasp
the Rainbow. A kindred _nothingness_, as to poetic _value_, ensues.
There _is_, however, a considerable, though not _abounding_ quantity
of poetic matter, or essence in Horace; but it bears no proportion to
the profusion of those evanescent glories, which will not bear the
grasp of another Language. To give that essence in increased
quantity, and in the freedom of unimitative numbers, is attempted in
this selection. Dryden and Pope translated upon that plan, and hence
their Paraphrases have the spirit of original Poems.

Ere this note closes, its Author desires to observe, that Painters
canno