which deal largely in the language and idioms of ordinary conversation, are so difficult to translate into another language, whose corresponding idioms are of very different literal signification, but still are the only phrases adapted to those of the other language.

It yet remains for me to point out, more in detail, the advantages which this exercise proffers. Before, however, entering on the discussion, I beg to be indulged in a few explanatory remarks.

1. I have purposely avoided all allusion to the different degrees of literalness and freedom of translation. This must, in each case, be decided by the circumstances of the pupil and teacher, more particularly the age, attainments, and capacity, of the pupil, and the particular design of the instructor. My intention has been to deal in general principles, leaving their application to be determined by the individual circumstances.

2. For the same reason, I have been silent concerning the greater or less adaptedness of the different accessible languages, to this exercise of translation. It will be manifest from what I have already advanced, that if the exercise of translating, promises so rich a harvest to a faithful cultivator, even in the more barren soil of a less cultivated language, what advantages must be realized, when both the language from which we draw, and the language into which we make the transfer, are copious and refined-enriched with all the accurately defined terms which a philosophical, social, moral, and intellectual culture, alone can furnish. I scarcely, therefore, need to say, that of all the ancient languages, accessible to us, the Greek must claim, for these purposes, our first regards; and of all the modern languages, for the same purpose, the venerable German.

3. I could wish, if possible, to disabuse the public mind in relation to an opinion commonly received, that bears immediately, on a portion of the following discussion; viz. that enlargement of mind, expansion of intellect, comprehensiveness of views, and the capacity of mind which embraces, simultaneously, a multiplicity of objects, are best promoted by the contemplation of the sublime arrangements of the solar system, and the other grand and imposing themes which Astronomy presents characterized by vastness, grandeur, and immensity.

This opinion, however, is more specious than solid. For, the enlargement of the capacity of the mind, the formation of habits of comprehensive thought, the expansion of intellect that

enables it to embrace a multiplicity of connected and related objects, depend on the simple fact that the mind is habituated by well directed efforts, to embrace these multitudinous parts; to see their connections; to allow their respective claims; and to collect, compact, and systematize the whole, whether these individual objects be scattered through the immensity of space, or contained, like some exquisite machinery, within the precincts of a nut-shell. The immensity may excite amazement, and a feeling of sublimity, but, so far as the mere intellectual effort and its reaction, are concerned, the two cases stand, to say the least, on an equal footing.

I specify, then, among other advantages of the exercise of translating, when conducted in the manner proposed:

1. The fixedness of attention that is demanded for the accomplishment of this object. This advantage the exercise of translating secures, in common with several other departments of study; and I advert to it here, to show that this power of the mind is not overlooked. So constant is the demand for undivided attention, that a failure here is absolutely fatal to the result.

2. I would specify the habit of nice discrimination, as an advantage to be derived from the exercise of translating. This faculty is not to be confounded with judgment, which also is simultaneously brought into play. Discrimination detects the minutest distinctions. Judgment decides on the fitness of a word or phrase, in our own vernacular tongue, to express exactly, the corresponding word or phrase of the original.

Perhaps no intellectual faculty is more important, than a prompt, keen-sighted discrimination. Happy the student with whom it has become a habit. It is this eagle-eyed vision that detects distinctions, where a vulgar eye can discern none. It is this discrimination which, in conjunction with the judgment, enables the mind to distinguish; by the words employed to communicate the ideas of the original, the nice shades of thought, and the evanescent hues of sentiment. Nay, the admirable analysis of thought, that is pushed to such an extent by the aid of language, is duly appreciated only by a discriminating mind. Among other exercises promotive of the habit of discrimination, translation, when, properly conducted, is not the least efficient. Let us examine it more closely.

A writer of talents and worth, whether poet, philosopher, or historian, deals in thought, and in words solely or mainly as

adapted to convey the thought. His thoughts are not the misty exhalations from a stagnant brain; not vague and undefinable, but precise and definite; characteristic of the man; and his words are the exact representatives of his clear, distinct, and connected thoughts. Each idea and its verbal representative, forms an item, an ingredient, a link. The whole is compacted of these. If one be obscurely, distortedly, or imperfectly seen, the face of the whole is darkened. We must, therefore, discriminate. We must separate, and analyze, and compare, and distinguish, and cautiously judge, in order to form a luminous whole from these luminous parts.

And how can this be done by a vague translation. It is impossible. But let the translation be searching and discriminating, and we shall not fail to "shout the harvest home."

And now, who that has the soul of a student, can rest satisfied to drag through a whole chapter of an author of talents, enveloped in a palpable mist; and finding, or, at least, expressing, not one distinct idea, where there are, perhaps, a dozen-dozen, well defined, valuable, and ingenious.

I do not hesitate, then, to assert, that every clear discernment of an actual difference in shades of thought, and a discriminating transfer of the same into our vernacular tongue, renders the mind itself more efficient, raises its standard of intellectual excellence, sharpens it for future discrimination, whets its appetite for intellectual toil, and confers an enjoyment which the literary lounger never felt.

3. I would specify, as an advantage of the exercise of translating, its peculiar adaptedness to call into play and to strengthen the judgment. I have anticipated, in part, my observations on this head, while speaking of the faculty of discrimination with which the judgment cooperates, to a certain extent, in adapting the words and idioms of our vernacular tongue to those of the foreign author. But the demand for the exercise of judgment is not limited merely to this part of the process. This faculty is eminently brought into play in estimating the fitness of the several parts of a sentence to each other and to the whole, and in accurately adjusting the whole in our vernacular tongue. The larger divisions again the sentences, the paragraphs, the sections, the chapters, must be subjected to a nice examination as regards their bearing on each other; and the translation, by a cautious exercise of judgment, must be made to express the full force of these relations and connections. This higher de

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gree of exercise of the judgment borders hard upon the difficult. but important exercise of critical skill and acumen, which tasks, at times, the utmost strength of the best disciplined mind.

Thus it appears that the exercise of the judgment, afforded by the practice of translating, is adapted to all ages, conditions, and degrees of literary culture. It silently exerts its benign. influence in the constructing and parsing of the grammar-school; it enlarges its sphere of action in the more extended studies of the college-course; and it attains its highest and most difficult exercise in the critical researches of the closet.

sentence

The classical scholar well knows, from actual experience, how diversified are the degrees of intellectual exercise, particularly of the judgment, demanded in the translation of a single ode of Pindar, or a choral piece of Aeschylus. First comes the indispensable exercise of judgment in connecting the parts of each the words, the clauses, one by one, in order to construe and translate it. While this is going on, from sentence to sentence, the connection of the several sentences must be clearly seen and accurately expressed; then of each paragraph, of each greater division, until the whole stands forth, in all its completeness and symmetry. And, after the whole has been thus compacted, by an exercise of the closest attention, of the most acute discrimination, of the nicest judgment and the most cautious reasoning, what scholar, however ripe, does not sometimes find occasion, to cry vonza ɛüonza, when some unnoticed and unappreciated connection is brought to light by a careful revision.

4. It will be seen, from what has been already said, that the reasoning powers are not permitted to slumber, during this exercise of translating. It will be perceived, however, that the kind of reasoning here employed is not that of the pure mathematics -that noble exemplification of pure thought;-but the mixed mode of ratiocination which busies itself with contingency and probability, which is unceasingly employed at the bar, in the pulpit, in the hall of legislation, in the popular assembly, and in the familiar lecture.

In these cases, as all will admit, the rigid method of mathematical reasoning cannot be brought into actual use, while the mixed mode, of which I speak, as so manifestly cultivated in the exercise of translating, finds its ready application in all the situations of life where mind is brought into collision with mind.

I would not, however, dispense with the previous invigorating influence of the pure mathematics, if the circumstances permit

us to avail ourselves of the study. If, unhappily, this is not the case, the mind, as is abundantly proved by daily observation, may be disciplined to meet the collisions of opinion, the intricacies of discussion, and the tug of debate, by a faithful improvement of the exercise of translating. I would prefer, however, in all cases, to have the intellect first tempered by pure mathematical study, and then it will receive a keener and more permanent edge by the kindly aid of languages.

"If, therefore," says Klumpp, a German writer of eminence, "mathematical instruction is to operate beneficially as a means of mental cultivation, the chasms which it leaves must be filled up by other objects of study, and that harmonious evolution of the faculties procured, which our learned schools are bound to propose as their necessary end."

I regret, however, that I cannot pursue this part of my subject beyond these general remarks. I shall, therefore, dismiss it with a single observation. It will be readily seen that the assertion I ventured to make, that the well-directed study of the languages, and particularly the exercise of translating, calls forth the intellectual powers simultaneously into symmetrical and general action, is established in the very effort to point out the peculiar advantages of the exercise ;- so much so, that any formal and separate discussion would appear to all an unnecessary repetition.

I cannot close without a few words on the bearing of etymological investigations on intellectual culture, which yet remains to fill out the plan of the present Essay.

I am aware, that the bare mention of the name, suggests to some minds nothing but the mis-spent time, the idle fancies, the silly vagaries, and the absurd hypotheses, of some of its votaries. And no language, perhaps, has been made the subject of so much idle contention, so many wild hallucinations, and so much ingenious speculation, on the score of etymology, as the Greek; while it must ever remain a truth, which no one, possessing even a moderate acquaintance with the language will attempt to gainsay, that no language, at present accessible to us, will more amply repay the labor of etymological research judiciously, skilfully, and cautiously brought to bear on its unrivalled radical and derivative structure.

I labor here under a difficulty, the nature of which will be at once understood. In order to make myself intelligible to the mass of readers, I am constrained to avoid those verbal illustra