𝔏𝔩𝔶𝔱𝔥𝔶𝔯 9.
At RICHARD MORRIS.
DEAR SIR,
NOTHING could have been more agreeable to me, than to employ my Muse on the subject you sent me; but the more agreeable the Subject, the more I regret the vast inequality of my poor Muse to such an arduous task. If therefore it is not so well executed as I could wish, I readily own it was owing to my incapacity, and not to any defect in our Language. For That is (at least I am willing to believe it is) adequate to the highest strains of Panegyrick, and abundantly fitted for copiousness and significancy, to express the sublimest thoughts in as sublime a manner as any other Language is capable of reaching to. But still we must not think it is priviledged above all other Languages of the Universe, and exempted from all difficulties and restraints. No, it has its own proper Idioms as all others have, and consequently when it is tied down, to keep pace with another, it is straitened and fettered, like David in Saul's armour, and like him had rather it own sling and stone (the meanest of weapons) than be armed Cap à pè in such an armour, as it has not proved or knows nothing of. Thus with regard to Translations, it fares with all Languages, but more especially where there is such a very great (I had almost said, irreconcileable) difference between the properties and Idioms of two Languages, as confessedly there is between our's and the English. This difficulty (great as it is) is again doubly augmented, when our Translation is required to be in Verse. There (besides the usual difficulty of making what is a beautiful thought in the one appear like common sense in the other) we are tied to find out, and range in order, letters and Syllables: What an exquisite nicety is required in this literal Muster (if I may so call it) you very well know, so that it is sufficient for me only to mention it. Perhaps it were wished that the Rules of Poetry in our Language were loes nice and accurate: we should then undoubtedly have more writers, but perhaps
