Page:Aristotle - Rhetoric, translator Crimmin, 1811.djvu/10

perfect version of it. The style of the original presented an intrinsic obstacle to the accomplishment of that object in several instances. Many of the translators, by too literal an attention to the context, increased the obscurity, in which Aristotle's quaint and methodical expression involves the meaning of several passages; and it remained for those alone who built their labours upon the ingenious Commentary of Petrus Victorius, to transmit a close and correct version of this famous treatise to posterity. In this class of the Latin translation, Ricccboni appeared to me most faithfully precise; and consequently, whenever I entertained any hesitation upon the original, I combined his reference with that of M. Cassandre, an accomplished scholar of the seventeenth century, who gave to the world a French translation of this work, which stands eminently high in the admiration of D'Ablancourt. His arrangement is so familiar and connected, that I have adopted it, in preference to that of Muretus or Riccoboni. The Greek edition, which formed the basis of the present version (which I believe is the only one in the English language), was that of Duval, Paris, 1619; the readings of which are allowed to be