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PRINCIPLES OF
Chap. IX.
bold expression, he must adopt the very soul of his author, which must speak through his own organs.
Let us proceed to exemplify this third rule of translation, which regards the attainment of ease of style, by instances both of success and failure.
The familiar style of epistolary correspondence is rarely attainable even in original composition. It consists in a delicate medium between the perfect freedom of ordinary conversation and the regularity of written dissertation or narrative. It is extremely difficult to attain this delicate medium in a translation; because the writer has neither a freedom of choice in the sentiments, nor in the mode of expressing them. Mr Melmothappears
