Page:Essay on the Principles of Translation - Tytler (1791, 1st ed).djvu/246

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Chap. XIII.
TRANSLATION.
231

ly indicates, that the speaker is reasoning solely with his own mind, and not with any auditor. In the translation, we have a formal and connected harangue, in which it would appear, that the author, offended with the abrupt manner of the original, and judging those irregular starts of expression to be unsuitable to that precision which is required in abstract reasoning, has corrected, as he thought, those defects of the original, and given union, strength, and precision, to this philosophical argument.

Demeure, it faut choisir, et passer à l'instant
De la vie à la mort, ou de l'être au néant.
Dieux justes, s'il en est, éclairez mon courage.
Faut-il viellir courbé sous la main qui m'outrage,
Supporter, ou finir mon malheur et mon sort?
Que suis-je? qui m'arrête? et qu' est ce que la mort?

C'est