40
PRINCIPLES OF
Chap. III.
An equal degree of judgement is requisite when the translator assumes the liberty of retrenching the ideas of the original.
After the fatal horse had been admitted within the walls of Troy, Virgil thus describes the coming on of that night which was to witness the destruction of the city:
Vertitur interea cælum, et ruit oceano nox,
Involvens umbrâ magnâ terramque polumque,
Myrmidonumque dolos.
Involvens umbrâ magnâ terramque polumque,
Myrmidonumque dolos.
The principal effect attributed to the night in this description, and certainly the most interesting, is its concealment of the treachery of the Greeks. Add to this, the beauty which the picture ac-quires
