Page:The Dialogues of Plato v. 1.djvu/19

 

 

in English are masculine and feminine, and there is a similar distinction of sex in the words denoting animals ; but all things else, whether outward objects or abstract ideas, are relegated to the class of neuters. Hardly in some flight of poetry do we ever endue any of them with the charac- teristics of a sentient being, and then only by speaking of them in the feminine gender. The virtues may be pictured in female forms, but they are not so described in language ; a ship is humorously supposed to be the sailor's bride ; more doubtful are the personifications of church and co"untry as females. Now the genius of the Greek language is the opposite of this. The same tendency to personification which is seen in the Greek mythology is common also in the language ; and genders are attributed to things as well as persons according to their various degrees of strength and weakness ; or from fanciful resemblances to the male or female form, or some analogy too subtle to be discovered. When the gender of any object was once fixed, a similar gender was naturally assigned to similar objects, or to words of similar formation. This use of genders in the denotation of objects or ideas not only affects the words to which genders are attributed, but the words with which they are construed or connected, and passes into the general character of the style. Hence arises a diffi- culty in translating Greek into English which cannot altogether be overcome. Shall we speak of the soul and its qualities, of virtue, power, wisdom, and the like, as feminine or neuter ? The usage of the English language does not admit of the former, and yet the life and beauty of the style are impaired by the latter. Often the trans- lator will have recourse to the repetition of the word, or to the ambiguous 'they,' 'their,' &c. ; for fear of spoiling