If an artistic translation of a foreign work has not been made or is not easily accessible, a literal translation is of great service to the casual reader. Even in the preparation of lessons in Latin and Greek a literal translation, honestly used, helps one to learn the original language and extends one’s English vocabulary. The reason there is a ban upon the “pony” in school is that people ride it too hard and do not learn to walk on their own feet. Out of school we can get much from literal renderings of the classics, such as are to be found in the cheap series of _Handy Literal Translations_, published by Hinds & Co. Their fault is that they are printed in tryingly small type, but this is a defect due to their merits of compactness and low cost. The best translation of Vergil is Conington’s prose version, which has become an English classic. The introduction is one of the best essays on translating. There are several renderings of Vergil into English verse. Dryden’s is the best known, and is of interest to the reader of English principally because Dryden did it. He brought to Vergil somewhat the same ideals of translation and the same kind of skill that Pope brought to the “Iliad.” William Morris’s version is probably the most fluent and poetic of modern translations of Vergil into English verse. The Latin poet who has been most often translated, and by the greatest variety of talent, is Horace, whom our forefathers thought that every gentleman should be able to quote. The accomplished translator likes to match his skill against the clever Roman, to render his light philosophy, his keen phrase, his beautiful brevity. The American will like the free and joyous “Echoes from the Sabine Farm,” by the late Eugene Field and his brother, Mr. Roswell Field, a book that must have made the shade of Horace inquire appreciatively in what part of the world Chicago is “located.” Modern literature in all countries has attracted the readers of other countries, and the work of translation is going on continuously. Not only the great foreign classics of the last three hundred years, but a host of lesser writers on the continent of Europe have made their way into English. At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was a new interest in German literature and philosophy--indeed, there was a new German literature. Goethe was translated by Sir Walter Scott and others. Coleridge translated Schiller’s “Wallenstein.” Carlyle made a number of translations from German romance, among them a glowing version of Goethe’s “Wilhelm Meister,” which, in part, suggested his own strange masterpiece, “Sartor Resartus.” Bayard Taylor’s poetic version of “Faust” is of interest to the American reader and is no mean representation of the original.