I am so very well entertain'd with _Dryden_'s _Virgil_, that I am glad to meet with any Excuse for his Translation; and would allow Dr. _Felton_'s, that _the Faults are to be ascribed partly to some Defects of our Language_; if the Doctor himself, a few Lines before, had not said of the same Language, _that it is capable of all the Beauty, Strength, and Significancy of the_ Greek _and_ Latin. The Faults which have been generally found with _Dryden_ as to _Virgil_, have been his mistaking or altering the Sense of the Original, and turning the _Epick_ Stile into _Elegiack_. I doubt not but the _English_ Tongue has Expression for _English_ Sentiments, let them be ever so great and sublime; but I may very well doubt whether it has Diction equal to the Strength and Dignity of the _Ilias_, without the Helps _Milton_ made use of, as compounding of Words and reviving some old Teutonicks, which would look very uncouthly among the Softnesses and Gingles of our fine Writers of late. I wish the Doctor had explain'd how he would have us to understand him, when he informs us, that to translate well is more difficult than to write well; by which he intimates, that to form a Fable for a great and important Action, to mark the Characters with suitable Sentiments, to conduct the One and maintain the Other with Art and Elevation diversify'd with proper Episodes; through such a Work as the _Ilias_, is so far from being the principal Part of an _Epick_ Poem that it is no Part at all; for with all this the Translator has nothing to do. The Labour and Merit of it, according to Dr. _Felton_, consist in the Language and Verses, in finding Words to express the Action and Sentiments, and to adorn those Words with Numbers and Harmony. This is all that is necessary in a Translation; and being also but some Parts of the Original, it cannot be more difficult to do a Part than to do the Whole. Can one suppose, that to write such a History as Mr. _Echard_'s from printed Books, written Books, from the Hearsay and Report of Men, Women and Children, is more difficult than to contrive and write such a One as the _Cassandra_ of _Calprenade_? or in plain _English_, that to invent and tell a Story, is much easier than the bare telling it only? It needs no Reflection. If the Version of _Homer_ had been born when he wrote, he must of Consequence have preferr'd it to the _Ilias_, which would have cost the Translator's Modesty, as much as Sir _Richard Steele_'s to be put upon a Comment on _Homer_ and _Virgil_. My Lord _Roscommon_ has explain'd this Matter to us sufficiently: _Though Composition is the nobler Part, Yet good Translation is no easy Art._