the Nature of Things absolutely impossible. I am sensible too, as I said before, that it may be a true Translation, a close Translation; and yet, after all, a very bad Translation. Whether This be so, or not, is with all imaginable Deference submitted to the Judgment of the World. To render the bare Sense, and Words of a Poet, is only to paint his Features, and Lineaments; but to render his _Poetry_, that is, the _peculiar Turn_ of his Thoughts, and Diction, is to paint his _Air_ and _Manner_. And as the Air of a Face arises from a Man's _Soul_, as well as from his Body; it is just the same here: Or rather, This peculiar Turn of the Poet's Sentiments and Expressions _is it self_ the Soul of his Poetry: If we are asked what That is; the Answer must be, if we may properly compare a _Mode_ to a _Substance_, that the Soul of Poetry, like the Soul of Man, is perceivable only by its Effects; like That, immaterial, and invisible; and like That too, immortal. But then all this being taken care of, certainly the nearer to the Original, the better: Nay indeed it is impossible to hit the Air right; unless you hit the Features, from which the Air, so far as it relates to the Body, rises, and results. Should my Translation be approved of for the Spirit of Poetry; I should not be sorry, nay I should be glad, if at the same time it served for a Construing-Book to a School-Boy. But still whenever it happens (as it very often does, and must) that a close Version, and a graceful Expression are inconsistent; the latter is always to be preferred. A _less litteral Translation_ is very frequently beautiful; but nothing can justify _an ill Verse_. In This Case, one departs from the Original by adhering to it; and such an Author as _Virgil_ might justly say of his bad Translator, what _Martial_ says of his bad Neighbour; _Nemo tam prope, tam proculque nobis._ For the Version would retain more not only of the _Beauty_, but of the _real Sense_ of the Original; and so _upon the whole_, be more _like_ it: If it were a less faithful Interpretation of Words and Expressions.