[39] "Suo cimitero da questa parte hanno Con Epieuro tutti i suoi seguaci, Che l'anima col corpo morta fanno." Inferno, X. 13-15. And here my eyes, reverting to the end of Canto IX., fall upon a similar contrast between Mr. Longfellow's lines,-- "For flames between the sepulchres were scattered, By which they so intensely heated were, That iron more so asks not any art,"-- and those of Dr. Parsons,-- "For here mid sepulchres were sprinkled fires, Wherewith the enkindled tombs all-burning gleamed; Metal more fiercely hot no art requires." [40] [40] "Che tra gli avelli flamme erano sparte, Per le quali eran si del tutto accesi, Che ferro piu non chiede verun' arte." Inferno, IX. 118-120. Does it not seem that in all these cases Mr. Longfellow, and to a slightly less extent Mr. Cary, by their strict adherence to the letter, transgress the ordinary rules of English construction; and that Dr. Parsons, by his comparative freedom of movement, produces better poetry as well as better English? In the last example especially, Mr. Longfellow's inversions are so violent that to a reader ignorant of the original Italian, his sentence might be hardly intelligible. In Italian such inversions are permissible; in English they are not; and Mr. Longfellow, by transplanting them into English, sacrifices the spirit to the letter, and creates an obscurity in the translation where all is lucidity in the original. Does not this show that the theory of absolute literality, in the case of two languages so widely different as English and Italian, is not the true one? Secondly, Mr. Longfellow's theory of translation leads him in most cases to choose words of Romanic origin in preference to those of Saxon descent, and in many cases to choose an unfamiliar instead of a familiar Romanic word, because the former happens to be etymologically identical with the word in the original. Let me cite as an example the opening of Canto III.:-- "Per me si va nella eitti dolente, Per me si va nell' eterno dolore, Per me si va tra la perduta gente." Here are three lines which, in their matchless simplicity and grandeur, might well excite despair in the breast of any translator. Let us contrast Mr. Longfellow's version.-- "Through me the way is to the city dolent; Through me the way is to eternal dole; Through me the way among the people lost,"-- with that of Dr. Parsons,--, "Through me you reach the city of despair; Through me eternal wretchedness ye find; Through me among perdition's race ye fare."