[8] This curious and obscure subject is minutely investigated by Bayle, who quotes and confutes the various opinions of the learned concerning this point of secret history; and concludes, like Dryden, by leaving it very much where he found it. Were I to hazard a conjecture, I should rather think, with our poet, Ovid had made some imprudent, and perhaps fortuitous discovery relating to Livia. [9] Dryden speaks inaccurately, from a general recollection of the passage; for Ovid says distinctly, that the Fates did not give him time to cultivate the acquaintance of Tibullus, any more than of Virgil. The entire passage runs thus: _Temporis illius colui, fovique poetas: Quotque aderant vates, rebar adesse deos. Sæpe suas volucres legit mihi grandior ævo, Quæque nocet serpens, quæ juvat herba, Macer. Sæpe suos solitus recitare Propertius ignes, Jure sodalitii qui mihi junctus erat. Ponticus Heroo, Battus quoque clarus Iambo, Dulcia convictus membra fuere mei. Et tenuit nostras numerosus Horatius aures Dum ferit Ausonia carmina culta lyra Virgilium vidi tantum; nec avara Tibullo Tempus amicitiæ fata dedere meæ._ Trist. Lib. IV. Eleg. 9. [10] Sir John Denham gives his opinion on this subject in the preface to "The Destruction of Troy;" which he does not venture to call a translation, but "an Essay on the second book of Virgil's Æneis."--"I conceive it is a vulgar error, in translating poets, to affect being _fidus interpres_; let that care be with them who deal in matters of fact, or matters of faith; but whosoever aims at it in poetry, as he attempts what is not required, so he shall never perform what he attempts: for it is not his business alone to translate language into language, but poesy into poesy; and poesy is of so subtile a spirit, that in the pouring out of one language into another, it will all evaporate; and if a new spirit be not added in the transfusion, there will remain nothing but a _caput mortuum_, there being certain graces and happinesses peculiar to every language, which give life and energy to the words; and whosoever offers at verbal translation, shall have the misfortune of that young traveller, who lost his own language abroad, and brought home no other instead of it; for the grace of the Latin will be lost by being turned into English words, and the grace of the English by being turned into the Latin phrase."