THE GEORGICS OF VIRGIL, WITH THE TEXT OF HEYNE, LITERALLY AND RHYTHMICALLY TRANSLATED, BY W. SEWELL, B.D. FELLOW AND TUTOR OF EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD. ALUMNIS COLUMBANIS, TUM IN SANA PIETATIS DISCIPLINÂ TUM IN OMNI LITERARUM HUMANITATE NUTRIENDIS, G. S. PREFACE. THE University of Dublin has been remarkable for the attention which it pays to fluent and elegant translation. And it is much to be wished that this should be more carefully cultivated in our English universities, in conjunction with critical scholarship. The following translation is an attempt to show to students the possibility of combining something even of a rhythmical character with the strictest grammatical accuracy in the translation of classical poets. It pretends to nothing more. But the tendency of our present practice, in which scholars are allowed to render classical verse into English prose, is so mischievous, that a genuine taste for Latin and Greek poetry will scarcely be created until the practice is abandoned. If a poetical phraseology is retained, it becomes bombast. If it be altered, the poetry is lost. Much might be written upon the objectionable results of this system. But those who understand that the |