Page:Boileau's Lutrin - a mock-heroic poem. In six canto's. Render'd into English verse. To which is prefix'd some account of Boileau's writings, and this translation. (IA boileauslutrinmo00boil).pdf/28

 vided the Translator makes amends for his neglect of what is less important, by Improving and if possible by Refining upon Essentials; which is better done by Studying the Genius and Copying the Tour and Air of an Author, than in adhering to a scrupulous Detail of Phrases, ever flat and disagreeable.

Thus a Translation may be Excellent, and by this an Equitable Reader may judge of it's Merit. A Picture is but the Translation of a Face, yet if Apelles or Lysippus shall attempt an Alexander, Posterity will pay an equal Veneration to the Artist and the Hero.

Translation, in general, besides its useful Communicative Character to recommend it, and other Arguments that may be brought in its behalf, comes backed with what most Arts and Sciences pretend to, Antiquity.

Did not Terence divert the Romans with the Original Comedies of the Greek Menander, turn'd into Latin, which serves as a Standard at this Day? And by what remains of Alcæus and some other Lyrics, 'tis evident how much Horace himself was oblig'd to