Page:Essay on the Principles of Translation - Tytler (1791, 1st ed).djvu/79

 "and sea together, and fastening the chain to the top of Olympus, will keep you all suspended at it. So much am I superior both to gods and men."

must be owned, that this speech is far beneath the dignity of the thunderer; that the braggart vaunting in the beginning of it is nauseous; and that a mean and ludicrous picture is presented, by the whole groupe of gods and goddesses pulling at one end of a chain, and Jupiter at the other. To veil these defects in a translation was difficult; but to give any degree of dignity to this speech required certainly most uncommon powers. Yet I am much mistaken, if Mr Pope has not done so. I shall take the passage from the beginning: