Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/94

 Fault lies; and therefore the chief Thing they tell us is, that Sence, Connexion and Method are the principal Things to be minded. Accordingly, they have translated most of the Ancient Poets, even the Lyricks, into French Prose; and from those Translations they pass their Judgments, and call upon others to do so too. So that when (to use Sir J. Denham's Comparison) by pouring the Spirits of the Ancient Poetry from one Bottle into another, they have lost the most Volatile Parts, and the rest becomes flat and insipid; these Criticks exclaim against the Ancients, as if they did not sufficiently understand Poetical Chymistry. This is so great a Truth, that even in Oratory it holds, though in a less Degree. Thucydides therefore has hard Measure to be compared with the Bishop of Meaux, when his Oration is turned into another Language, whilst Monsieur de Meauxs stands unaltered; for, though Sence is Sence in every Tongue, yet all Languages have a peculiar Way of expressing the same Things; which is lost in Translations, and much more in Monsieur D'Ablancourts, who professed to mind two very different Things at once; to translate his Author, and to write elegant Books in his own Language; which last