PREFACE. THESE translations have lain by me for nearly twice the nine years during which Horace recommended that a poem should remain in its author's power. They formed part of a larger scheme long ago conceived; but in the carrying out of which I presently discovered inner difficulties; not to say that it would have required, as I also soon was aware, a far greater amount of time and labor than I was either willing or had a right to bestow upon it. The scheme was consequently laid aside. At the same time I did not lay aside the hope of rescuing a few portions of my work from the absolute oblivion to which the remainder, written and unwritten, was consigned; and of preparing these, if ever a convenient time should arrive, for the press. The time was long in arriving. It is, however, these portions which, with a few later revisions, and here and there a gap filled up, constitute the verse translations occupying the latter half of this little volume. A first sketch of the Memoir prefixed to these translations dates back to the same period. I could not, however, let this go forth without seeking to bring up at least its literary notices to the present time; and in doing this, in supplying what, as I passed it again under my eye, seemed to me most lacking in it, and in modifying earlier judgments, till they expressed more exactly present convictions, I find that, without having at all expected or desired this result, I have re-written the greater portion of the Memoir. ITCHENSTOKE, April 9, 1856. |