Excerpt from Of the Advancement and Proficience of Learning, or the Partitions of Sciences: IX Books

Ilhould, fay fitmething touching Tranflation; and aszt is mine. The wery Aé'tion is [omewhat obnoxious to cenfure, being of the nature of'thtfi, the failing whereof may dflrace more, than the carrying oftt through; credit the undertaker. But, be. Fides the confcience of the deed done, fbr other ends I could not have, (the Author now dead, and alive mihi nec injuriis nec beneficiis notus) and tt to be a Tranflator is more than to be an Authorfimefisch as there he; and that it is no fitch mean office, to bear alight befbre a Lord Chancellor of England: I jbould excufe it, were the example minezfo, writes learned 8a. Vil3 fo, éloquent Sandys; fitsmalvezzi's Noble Interpreter; with whom conferred I am lefi thana fhadowz, So, many able and eminent names of France and Italy, and other Nations, So the Ancients offormer ages and ff all Arguments. Butjf any beflfislemnefi fevere, and qffuch primitive tot/ls, they can away with no waters, which come not from the flaring-head, nor endure to drinkqf Tiber, that paflés through Thames, T hey may give over here, if they fit pleafie, and proceed no farther. This interpretationwas not meant for [sub faflidz'ous palates and yet, it maybe, for as dzjlingui/hing as theirs are. Now if this very ac'lion be thus liable to exception, much more mufl my perfhrmance be.certainly books by Tranflation com monly take wind in the eflufion; and for fircngth fall jhort oftheir Originals; as reflexed beams are weaker than dzretl: but then it mufl be underflood of Originals, truly fl). For ifa Writer deliver himfelfe out of his Natl'ee language, 7 fee not why a Tranflator rendring him in it, may not come acare him: and in this cafie, the Author himfelf} is the Interpreter a being he tranflates his own thoughts, which originally fireak his mother tongue. Tetfor all this, errors I know there are, and [hate lapa fes, which requirea Connivence; and a Reader hath this ad 'tantage, that he may flay upon one period, os long as anjnterpre ter did on one page, befides his peculiar Genius to fisme fludied paflhges. Some Errors (pa/ling but a tranfient eye upon what is 40 l if already; and could note them, but I would not wil linglygratfyfisme kind of Readers f o farre. They that are his ditiout and ingenious too (fbr would have no Readers that.

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