ON TRANSLATING HOMER EVER and anon the world receives from some bright spirit a tiny golden book-some Longinus on the Sublime, or Mill on Liberty-to which little can be added, and from which little can be taken away, in which the main outlines of the subject are perceived to have been traced for all time by the hand of a master. Such-but for a few unfortunate infringements of literary decorum is Matthew Arnold's trio of lectures "On Translating Homer," where the main conditions of success in Homeric translation are laid down with such clearness, decision, and demonstrative cogency that the translator who fails through neglect of them is without excuse. Let him, says Mr. Arnold, be above all penetrated by a sense of four qualities in his author. Homer is (1) eminently rapid; (2) eminently plain and direct, both in his syntax and his eminently plain and direct in his words; (3) matter and ideas; and (4) eminently noble. These are indeed the four cardinal points, like the four swans |