should Still remember that they are but the erroneous maxims of men who had only the dim light of nature to direct them; and still more thankful ought we to be for those purer precepts of morality which it is our exclusive privilege to enjoy.
From what has been observed respecting the peculiar style of this author's writings, it will easily be supposed that a translation of them into any other language must be attended with many difficulties. To preserve the Ionic elegance of the original, without diverging too far from the text—to imitate its conciseness, without sacrificing its beauties—this indeed is a task much more difficult than might at first be imagined. In fact, I much doubt whether a foreign idiom, confined to the jingling monotony of modern verse, can ever hope to do justice to the sweet warblings of the playful and polished Anacreon. Still more hopeless, I conceive, would be the attempt to render them by a strictly literal version; and in this persuasion, I have endeavoured on every occasion to give what I imagined to be the meaning of my author, without a servile adherence to the letter on the one hand, or a too great license of interpretation on the other. With what success these endeavours have been accomplished, it is the province of others to determine. Perhaps, however, I may here be per-
