as closely as I was able, so as to make each line of the English, as far as might be, answer both in sense and measure to the corresponding line of the Latin: and to the gaining of this end I have never shrunk from sacrificing what might seem to me a more elegant and effective rendering of a passage; for I hold that in translating the words of men so highly gifted with the Divine Spirit as the fathers of the Middle Ages, any unnecessary deviation from the text were presumption savouring of profaneness.
I will only add in conclusion, that if this little book should by God's blessing be made the means of raising in the breast of any reader one feeling akin to the hallowed devotion of the ages of faith, I shall indeed rejoice in having put it forth, and feel encouraged to add to its extent.
