6
PRINCIPLES OF
Intr.
construction and arrangement in which languages either agree with, or differ from each other[1].
While such has been our ignorance of the principles of this art, it is not at all wonderful, that amidst the number-
- ↑ The rules laid down by Batteux are moreover chiefly applicable to translation from the Latin into French, and are deduced from the comparative analogy of these two languages alone. Founding upon this principle, that the construction of the Latin and French is very nearly the same, and that the latter never deviates from the former, but where either perspicuity of sense or harmony requires, he proceeds to lay down such rules as the following: That the periods of the translation should accord in all their parts with those of the original—that their order, and even their length, should be the same—that all conjunctions should be scrupulously preserved, as being the joints or articulations of the members—that all adverbs should be ranged next to the verb, &c. Observations of this nature may instruct a Tiro in grammar; but it is evident they will conduce nothing towards the improvement of the art of translation.
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