Page:The Dialogues of Plato v. 1.djvu/22

 

 

of the whole work. EquabiHty of tone is best attained by the exclusive use of familiar and idiomatic words. But great care must be taken ; for an idiomatic phrase, if an exception to the general style, is of itself a disturbing- element. No word, however expressive and exact, should be employed, which makes the reader stop to think, or unduly attracts attention by difficulty and peculiarity, or disturbs the effect of the surrounding language. In general the style of one author is not appropriate to another ; as in society, so in letters, we expect every man to have 'a good coat of his own,' and not to dress himself out in the rags of another, (a) Archaic expressions are therefore to be avoided. Equivalents may be occasionally drawn from Shakspere, who is the common property of us all ; but they must be used sparingly. For, like some other men of genius of the Elizabethan and Jacobean age, he outdid the capabilities of the language, and many of the expressions which he introduced have been laid aside and have dropped out of use. {fS) A similar principle should be observed in the employment of Scrip- ture. Having a greater force and beauty than other language, and a religious association, it disturbs the even flow of the style. It may be used to reproduce in the translation the quaint effect of some antique phrase in the original, but rarely ; and when adopted, it should have a certain freshness and a suitable 'entourage.' It is strange to observe that the most effective use of Scripture phraseology arises out of the application of it in a sense not intended by the author, (c) Another caution : metaphors differ in different languages, and the translator will often be compelled to substitute one for another, or to paraphrase them, not giving word for word, but diffusing over several words the more concentrated