Ebook Critical Reflections on Poetry, Painting and Music

There have been very few books published of late years that have met with a better reception, or attained to a greater reputation in the learned world, than the following Critical Reflections. This is a truth so well known to most judges of polite learning, that it would he unnecessary to attempt to illustrate the character either of the author or his performance. As for what concerns this translation, I have very little to say, but that I have endeavoured as much as possible to render it not unworthy of the public acceptance. I have taken care to observe a middle way between too loose a paraphrase, and too literal a version; my chief aim being to convey the spirit as well as sense of the original. The quotations from the Greek writers, which are pretty numerous, especially in the third volume, are copied in the French original from Latin translations; not that our author was unacquainted with the Greek, but because this language is not so generally understood in that kingdom.