Per me si va nell' eterno dolore,
Per me si va tra la perduta gente."

Here are three lines which, in their matchless simplicity and grandeur,
might well excite despair in the breast of any translator. Let us
contrast Mr. Longfellow's version.--

"Through me the way is to the city dolent;
Through me the way is to eternal dole;
Through me the way among the people lost,"--

with that of Dr. Parsons,--,

"Through me you reach the city of despair;
Through me eternal wretchedness ye find;
Through me among perdition's race ye fare."

I do not think any one will deny that Dr. Parsons's version, while far
more remote than Mr. Longfellow's from the diction of the original, is
somewhat nearer its spirit. It remains to seek the explanation of this
phenomenon. It remains to be seen why words the exact counterpart of
Dante's are unfit to call up in our minds the feelings which Dante's own
words call up in the mind of an Italian. And this inquiry leads to
some general considerations respecting the relation of English to other
European languages.

Every one is aware that French poetry, as compared with German poetry,
seems to the English reader very tame and insipid; but the cause of this
fact is by no means so apparent as the fact itself. That the poetry of
Germany is actually and intrinsically superior to that of France, may
readily be admitted; but this is not enough to account for all the
circumstances of the case. It does not explain why some of the very
passages in Corneille and Racine, which to us appear dull and prosaic,
are to the Frenchman's apprehension instinct with poetic fervour. It
does not explain the undoubted fact that we, who speak English, are
prone to underrate French poetry, while we are equally disposed to
render to German poetry even more than its due share of merit. The
reason is to be sought in the verbal associations established in
our minds by the peculiar composition of the English language. Our
vocabulary is chiefly made up on the one hand of indigenous Saxon words,
and on the other hand of words derived from Latin or French. It is
mostly words of the first class that we learn in childhood, and that are
associated with our homeliest and deepest emotions; while words of the
second class--usually acquired somewhat later in life and employed in
sedate abstract discourse--have an intellectual rather than an emotional
function to fulfil. Their original signifi