cted the verses of Villon or Theophile Gautier for the same
purpose. But Mary's case was entirely different. The choice of foreign
works rendered into English was not hers, but Mr. Johnson's. By adhering
to it she was simply fulfilling the contract she had entered into with
him. There were times when she had but a poor opinion of the books he put
into her hands. Thus of one of the principal of these, Necker on the
"Importance of Religion," she says in her "French Revolution:"--

"Not content with the fame he [Necker] acquired by writing on a
subject which his turn of mind and profession enabled him to
comprehend, he wished to obtain a higher degree of celebrity by
forming into a large book various metaphysical shreds of arguments,
which he had collected from the conversation of men fond of
ingenious subtilties; and the style, excepting some declamatory
passages, was as inflated and confused as the thoughts were far
fetched and unconnected."

But though she was so far from approving of the original, her
translation, published in London in 1788, was declared by the "European
Magazine" to be just and spirited, though apparently too hastily
executed; and it was sufficiently appreciated by the English-speaking
public to be republished in Philadelphia in 1791. There was at least one
book, the translation of which must have been a pleasure to her. This was
the Rev. C. G. Salzmann's "Elements of Morality, for the Use of
Children." Its object, like that of the "Original Stories," was to teach
the young, by practical illustration, why virtue is good, why vice is
evil. It was written much in the same style, and was for many years
highly popular. Johnson brought out the first edition in 1790 and a
second in 1793. It was published in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1811, and in
Edinburgh in 1821, and a still newer edition was prepared for the
present generation by Miss Yonge. The "Analytical Review" thought it upon
its first appearance worthy of two notices.

Mary never pretended to produce perfectly literal translations. Her
version of Lavater's "Physiognomy," now unknown, was but an abridgment.
She purposely "naturalized" the "Elements of Morality," she explains, in
order not to "puzzle children by pointing out modifications of manners,
when the grand principles of morality were to be fixed on a broad basis."
She made free with the originals that they might better suit English
readers, and this sh