formation. This use of genders
in the denotation of objects or ideas not only affects the words
to which genders are attributed, but the words with which they are
construed or connected, and passes into the general character of the
style. Hence arises a difficulty in translating Greek into English
which cannot altogether be overcome. Shall we speak of the soul and
its qualities, of virtue, power, wisdom, and the like, as feminine or
neuter? The usage of the English language does not admit of the former,
and yet the life and beauty of the style are impaired by the latter.
Often the translator will have recourse to the repetition of the word,
or to the ambiguous 'they,' 'their,' etc.; for fear of spoiling the
effect of the sentence by introducing 'it.' Collective nouns in Greek
and English create a similar but lesser awkwardness.

(4) To use of relation is far more extended in Greek than in English.
Partly the greater variety of genders and cases makes the connexion of
relative and antecedent less ambiguous: partly also the greater number
of demonstrative and relative pronouns, and the use of the article, make
the correlation of ideas simpler and more natural. The Greek appears
to have had an ear or intelligence for a long and complicated sentence
which is rarely to be found in modern nations; and in order to bring
the Greek down to the level of the modern, we must break up the long
sentence into two or more short ones. Neither is the same precision
required in Greek as in Latin or English, nor in earlier Greek as in
later; there was nothing shocking to the contemporary of Thucydides and
Plato in anacolutha and repetitions. In such cases the genius of
the English language requires that the translation should be more
intelligible than the Greek. The want of more distinctions between the
demonstrative pronouns is also greatly felt. Two genitives dependent
on one another, unless familiarised by idiom, have an awkward effect
in English. Frequently the noun has to take the place of the pronoun.
'This' and 'that' are found repeating themselves to weariness in the
rough draft of a translation. As in the previous case, while the feeling
of the modern language is more opposed to tautology, there is also a
greater difficulty in avoiding it.

(5) Though no precise rule can be laid down about the repetition of
words, there seems to be a kind of impertinence in presenting to the
reader the same thought in the same words, repeated tw