lays of Euripides we must turn to the
metrical versions of Professor Gilbert Murray, published by Mr. George
Allen between 1905 and 1915. Perhaps it is not too much to say that this
great scholar-poet has done more than any other to bring the Greeks of
old before those to whom a classical education has been denied.

Needless to say, the translation into English of the immortal Homeric
cycle has tempted many pens. Among the best known versions are those of
Pope, Chapman, and Cowper. But this matter has been so thoroughly
debated by Mr. Frederic Harrison in his delightful volume 'The Choice of
Books,' that I will refrain from poaching upon his preserve, and will
content myself by remarking that the recommendations of this excellent
judge are the 'Iliad' of Lord Derby and the 'Odyssey' of Philip Worsley.
This last is a beautiful translation in the Spenserian stanza, of which a
second edition appeared in 1868, in two octavo volumes. But if you are
not already acquainted with Mr. Harrison's work you will do well to
obtain it, and to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest all that he has
to say therein upon 'The Poets of the Old World.'

With regard to the Latin classics, if we are unacquainted with the
language there is greater difficulty; for it is next to impossible to
render in English the light and vivacious lilt of the Italian poets. Our
translations may be fine, scholarly, dignified and the rest of it, but
they bear little semblance to the originals. Dryden's version of the
'Aeneid' may be read, not as a translation but as an epic in the English
of a great poet; and to those who are masters of sufficient Latin to
explore the ancients by the help of commentaries, Conington's translation
will be of assistance. Horace is utterly untranslatable, and prose
translations afford little clue to the music of his songs.

Perhaps it goes without saying that in reading these ancient classics we
shall necessarily lose much of their sentiment and allusion unless our
memory has retained that atmosphere of classic times which we obtained by
constant intercourse with these ancients during our years at school. We
may refresh our memory, however, and at the same time glean the most
modern thought upon those times, by having recourse to certain useful
volumes, companions to our study of these classic writers.

J. A. St. John's 'Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece,' three octavo
volumes which appeared in 1842, is a perfect encyclopaedia