A Critical Essay on Characteristic-Writings

The anonymous English Translation is said to have been done upon the Greek. But this is only a Pretence, and a low Artifice of the ignorant Translator: For in reality 'tis no more than a mean and insipid Translation of the French of Mr. de la Bruyere, revis'd upon the Latin of Casaubon, which answers almost verbally to the Original Greek. If this were a Matter of Importance, I wou'd here fully demonstrate it: For the Fact is so glaring, that tho' the Translator is wholly unknown to me, yet I can aver what I have asserted to be Truth, almost as certainly, as if I had been an Eye Witness to the doing of it_.

Mr. _Budgell_'s Translation must be own'd to be polite: But politeness is not the only Qualification that is required in such a Translation. The learn'd Reader, who understands the Original, will consider it in a different View. And to judg of it according to those Rules which Translators ought to observe, it must