CURRENT LITERATURE.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. (Arthur L. Humphreys.)—This is a handsome reprint, on good but not heavy paper and in large type. of the well-known and scholarly translation by George Long with- out the notes and prolegomena Of the merits and defects of the translation Matthew Arnold said a word in his celebrated essay upon Marcus Aurelius. While mildly complaining of its want of style and rhythm he spoke of its "substantiality, soundness, and precision" as being no less conspicuous than "the living spirit"
with which it treated antiquity, and summed up :—" Mr. Long's version being what it is, an Englishman who reads to live, and does not live to read, may henceforth let the Greek original repose upon its shelf." It is more than thirty years since this judgment was written, and no competitor has yet appeared, though the motto, "Improve the best," holds nowhere so surely as in the matter of translations.
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