THE LAPIDARY STYLE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—My timid challenge in the lists of translation has aroused a most interesting competition, although the champion whose name I dared to mention has not yet descended into the arena. The following attempt at trans- lating what I still think untranslatable is full of faults, but as a whole is, I venture to think, better than some which appear in the Spectator of June 10th, though far worse than some others :- Here lies The New Deinocritui, A man known to few, A soul unknown to fewer.
was his Death
And is his Immortality.
May I venture to award the first place, in my humble judgment, to the first of " A. V. G.'s," and to remark that the second of "J. W. G.'s" especially seems to me to miss the whole point ? "Famous, though little read," is the exact opposite of what Burton meant to convey.—I am, Sir, &c.,
OLIar HARROVIENSIS.
P.S.—Since writing the above, it has occurred to me that one champion who entered the lists thrown open by you in the Spectator of June 10th may be the desired one, to whom I at least, as challenger, must drop my point. If my perception does not err, he is more than a name to me.
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