CURRENT LITERATURE.
The Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Books of Liey's History of Rome. A Literal Translation from the Text of Madvig, with Historical Intro- duction. By a First-Classtnan. (Thornton.)—" This translation," says the "First-Classman," "is intended especially for Passmen at Moderations, and is literal, but I hope, not slavishly so." This hope, we think, is scarcely justified. It does seem to us something very; like "slavishly literal." We take an instance as'it comes,—the answer of the Latini and Hernia to a demand for reparation (surely a better because a more general wOrd than "restitution" for "roe ropetitae") and to the question why they had not furnished troops according to agreement. (More, by the way, seems scarcely the right substantive to supply to instituto. Is it necessary to supply any ?) The Latin runs,—" Nee culpam in so publicam, nee cousilium fuisse, quod sum juventutis aliqui apud Volscos militaverint. Eos tamer' ipsos pravi consilii poenam habere, nee quonquam ex .his re- ducem ease. Militia autem non dati causam terrorem assiduum a Volscis fuisse, quern pCstem adhaerentem lateri suo tot super alia aliis bellis exhaurire nequisso. Quae relata Patribus !tingle tetnpus qui= causam non visa belli habere." This is Englished thus "That in the fact that some of their young men bad served among the Vols. cians neither the fault nor the plan was national ; they had, however, themselves received the penalty of their improper conduct, and not one of them had returned. Again, the cause of their not supplying soldiers had been their continual terror from the Volscians, a plague which stuck to their side and could not be got rid of by so many wars one after another. When this answer was brought back to the Fathers, it seemed to lack rather a suitable opportunity for war than a sufficient cause for it." This is about as bald as it could be. "The plan" for " consiliam " is scarcely intelligible. If the exigencies of the Passman's needs do not allow any turning of the sentence, " design " would have been better. "Improper conduct" for " pravi consilii " in the next clause is not even literal. The last clause is almost without meaning as it stands. We can only any for this translation that it will not lead the " passman " into any dangerous blunders. But it will be but in the strictest technical sense that it will "satisfy" the moderators.
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