Selections from Schiller's Poems. Translated by E. P. Arnold- Forster.
(Hamilton, Adams, and Co.)—Mr. Arnold-Forster gives us here some praiseworthy translations, mostly of poems which are already well known to readers cf Schiller. We are inclined to think that "The Walk" is one of his most successful efforts. They are in " elegiacs," a metre which certainly is better suited to the English language than are hexameters, as they do not require pauses, which, of course, are essential to the unmixed hexameter. Here is a specimen of the translator's work " Look at the rows which mark the extent of the countryman's holding,
Woven by Ceres' self into the tapestried field.
Kindly decree of the law, of the deity watching above us, Since from the brazen world charity fadeth away.
But with a bolder sweep, dividing the orderly pastures, Sometimes lost in the wood, now on the elope of the hill,
Glitters a silvery streak, the broad highway of the country ; And the rafts glide by down the immaculate stream.
Multiplied over the plain the bells of the cattle are tinkling, - And the herdsman's song echoes the only reply. Villages brighten the stream, and hun'ets peep throw:h the thickets, Others behind the hill right on the precipice hang."
But the emphasised " the " in the fourth and fifth couplets is objectionable.
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