New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-10-23
THE MASTER OF BALLIOL.
III.
AS A WRITER AND TRANSLATOR, WITH
SOME PERSONAL. ANECDOTES.

SOME PERSONAL ANECDOTES. .
London, October IL.
Jowett's place and rank as writer of
English have been discussed since his death
He has been called great writer by writer's
who deficient in that sense OF proportion
which is a condition both Of good writing and
of sound criticism. A great writer Jowett was
not He has, nevertheless. a style that IL
clear, manly. wOrkmanlike. effective: not always
accurate. 1t Is by no, original work but by
his translatlons. and most of all by his transla.
ton Of Plato. that he will live in English liter.
allure. That Of itself would remove him from
the category OF great writer's. His Introduc.
tions to the Dialogues are more remarkable
for the substance than for the form OF them.
They we'll written: they are not supremacy
well written. but they are important and
useful contributions to the literature Of Plato.
When you come to the Dialogues themselves
you find JOwett at his best He is not even
and he is by no means always classical, but
the flow Of the language is often 80 easy and
sustained as to make the reader forget that
1t is a translation which he has before him.
On the other hand, ease occasionally degen.
crates into rather slipshod colloquialism, and
sometimes into inexcusabe inaccuracies You
will chance upon such phrases as these sort"
agreeabes' as substantive. In the Sym
postum people have mo end OF clothing
and Acibiades remarks that he had not tn,
face to detain Socrates. Anytus says in the
Memo neither l any Of my belongings
has ever had anything to do with them"
Will and shall are confounded as in the Laches
II know that I myself will be the sufferer"
so are would" and should" Socrates in the
Phaedrus asking, would not regard the con.
versation Of you and Lysias as thing Of
higher import?" This odd use Of the gen.
Tive Of the personal pronoun recurs on the
next page: HE should meet the case Of me-"
In the Laches also may be found las much
as ever you like" which is slang, and the
locution is repeated in the Protogras. las soon
as ever he is able to understand them" Il
is slang also to Say of robber that he lifts
a temple
Americanisms are not entirely wanting
Socrates observes in the Phaedo: II reckon
that no one who heard me now could &C.
cuse me of idle talking" Plato is even made
to talk not only American but French, as In
the Republic: their necessity is II faut vivre,'"
and there are other instances. He does not
reject such an expression as the "tournure
of the language" Still stranger is the blend
Of French with Bunyan in such phrase as
the Messieurs vain concet." where the &C.
centricty becomes grOtesque. Doctor Of
Divinity as he is, he swears now and then.
Ctessippus gets angry and cries out strangers
Of Thurii, If politeness would allow me | should
say You be -" He likes archaic forms
and writes: che thought temperance was doing
things orderly and quietly" Plato is even
made to quote Dryden mot one but all man.
kinds epitome,' which is to be found in the
Republic. The anachronsm is not defensible
nor does Jowett trouble himself to defend any
of these caprces. Whether he corrects them
in the later editions I cannot say For the
reason l gave earlier, cling to his first rem
derng: in it is to be found his genuine and
authentic view OF Plato.
The elevation Of tone throughout the trans.
lation is in spite of such slips as / have
quoted. remarkable. 1t fails the Master some.
times; most unhappy Of all is the one pas
sage where 1t was most essential, the noble
close Of the Apology:
The hour Of departure has arrived, and We
go our ways-I to die and you to live.
Which is better God only knows
Probably Jowett's played him false, mu.
stefan though he was, and he was not aware
Of the fippancy Of the concluding words.
Church translates. whether life or death is
better is known to God and to God only:
which. though inadequate, is tolerable enough.
This is. however the exception. Jowett does
for the most part lift himself. or is lifted by his
author. to the height Of the great argument
with which he has to deal. Passage after
passage may be quoted OF which the diction 10
faultless and not merely faultess but pene.
trated with the lofty spirit which anmates the
original There are passages and pages which
have such dignity and such beauty that, were
they but his own in thought. they might DO
MI a of
and suffer no harm by the comparison. The
Apology. as 4 whole. has this sustained energy
and splendor The finer parts Of the Repub-
lie have it; so has much of the Phaedo, OF the
Corgias Of the Phaedrus. And ii is no light
matter to reproduce in English the effect OF
grace. of beauty. Of rhythm. Of an ordered
and entirely adjusted method Of speech which
prevails in the Greek. To him who through
long and difficult Greek author. has done this.
must ever belong no mean place among good
writer's OF English.
He did not always seem to care whether he
offended people who had given him no Of
fence and no provocation distinguished
American critic. now dead. sent him a long
and eulogstc review of his translation OK
Plato. published in America, with a letter.
Jowett answered him in two lines thanking him
for his amusing notice The writer whom
he treated in this scornfu way was not. per-
haps. profound Greek scholar, but he was
student OF philosophy. and very competent to
deal with Jowetts work. But In that way did
Jowett think proper to treat him.
So many Jowett stories have been published
before and since his death that II is hard to be
sure whether any Is new. But here Is one
which, at any rate. ! have never seen In print.
There was n backward student at Balliol who.
for failure to pass an examination In Greek,
was sent down" His mother. good and
devout mother. went to see the Master. she
explained to him what an excellent lad her
son was: how fla and how pious. ut 10
n hard experience for him. this disgrace" said
the old lady: ''but he will have the consolation
of religion and there is always one Book 10
which no can turn" Jowett eyed her and