up1 a grateful tribute of melody and praise, and giving glory to God for 2 the discovery of another world.(WASHINGTON IRVING.) COWPER TO MR. SAMUEL ROSE. (ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF TIME.) DEAR SIR, 4 3 - THOUGH it be long since I received your last, I have not yet forgotten the impression it made upon me, nor how sensibly I felt myself obliged by your unreserved and friendly communications.5 I will not apologise for my silence in the interim, because, apprised as you are of my present occupation, the excuse that I might allege will present itself to you of course, and to dilate upon it would, therefore, be waste of paper.8 You are in possession of the best security imaginable for the due improvement of your time, which is a just sense of its value.10 Had I been,11 when at your age,12 as up; au ciel, here.-grateful;' leave this word out. 2 rendant gloire à Dieu (or, reportant à Dieu la gloire) de. No article is used, in French, whenever the verb and the noun form a phrase which can generally be expressed in French, or translated into other languages, by one word, as here, rendant gloire, that is, glorifiant, glorifying.' 3 Quoiqu'il y ait longtemps que j'ai reçu votre dernière lettre. 4 ni le bien vif plaisir que m'ont aussi procuré (page 3, note 3). 5 entretiens. 6 Je ne chercherai point à m'excuser de. 7 parce que vous n'ignorez pas quelles sont.'occupation;' use the plural. 8 et qu'ainsi (p. 17, n. 11) ce serait brouiller (or, barbouiller-gater gacher) du papier (or, ce serait mal employer mon papier) que (see page 138, n. 7) de m'étendre sur une excuse qui se présentera à vous naturelle ment. Notice, here, se présentera à vous, instead of se vous présentera ; I shall say more about this by and by (page 260, note 1). de l'emploi convenable. 10 laquelle consiste à en bien sentir le prix (see p. 18, n. 6). The pronouns qui, que, dont, are replaced by lequel, duquel, to avoid ambiguity: these always relate to the former noun (with which they must agree in gender and number), while qui, que, dont, relate to the latter. This, of course, where the construction cannot be altered; or else follow the rule given at p. 10, n. 3. 11 Si j'avais été; or, Si j'eusse été; or, Eussé-je été. See page 24, n. 1. In eussé-je, an acute accent is put over the last e for euphony's sake. 12 quand j'étais à votre âge; or, better, not to repeat être so nearly, quand j'avais votre âge; or, simply, à votre age: this English ellipsis, at any rate, after 'when' (quand), is not permitted in French. 4 7 much affected by1 that important consideration as I am at present, I should not have devoted, as I did,3 all the earliest parts of my life to amusement only. I am now in the predicament into which the thoughtlessness of youth betrays nine-tenths5 of mankind, who never discover that the health and good spirits which generally accompany it, are in reality blessings only according to the use we make of them, till advanced years begin to threaten them with 9 the loss of both. How much wiser would thousands have been,10 than now they ever will be,11 had 12 a puny constitution, or some occasional infirmity,12 constrained them to devote those hours to study and reflection, which,14 for want of some such check,15 they have given entirely to dissipation! I, therefore, 16 account you happy, who,17 young as you are, need not be informed that you cannot always be so,18 and who already know that the materials upon which age can alone build its confort,1 should be brought together at an earlier period. 20 You have, indeed, in losing a father, lost a friend, but you have not lost his instructions. His example was not buried 21 19 16 C'est pourquoi je (p. 254,.n. 1). 17 vous qui. A personal pronoun, in the objective case, which is the antecedent of a relative pronoun, must be used twice in this way, first in its conjunctive form, immediately before the verb which governs it, and then in its disjunctive form, immediately before the relative: here it so happens that both forms are vous; in the first person singular they are me and moi; in the second, tu and toi; &c. See any grammar. 18 See page 5, note 14. 19 établir son oien-être. This use of the possessive son is a deviation from the custom mentioned at p. 18, n. 6; the reason of it is, that the possessor figures as subject (or nominative) in the same proposition wherein the thing possessed is the object (or accusative).— should,' doivent. 20 recueillis de bonne heure. with him, but happily for you (happily because you are desirous of availing yourself of it) still lives in your remembrance, and is cherished in your best affections.2 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY. HAVING often received an invitation from my friend Sir Roger de Coverley 3 to pass away a month with him in the country, I last week accompanied him thither, and am settled with him for some time at his country-house, where I intend to form several of my ensuing speculations.5 Sir Roger, who is very well acquainted with my humour, lets me rise and go to bed when I please,7 dine at his own table or in my chamber, as I think fit, sit still and say nothing without bidding me be merry. When the gentlemen of the country come to see him, he shows me 11 at a distance. As I have been walking 12 in his fields, I have observed them stealing a sight of me 15 over a hedge, and the dative. 10 1 il vit encore. Notice the use of the pronoun, before vit; the pronoun is necessary, the two verbs être enseveli, and vivre, being in different tenses. 2 et est un des objets les plus chers à votre cœur; or, et a part à vos plus vives affections. 3 See page 3, note 18; an invitation,' &c., l'invitation de, &c. 4 je l'y accompagnai la semaine dernière, et je me suis fixé. The pronoun je is repeated for the reason stated above, note 1. 5 de rédiger plusieurs des articles qui doivent suivre (or, simply, de mes prochains articles-Contributions to the Spectator'). 6 qui connait très bien. 7 quand il me plaît (p. 135, n. 4). The verb plaire does not govern the objective case, in French, but requires an indirect regimen with the preposition à (dative case), expressed or implied: me is here in 8 selon que je le juge à propos; or, comme bon me semble. 9 et aussi rester silencieux et tranquille sans m'inviter à la gaîté. 10 Quand les notables des environs (or, des alentours); or, Quand les gens les plus considérables de l'endroit. 11 Translate, he shows me to them,' il me montre à eux-not me leur montre, this construction being used with the first pronoun in the accusative, only when that pronoun is in the third person, as, le (la, or les) leur montre; but we should say, me le (la, or les) montre, the first pronoun being in the dative -though yet even here, vous montre à moi, not me vous montre. 12 See page 52, note 4. 13 j'ai aperçu plusieurs de ces messieurs qui m'observaient en cachette (or, furtivement—or, à la dérobée). See p. 6, n. 13 have heard the knight desiring them2 not to let me see them, for that I hated to be stared at.4 I am the more at ease in Sir Roger's family, because it consists of sober, staid persons; for as the knight is the best master in the 6 world, he seldom changes his servants; 7 and as he is beloved by all about him, his servants never care for leaving him : 8 by this means his domestics are all in years, and grown old with their master. You would take his valet-de-chambre for his brother; his butler is grey-headed,10 his groom is one of the gravest men that I have 11 ever seen, 12 and his coachman has the looks 13 of a privy councillor. You see the goodness of the master even 14 in his old house-dog, and in a grey pad that is kept 15 in the stable with great care and tenderness, out of regard to 16 his past services, though he has been useless for 17 several years. I could not but observe with a great deal 18 of pleasure the joy that appeared in 19 the countenances of these 1 et j'ai. When the verbs have each a separate object, although they are in the same tense, the pronoun is usually repeated. 2 les prier; or, qui les priait;but not les priant. 3 de ne pas se laisser voir de moi. 4 par la raison que je déteste les regards des curieux. 5 Je suis d'autant plus à mon aise (or Je me trouve d'autant mieux) au milieu de la maison de Sir Roger, qu'elle se compose. The word famille, in the sense of household,' from the Latin familia, is no longer French. We find it so used in La Fontaine (p. 66 of my edition of the Fables), among other old writers. We now use maison, gens (plural), domestiques (plur.), domestique (sing.), monde. 6 du; we use the preposition de (genitive case), after a superlative. 7 See p. 19, n. 5, and p. 2, n. 6. 8 de tout ce qui l'entoure (more emphatic than tous ceux qui l'entourent; see La Fontaine's Fables, p. 105, n. 5), quand on le sert on n'a aucune envie de le quitter. 9 aussi tous ses gens sont-ils (or, sont) âgés, ayant vieilli au service de. The interrogative form (sontils, here) is elegantly used after aussi (in the sense of 'therefore'), peut-être, encore (yet), toujours (still), en vain, du moins, au moins, à peine, ainsi, &c. 10 a les cheveux gris (p. 27, n. 3.) 11 See page 13, note 12. 12 Whenever a past participle is joined with the auxiliary avoir, it agrees, in gender and number, with the régime direct (accusative) of the verb, but only if that direct regimen precedes the verb. 13 a tout l'air. 14 jusque. 15 qu'on garde; or, que l'on conserve. The l here is merely euphonic. 16 en considération de. 17 bien qu'il (or, quoiqu'il) ne serve plus à rien depuis. See page 38, note 7. 18 Je ne pus qu'observer (page 6, note 6) avec beaucoup; or, Il me fut impossible d'observer sans beaucoup. 19 se peignit sur. ancient domestics upon1 my friend's arrival at his countryseat. Some of them could not refrain from tears 2 at the sight of their old master; every one of them pressed forward to do something for him,3 and seemed discouraged if they were not employed.5 At the same time the good old knight, with a mixture of the father and the master of the family, tempered the inquiries after his own affairs with several kind questions relating to themselves. This humanity and good-nature engages everybody to him;8 so that when he is pleasant upon any of them, all his family are in good humour, and none so much as the person whom he diverts himself with : on the contrary, if he coughs, or betrays 11 any infirmity of old age, it is easy for a stander-by to observe a secret concern in the looks of all his servants. 12 9 7 10 My worthy friend has put me under the particular care 13 of his butler, who is a very prudent man, and, as well as the rest of his fellow-servants, wonderfully desirous of pleasing me,14 because they have often heard their master talk of me as of his particular friend.— (ADDISON, Spectator.) 1 d. 2 Quelques-uns d'entre eux ne pouvaient retenir leurs larmes. 3 s'empressait autour de lui afin de se rendre utile (or, de s'utiliser). 4 mortifié. 5 lorsque, par moments, il ne se trouvait rien à faire. 6 leur adressait, tout en s'enquérant de ses propres affaires. 7 These two nouns, being nearly synonymous, had better follow each other without a conjunction, but with the pronoun repeated.-goodnature see page 139, note 12. 8 captive (or, lui gagne-lui concilie) tous les cours. Whenever two substantives, being nearly synonymous, thus follow one another im mediately, the verb, and also the adjective or participle, must be in the singular. 9 quand il plaisante (or, badine) l'un ou l'autre de ses gens, il les met tous de. 10 mais principalement celui sur le compte duquel (or, de qui-but not dont; see page 134, note 13) il se divertit. See page 1, note 12. 11 ou s'il laisse voir. 12 il est facile à qui se trouve présent de deviner à leur air qu'ils lui portent tous un vif intérét. 13 m'a confié tout particulièrement à la garde (or, aux soins). 14 et qui est aux petits soins ava moi, comme le sont d'ailleurs iss autres domestiques. |