THE BEAUTIFUL EPITAPH.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPF.CTATOR.1
SIR,—The accomplished scholar named by "E. G" may well have found the Bishop's exquisite lines untranslatable if he got them from a corresponding version to your compositor's. Reading, however, "nimium " for " minium," "bona" for " bon," and " disce " for " dirce," I find that they can be rendered by a distich without loss of any thought, but not with anything approaching the original's point and grace of expression :—
Too dear, but go, of one soul's parts the best : God calls ; to follow let grief teach the rest.
I would humbly suggest that the rendering of "nostrse " by " my " completely sacrifices the main idea of the writer, which is that that lost one's soul and his were one.—I am,
[We greatly regret that, owing to an unfortunate over- sight, the letter containing the epitaph in question was allowed to appear in its unrevised form.—ED. Spectator.]
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