30 DECEMBER 1876, Page 23

Rakings over Many Seasons. By R. T. Fisher. (Pickering.)—It is

easier to criticise Mr. Fisher when he translates from English into

Latin or from Latin into English than when he writes original verse. The standard is more readily marked, the canons of taste are more

distinct. To make dens feminine ; to translate " if I had lived, I cannot tell, I might have been his wife," by "forsan et ipsa, Deo placituro,

sim nupta Rubino ;" to render " pulsat pede," in Horace's

" a3quo pede pauperum tabernas regumque turres palest," by "upon the poor man's hovel and kingly castle treads;" and still more

strangely, "Nano et campus et area3" by "now thy day iedne to camps and gatherings ;" to murder the beautiful " Felices et amplins," &a., by this atrocious stanza,—

" 0 happy they whom the close ties of wedlock Have firmly joined, and hold for ever. To live at ease in that delightful dead-look, Till death their love shall sever,"

are offences on which it is impossible to pass too severe a sentence.