sense of Juvenal, yet we give the most considerable part of it; we
give it, in general, so clearly that few notes are sufficient to
make us intelligible. We make our author at least appear in a
poetic dress. We have actually made him more sounding and more
elegant than he was before in English, and have endeavoured to make
him speak that kind of English which he would have spoken had he
lived in England and had written to this age. If sometimes any of
us (and it is but seldom) make him express the customs and manners
of our native country rather than of Rome, it is either when there
was some kind of analogy betwixt their customs and ours, or when (to
make him more easy to vulgar understandings) we gave him those
manners which are familiar to us. But I defend not this innovation;
it is enough if I can excuse it. For (to speak sincerely) the
manners of nations and ages are not to be confounded; we should
either make them English or leave them Roman. If this can neither
be defended nor excused, let it be pardoned at least, because it is
acknowledged; and so much the more easily as being a fault which is
never committed without some pleasure to the reader.

Thus, my lord, having troubled you with a tedious visit, the best
manners will be shown in the least ceremony. I will slip away while
your back is turned, and while you are otherwise employed; with
great confusion for having entertained you so long with this
discourse, and for having no other recompense to make you than the
worthy labours of my fellow-undertakers in this work, and the
thankful acknowledgments, prayers, and perpetual good wishes of,

My Lord,
Your Lordship's
Most obliged, most humble, and