| OCR Text |
Show xxii P R E F A C E. ed upoJl by fome gentlemen of refpectability and confequence, who requefl:ed me to publifh it in Englifh. The only objection which occurred to me was this; that having been prevented, by an attention to other fiudies, from obtaining that critical knowledge of my own language, which was necelfary for an Englifh compofition, 1 was fearful of oppearing before the pub lick eye: but that, as they flattered me with the hope, that the publication of it might be of ufe, I would certainly engage to publifh it, if they would allow me to poll pone it for a little time, till I was more in the habit of writing. They replied, that as the publick attention was now excited to the cafe of the unfortunate Africans, it would be {erving the caufe with double the efFect, if it were to be publifhed within a few months. This argument prevailed. Nothing but this circumfiance could have induced me to offer an Englilh compofition to the infpection of an boil: of criticks : and I truil: therefore that this circumil:ance will plead much with the benevolent reader, in favour of thofe faults, which he may find in the prefent work. Having P R E F A C E. xxiii Having thus promifed to publii11 it, I was for fome time doubtful from which of the copies to tranflate. There were two, the original, and an abridgement. The latter (as thefe academical compofitions are generally of a certain length) was that which was fent down to Cambridge, and honoured with the prize. I was determined however, upon confulting with my friends, to trani1ate from the former. This has been faithfully done with hut few *additions. The reader will probably perceive the Latin idiom in feveral palfages of the work, though I have endeavoured, as far as I have been able, to avoid it. And I am fo fenfi hie of the dif.1dvantages under which it mull: yet lie, as a tranflation, that I wii11 I had written upon the fubject, without any reference at all to the origi.nal copy. It will perhaps be aiked, from what authority I have collected thofe facts, \'vhich • The inftance of the Duuh colonills at the Cape, in the firll part of the ElTay; the defcription of an African battle, in the fecond ; and the poetry Qf a negroe girl in the third. arc the only confiderablc additions that have been made. |
