Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A39865
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A discovery of new worlds from the French, made English by A. Behn.
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Fontenelle, M. de (Bernard Le Bovier), 1657-1757.; Behn, Aphra, 1640-1689.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing F1412; ESTC R27986
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79,769
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206
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A DISCOVERY OF New Worlds From the FRENCH Made ENGLISH By Mrs. A. BEHN To which is prefixed a PREFACE by way of ESSAY on Translated PROSE wherein the Arguments of Father Tacquet and others against the System of Copernicus as to the Motion of the Earth are likewise considered and answered Wholly new LONDON Printed for William Canning at his Shop in the Temple-Cloysters 1688. To the Right Honourable William Earl of Drumlangrig Eldest Son to his Grace William Duke of Queensberry and one of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Council in the Kingdom of Scotland My Lord THe Esteem I have for your Nation in general and the great Veneration I am obliged to have for some particular Persons of Quality of it has made me ambitious of being known to all those of Wit and fine Parts Amongst that Number none has a greater Character than your Lordship whose early Knowledge of all that is excellent in Learning and of all the Graces of the Mind promised the World that accomplished Great Man it now with so much Pride and Satisfaction beholds and which even without the addition of your illustrious Birth were sufficient to gain you the Esteem of all Mankind and you are never mentioned but with such vast Accumulations of Praise as are given only to uncommon Men and such as something extraordinary alone can merit To all your advantages of Nature elevated Birth Virtue Knowledge Wit Youth and Honours to compleat your Happiness Fortune has added her part too and has ally'd your Lordship by Marriage to the Great and Noble Family of Burlington which has at once been honour'd with more Earls than any great Family cou'd ever boast and whose Vertues and Loyalty deserve particular and lasting Trophies to celebrate them to Posterity My Lord I presume to dedicate this little Book to your Lordship which I ventured to translate because it pleased me in the French and tho but a trifle has something in it out of the way of ordinary Wit which renders it more worthy to be laid at your Lordships Feet If it is not done with that exactness it merits I hope your Lordship will pardon it in a Woman who is not supposed to be well versed in the Terms of Philosophy being but a new beginner in that Science but where I have failed your Lordship's Judgment can supply and if it finds acceptance with your Lordship I am already so much a Philosopher as to despise what the World says of it and will pride my self only in being My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and most obedient Servant A. Behn The Translator's PREFACE THE General Applause this little Book of the Plurality of Worlds has met with both in France and England in the Original made me attempt to translate it into English. The Reputation of the Author who is the same who writ the Dialogues of the Dead the Novelty of the Subject in vulgar Languages and the Authors introducing a Woman as one of the speakers in these five Discourses were further Motives for me to undertake this little work for I thought an English Woman might adventure to translate any thing a French Woman may be supposed to have spoken But when I had made a Tryal I found the Task not so easie as I believed at first Therefore before I say any thing either of the Design of the Author or of the Book it self give me leave to say someting of Translation of Prose in general As for Translation of Verse nothing can be added to that Incomparable Essay of the late Earl of Roscommon the nearer the Idioms or turn of the Phrase of two Languages agree 't is the easier to translate one into the other The Italian Spanish and French are all three at best Corruptions of the Latin with the mixture of Gothick Arabick and Gaulish Words The Italian as it is nearest the Latin is also nearest the English For its mixture being composed of Latin and the Language of the Goths Vandals and other Northern Nations who over-ran the Roman Empire and conquer'd its Language with its Provinces most of these Northern Nations spoke the Teutonick or Dialects of it of which the English is one also and that 's the Reason that the English and Italian learn the Language of one another sooner than any other because not only the Phrase but the Accent of both do very much agree the Spanish is next of kin to the English for almost the same Reason Because the Goths and Vandals having over-run Africk and kept Possession of it for some hundred of Years where mixing with the Moors no doubt gave them a great Tincture of their Tongue These Moors afterwards invaded and conquered Spain besides Spain was before that also invaded and conquered by the Goths who possessed it long after the time of the two Sons of Theodosius the Great Arcadus and Honorius The French as it is most remote from the Latin so the Phrase and Accent differ most from the English It may be it is more agreeable with the Welsh which is near a-kin to the Basbritton and Biscagne Languages which is derived from the old Celtick Tongue the first that was spoken amongst the Ancient Gauls who descended from the Celts The French therefore is of all the hardest to translate into English. For Proof of this there are other Reasons also And first the nearer the Genious and Humour of two Nations agree the Idioms of their Speech are the nearer and every Body knows there is more Affinity between the English and Italian People than the English and the French as to their Humours and for that Reason and for what I have said before it is very difficult to translate Spanish into French and I believe hardly possible to translate French into Dutch. The second Reason is the Italian Language is the same now it was some hundred of Years ago so is the Spanish not only as to the Phrase but even as to the Words and Orthography whereas the French Language has suffered more Changes this hundred Years past since Francis the first than the Fashions of their Cloths and Ribbons in Phrase Words and Orthography So that I am confident a French Man a hundred Years hence will no more understand an old Edition of Froisard's History than he will understand Arabick I confess the French Arms Money and Intrigues have made their Language very universal of late for this they are to be commended It is an Accident which they owe to the greatness of their King and their own Industry and it may fall out hereafter to be otherwise A third Reason is as I said before that the French being a Corruption of the Latin French Authors take a liberty to borrow whatever Word they want from the Latin without farther Ceremony especially when they treat of Sciences This the English do not do but at second hand from the French. It is Modish to Ape the French in every thing Therefore we not only naturalize their words but words