PREFACE.

'IN 1865 I published in a religious journal a translation of the Dies Ira in double rhymes. When the glamour of composition had passed away, the defects of my performance were so apparent that I determined to correct them. I did not suppose that the task would prove arduous; but though so long a time has elapsed, my ideal is still far above my attainment. The work occupied my attention at frequent intervals for fifteen years, and I think that in few months of this period did I fail to make some progress. There were weeks in succession during which, both day and night, my mind was filled with the stanzas. At such seasons, the moment that I gained a little leisure, they

would appear before me like an army marching with thundrous cadence. I could not have dismissed them had I desired; but I did not wish to do so. The verses, like the names of flowers, have a charm even for those who do not know their meaning. But one familiar with the sense finds in them an unexampled appeal to the heart, to the imagination, to terror, to hope; and if he engages in the tantalizing effort to set forth in English their burden of thought, their sublime pictures, frequently dashed in with a single word, their throbs of emotion, their weird measure, and their delicate assonances, he falls under a fascination at once awful and delightful. The occupation has often assisted me to conquer care, and has brought me refreshment.

No man has a better right than that of its author to criticise a production; and I am well aware how much my translation is lack