Humphry Ward's
translation is likely to make it widely known among all serious
lovers of good literature. Easy, idiomatic, correct, this English
version reads like an excellent original English work, and gives
fresh proof that the work of translation, if it is to be done with
effect, must be done by those who, possessing, like Mrs. Ward,
original literary gifts, are willing to make a long act of self-
denial or self-effacement [20] for the benefit of the public. In
this case, indeed, the work is not wholly one of self-effacement, for
the accomplished translator has prefaced Amiel's Journal by an able
and interesting essay of seventy pages on Amiel's life and
intellectual position. And certainly there is much in the book, thus
effectively presented to the English reader, to attract those who
interest themselves in the study of the finer types of human nature,
of literary expression, of metaphysical and practical philosophy; to
attract, above all, those interested in such philosophy, at points
where it touches upon questions of religion, and especially at the
present day.
Henri-Frederic Amiel was born at Geneva in 1821. Orphaned of both
his parents at the age of twelve, his youth was necessarily "a little
bare and forlorn," and a deep interest in religion became fixed in
him early.
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