TO THE COUNTESS GRANVILLE.

MY DEAR LADY GRANVILLE, --

THE reluctance which must naturally be felt by any
one in venturing to give to the world a book such as the
present, where the beauties of the great original must inev-
itably be diminished, if not destroyed, in the process of pass-
ing through the translator's hands, cannot but be felt in all
its force when that translator has not penetrated beyond the
outer courts of the poetic fane, and can have no hope of
advancing further, or of reaching its sanctuary. But it is to
me a subject of peculiar satisfaction that your kind permis-
sion to have your name inscribed upon this page serves to
attain a twofold end -- one direct and personal, and relating
to the present day; the other reflected and historical, and
belonging to times long gone by. Of the first little need
now be said, for the privilege is wholly mine, in making this
dedication: as to the second, one word of explanation will
suffice for those who have made the greatest poet of Ger-
many, almost of the world, their study, and to whom the
story of his life is not unknown. All who have followed the
career of GOETHE are familiar with the name and character
of DALBERG, and also with the deep and lasting friendship
that existed between them, from which SCHILLER too was
not absent; recalling to the mind the days of old, when a
Virgil and a Horace and a Mæcenas sat side by side.

Remembering, then, the connection that, in a former cen-
tury, was formed and riveted between your illustrious ances-
tor and him whom it is the object of these pages to represent,
I deem it a happy augury that the link then established finds
itself not wholly severed even now (although its strength may
be immeasurably weakened in the comparison), inasmuch as
this page brings them once more in contact, the one in the
person of his own descendant, the other in that of the trans-
lator of his Poems.

Believe me, with great truth,
Very faithfully yours,
EDGAR A. BOWRING.

London, April, 1853.

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