Characters, which he himself compos’d, and which gave Rise to those
many Performances, that were afterwards attempted in the same Way.
[B]Mr. _Menage_ has highly extoll’d this Translation. _Elle est_, says
he, _bien belle, & bien françoise, & montre que son Auteur entend
parfaitement le Grec. Je puis dire que j’y ay vu des Choses, que,
peut etre, Faute d’Attention, je n’avois pas vues dans le Grec._ This
is great; and it must be own’d that Mr. _Menage_ was a Man of very
extensive Learning, and a great Master of the _Greek_ Tongue; but that
his Judgment was always equal to his Knowledg of Words, will not be so
readily allow’d. Besides, the Credit of the Books ending in _ana_ runs
very low, and in particular the _Menagiana_ have been disown’d by Mr.
_Menage’s_ own [C]Relations, as being injurious to the Merit and
Memory of that great Man. And therefore it must still be left to the
inquisitive and judicious Reader to determine, whether those Faults,
which I have observ’d in Mr. _de la Bruyere’_s Translation are justly
censur’d or not.

[B: Menagiana. Ed. _Paris._ 1715. T. 4. p. 219.]

[C: Mr. _du Tremblay_. Traité des Langues. ad fin.]

The _Characters_ of _Theophrastus_ have been twice translated into
_English_. The former Translation is _anonymous_, and the latter was
done by the ingenious Mr. _Eustace Budgell_. It will be expected that
I shou’d say something of these two Translations. And I shall be the
more ready to do this, because I shall hereby insensibly lead the
Reader to the Reasons which induc’d me to undertake a
third.

The anonymous _English_ Translation is said to have been done upon