"Come, my friends, let us see how merry you can be! for in my time, I have been no better than yourselves; but, by my own industry, I am what I am. 'Tis the heart makes the man; all the rest is but stuff!"
In another translation, which, with Grub-Street audacity, the publisher, in his title-passage, presumes to attribute to Addison! and which appeared in 1736 (Lond. 8vo.), the passage is as follows:—
"I was once as you are: but now, thanks to my industry, I am what I am. It is the heart that makes the man; all the rest is but stuff!"
Be the translator who he may, this version, so impudently ascribed to the moral Addison, is written with much spirit and power, and with a remarkable comprehension of the author's meaning. Some of the poetical fragments at the end are, indeed, singularly well done.
Of the two French versions which "P.C.S.S." has examined, the one by Levaur (Paris, 8vo. 1726) thus translates the passage:
"Je vous prie, mes amis ... C'est le coeur qui fait les hommes; je compte le reste pour un fétu."
In that of Boispreaux (Lond. 1742), it is simply rendered—
"Mon sçavoir faire m'a tiré du pair. C'est le coeur qui fait l'homme ..."
No attempt is made to translate the quisquilia.
P.C.S.S.