Goethe's Faust

That we already possess some poetical transla tions which rank as master-works is universally recognized, and I cannot but think that, instead of inveighing against metrical translation as a mistake, it would be advisable to encourage the hope that eventually every great work of genius, of every age and every clime, may be made ac cessible to the English reader in a translation which shall approximate to the original, as nearly as possible, in form as well as in spirit.