A journey round my room

Some apology for publishing this translation is perhaps necessary.

Although in France the “Voyage” retains the high esteem in which it has been held for half a century, it is hardly known in England, except by those who are familiar with the French language and literature.

During the last twenty years the proportion of educated persons in this country who are unable to enjoy a French book in the original has greatly decreased. Still, there are some to whom a translation of this delightful work may be acceptable.

To them I offer the pleasant labor of a few leisure hours; but not without assuring them that, in endeavoring to reproduce faithfully the author’s ideas, I have felt at every paragraph how true it is that “_le style ne se traduit pas_,”--“style is untranslatable.”