SOURCE: “Sir Edward Marsh's Translation of Dominique,” in Essays by Divers Hands, edited by Sir George Rostrevor Hamilton, Oxford University Press, 1955, pp. 1-20.

In the following essay, initially given as a lecture on November 20, 1952, Gibbon lauds Marsh's abilities as a translator, in particular his subtle and skillful translation of Eugene Fromentin's Dominique.

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The aim of every art is perfection, and the problem of every art is the means whereby that perfection can become possible. One can appreciate achievement with only a very slight knowledge of technicalities, or with no knowledge at all; but in spite of everything that artists may have told us about how they surrender to their intuitions, no great practitioner of any art has ever been in a position to boast that he had a soul above technique. If a man is not interested in the means, then that is a sign that his interest...