Tough to translate - 1892
Henry Wace, scholar.
Introduction
Henry Wace was a British educator and scholar, most famous for his authorship of the Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century A.D., with an Account of the Principal Sects and Heresies. An evangelical Anglican, he served in several curacies, edited an evangelical academic journal, and was a professor (eventually principal) at King’s College, London.
Among his productions was an edition of Gregory of Nyssa’s writings for Philip Schaff’s Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers. Today’s quote is drawn from its preface, dated this day 6 November 1892.
Quote
“These translations from the works of St. Gregory of Nyssa have involved unusual labour, which the Editor hopes will be accepted as a sufficient apology for the delay of the volume. The difficulty has been extreme of conveying with correctness in English the meaning of expressions and arguments which depend on some of the most subtle ideas of Greek philosophy and theology; and, in addition to the thanks due to the translators, the Editor must offer a special acknowledgment of the invaluable help he has received from the exact and philosophical scholarship of the Rev. J. H. Lupton, Surmaster of St. Paul’s School. . . . From the careful and minute revision which the volume has thus undergone, the Editor ventures to entertain some hope that the writings of this important and interesting Father are in this volume introduced to the English reader in a manner which will enable him to obtain a fair conception of their meaning and value.”
Schaff, Philip. Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdman’s Publishing Co.