Still, if Mgr. Keane will permit us to express our humble opinion about this project of an Italian edition of the Life of Father Hecker, we will tell him plainly that the design is inspired by cet esprit d’imprudence et d’erreur de la chute des rois funeste avant-coureur (the spirit of recklessness and error……………..)
I thought this was a French translation... I don't speak Greek :ready-to-eat:
So Father Hecker was an Americanist, if I'm not mistaken, and therefore the author is lamenting the idea of translating a bio of his life into Italian, which to him is an idea that shares the same Masonic spirit as the one that led to the fall of kings... But there is something that is wrong with the grammar, as pointed out above.
Here is the literal English version, just so people can see how little sense this makes: "Still, if Mgr. Keane will permit us to express our humble opinion about this project of an Italian edition of the Life of Father Hecker, we will tell him plainly that his design is inspired by the spirit of recklessness and error of the fall of kings an ill-omen." Does that make sense to you? Because it is no more grammatically-sound in French. That is exactly how it sounds in French.
( 1 ) The "fall of kings" cannot have a "spirit." Would you say in English "the spirit of the fall of kings" or would you say "the anti-monarchical spirit" or "the spirit of revolution" or something like that? The latter, obviously. Well, it's the same in French. The fall of kings is the effect of the spirit of revolution, which is the cause.
( 2 ) It's impossible to figure out what the ill-omen ( funeste avant-coureur ) is supposed to refer to. It makes even less sense with the context you just gave, since the bio either ( a ) Was published after the fall of kings in question or ( b ) If it precedes the fall of kings, then you still have to explain how the "fall of kings" can have a spirit.
The sentence would mostly make sense if, instead of "fall of kings," it said "revolutionary spirit" ( esprit de révolution ), and then there was a comma, and then it said "funeste avant-coureur DE LA CHUTE DES ROIS" ( a bad omen of the fall of kings ). The book, in other words, breathes a spirit of revolution that is a bad omen of the fall of kings... I think that is what must really be going on here but somehow it is all garbled.
Can you just write out the whole paragraph in French? Caminus, why is it that everything with you is difficult? Seriously, this is like a Vatican II sentence.