Would someone kindly just explain this sentence to me in simpler words or just explain what is ment, although I recognise all the words and know all of their side meanings my brain doesn't process it as a whole sentence. I'm a newbie book translator and never ever seen a sentence such as this before. Thank you all so much.
"But he could hardly have passed upon them a more unmeaning slight than to ascribe to their great master tenets the reverse of those which he actually held."
It's a terrible, terrible sentence. the phrase "unmeaning slight" is pretty incomprehensible, but if it mans "an inadvertent/unintended slight" it adds up to something like this:
Probably the worst way he could have inadvertently insulted them was by claiming that their great master believed things that were the opposite of what he actually believed.
He could not have possibly given them a more meaningless disrespect (discourtesy, a mild insult) than to say that their great master had principles that were actually the opposite of the principles that he held.
