34 PREFACE. 



Saint Chrysostom, the most eloquent of the Greek fathers of 

 the church, was so enamoured of Aristophanes, notwithstand- 

 ing the mahgnity of his satire, his occasional obscenities, and 

 licentious morals, as "to wake with him at his studies, and 

 to sleep with him under his pillow:" and it was never " ob- 

 jected either to his piety or his preaching, even in those times 

 of pure zeal and primitive religion." To close the ancient 

 cynegetica against the modern student, merely because the 

 lowly quadruped, that gives a name to such works, forms a 

 part of their subject-matter, pregnant in every page with innu- 

 merable other beauties, unconnected with the poor tyke, but 

 scattered around him, would be (in an expressive simile of the 

 Sir T. Eiyot's author of " the Govemour") like " prohibiting; a man to 



IheOovemour, r s 



I- c. XIII. come into a fayre gardein, lest in gadring good and holsome 

 herbes, he may happen to be stung with a netle " — " Semblaby 

 yf a man doe rede wanton matter, myxt with wysdom, he 

 putteth the worst under fote, and sorteth out the beste." 



But the " Scriptores Rei VenaticsB " are, of all others on 

 the classic file, most chaste and pure of sentiment. The 

 character bestowed by Price on Gratius in particular, is 

 applicable to all collectively : 



their style, their argu;iient 

 Is pleasant, rev'rend, candid, innocent. 



Their eminent beauties in poetry and prose, their fine moral 

 reflections and religious aspirations, will bear comparison with 

 the brightest productions of Greek and Roman literature, and 

 can only be lightly esteemed, because they are little known. 

 If a candid and susceptible reader, competent to enjoy their 

 beauties, shall, after a perusal, deem his hours of recreative 



