

XX BIBLIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. 



judgment and a more severe taste. His style, though not 

 entirely free from Latinisms, is elec^ant and frraceful. The 

 grammarian Tzetzes, who paraphrased our poem, calls him 



an ocean of graces." Scaliger (the elder) abounds in 

 commendations of him as a divine and incomparable poet, 

 skilled in all philosophy, and the writer among the Greeks 

 who attained the elegance of Virgil. Barthius styles him 

 " the most flowery (in a good sense) of all the poets." Ken- 

 nett says of him : " The dryness of his subject, though it 

 ofliends some modem French critics " (he means Rapin, 

 Rejlex. sur la Poetique), " yet has not hindered him from 

 being esteemed, by more knowing judges, as an author 

 little inferior in fancy, art, and language, to the most cele- 

 brated masters in the Grecian strain and art." Jones (pre- 

 facing an English translation in verse, begun by Diaper 

 and finished by himself) declares, not without truth, that 

 " he could not find that Natural Aflfection, which the 

 Greeks call cropyr,, so well exprest in any Poet as him. His 

 Similitudes and Allusions have almost all a reference to 

 this. His Images are all made up of Piety, Friendship, 

 Gratitude, and Innocence. No one ever better mixt the 

 Gentleman and Philosopher than this author has done." 



Oppian's skill as a naturalist is quite as admirable as his 

 poetic genius. That he had studied Aristotle and other 

 writers on the subject is evident, but he hesitates not to 

 judge for himself, makes new observations, and gives 

 many new facts. Sir Thomas Brown, in that slashing 

 chapter ( Vulgar Errors, i., 8), where he shows no mercy 

 to credulous authors, calls him " the famous Cilician poet, 

 who, describing beasts of venery and fishes, he has indeed 

 but sparingly inserted the vulgar conceptions thereof; so 

 that, abating some exceptions" (which he names) "he may 

 be read with great delight and profit." Both Buflbn (His- 

 toire des Quadrupcdes) and Lacepede (Hist. Nat, des Pols- 

 sons) quote from him with great respect. Indeed, if we 

 Would gain the best information, on the subjects of which 



