PREFACE, 6-9 



mere publication. In the latter case I could have 

 said : ' Why does your Highness read that ? It was 

 written for the common herd, the mob of farmers 

 and of artizans, and after them for students who have 

 nothing else to occupy their time : why do you put 

 yourself on the jury? You were not on this panel 

 when I took the contract for this undertaking : I 

 knew you to be too great for me to think you hkely 

 to descend to this ! Moreover even in the court of 

 learning there is an official procedure for challenging 

 the jury : it is employed even by Marcus Cicero, who 

 where genius is in question stands outside all hazard. 

 It may surprise us, but Cicero calls in the aid of 

 council — 



. . . nor yet for the very learned ; 

 Manius Persius I don't want to read this, I want 

 Junius Congus. 



But if LuciUus, the originator of critical sniffing, 

 thought fit to say this, and Cicero to quote it, especially 

 when writing his Theory of the Constitution, how much 

 more reason have we to stand on the defensive against 

 a particular juryman?" But for my part at the 

 present I have deprived myself of these defences by 

 my nomination, as it matters a great deal whether 

 one obtains a judge by lot or by one's own selection, 

 and one's style of entertainment ranks quite differ- 

 ently with a guest one has invited and one who has 

 offered himself. The candidates in a hotly contested 

 election deposited sums of money with Cato, that 

 resolute foe of corruption, who enjoyed a defeat at 

 the poUs as an honour obtained free of charge ; and 

 they gave out that they did this in the defence of 

 the highest among human possessions, their inno- 



