PREFACE, 9-14 



cence. This was the occasion of that famous sigh of 

 Cicero — ' O happy Marcus Porcius whom no one 

 dares to ask for sometliing underhand ! ' Lucius 

 Scipio Asiaticus by appeahng to the tribunes, one 

 of them being Gracchus, testified that his case 

 could be made good even to an unfriendly judge : 

 in fact a judge whom one chooses oneself one 

 makes the supreme arbiter of one's case — this is the 

 source of the term ' appeal.' You yourself indeed, 

 I know, being placed on the loftiest pinnacle of all 

 mankind, and being endowed with supreme elo- 

 quence and learning, are approached with reverential 

 awe even by persons paying a visit of ceremony, and 

 consequently care is taken that what is dedicated to 

 you may be worthy of you. However, country folk, 

 and many natives, not having incense, make offerings 

 of milk and salted meal, and no man was ever charged 

 with irreguUirity for worshipping the gods in what- 

 ever manner was within his power. 



My own presumption has indeed gone further, in 

 dedicating to you the present volumes — a work of a 

 lighter nature, as it does not admit of talent, of which 

 in any case I possessed only quite a moderate amount, 

 nor does it allow of digressions, nor of speeches or 

 dialogues, nor marvellous accidents or unusual 

 occurrences — matters interesting to relate or enter- 

 taining to read. My subject is a barren one — the 

 world of nature, or in other words Ufe ; and that 

 subject in its least elevated department, and employ- 

 ing either rustic terms or foreign, nay barbarian, 

 words that actually have to be introduced with an 

 apology. Moreover, the path is not a beaten highway 

 of authorship, nor one in which the mind is eager 

 to range : there is not one person to be found among 



