PREFACE, 14-16 



us who has made the same venture, nor yet one 

 among the Greeks who has tackled single-handed all 

 departments of the subject. A large part of us seek 

 agreeable fields of study,while topics of immeasurable 

 abstruseness treated by others are drowned in the 

 shadowy darkness of the theme. Deserving of treat- 

 ment before all things are the subjects included by 

 the Greeks under the name of ' EncycHc Culture ' ; 

 and nevertheless they are unknown, or have been 

 obscured by subleties, whereas other subjects have 

 been pubhshed so widely that they have become 

 stale. It is a difficult task to give novelty to what is 

 old, authority to what is new, brilHance to the 

 common-place, Hght to the obscure, attraction to the 

 stale, credibiHty to the doubtful, but nature to all 

 things and ah her properties to nature. Accordingly, 

 even if we have not succeeded, it is honourable and 

 glorious in the fuUest measure to have resolved on the 

 attempt. 



For my own part I am of opinion that a special 

 place in learning belongs to those who have preferred 

 the useful service of overcoming difficulties to the 

 popularity of giving pleasure ; and I have myself 

 aheady done this in other works also, and I declare 

 that I admire the famous writer Livy when he begins 

 one volume " of his History ofRomefrom the Foundation 

 of the City with the words ' I have already achieved 

 enough of fame, and I might have retired to leisure, 

 did not my restless mind * find its sustenance in 

 work.' For assuredly he ought to have composed 

 his history for the glory of the world-conquering 

 nation and of the Roman name, not for his own ; 

 it would have been a greater merit to have persevered 

 from love of the work, not for the sake of liis own 



IX 



