Book I.] DEDICATIOH". 5 



ture of things, and life as it actually exists, are described in 

 them ; and often the lowest department of it ; so that, in 

 very many cases, I am obliged to use rude and foreign, or 

 even barbarous terms, and these often require to be intro- 

 duced by a kind of preface. And, besides this, my road is 

 not a beaten track, nor one which the mind is much disposed 

 to travel over. There is no one among us who has ever at- 

 tempted it, nor is there any one individual among the Greeks 

 who has treated of all the topics. Most of us seek for no- 

 thing but amusement in our studies, while others are fond 

 of subjects that are of excessive subtilty, and completely in- 

 volved in obscurity. My object is to treat of all those things 

 which the Greeks include in the Encyclopedia \ which, how- 

 ever, are either not generally known or are rendered dubious 

 from our ingenious conceits. And there are other matters 

 which many wTiters have given so much in detail that we 

 quite loathe them. It is, indeed, no easy task to give novelty 

 to what is old, and authority to what is new ; brightness to 

 what is become tarnished, and light to what is obscure ; to 

 render what is slighted acceptable, and what is doubtful 

 worthy of our confidence ; to give to all a natural manner, 

 and to each its peculiar nature. It is sufficiently honour- 

 able and glorious to have been willing even to make the at- 

 tempt, although it should prove unsuccessful. And, indeed, 

 I am of opinion, that the studies of those are more especially 

 worthy of our regard, who, after having overcome all diffi- 

 culties, prefer the useful office of assisting others to the 

 mere gratification of giving pleasure ; and this is what I have 

 already done in some of my former works. I confess it sur- 

 prises me, that T. Li\aus, so celebrated an author as he is, 

 in one of the books of his history of the city from its origin, 

 should begin wdth this remark, " I have now obtained a suf- 

 ficient reputation, so that I might put an end to my work, 

 did not my restless mind require to be supported by employ- 

 ment^." Certainly he ought to have composed this work, 

 not for his own glory, but for that of the Roman name, and 



1 "... id est, artium et doctrinarum omnium circulus ; " Alexandre 

 in Lem. i. 14. 



2 These words are not found in any of the books of Livy now extant ; 

 we may conclude that they were introduced into the latter part of his 

 work. 



