BOOK I, PREFACE 5-8 



or, what is more to be wondered at, training-schools 

 for the most contemptible vices — the seasoning of 

 food to promote gluttony and the more extravagant 

 serving of courses, and dressers of the head and 

 hair — I have not only heard but have even seen 

 with my o^vn eyes ; but of agriculture I know neither 

 self-professed teachers nor pupils. For even if the 6 

 state were destitute of professors of the afore- 

 mentioned arts, still the commonwealth could 

 prosper just as in the times of the ancients — for 

 \Wthout the theatrical profession and even M^ithout 

 case-pleaders " cities were once happy enough, and 

 will again be so ; yet without tillers of the soil it is 

 obvious that mankind can neither subsist nor be fed. 



For this reason, what has come to pass is the more 7 

 amazing — that the art of the highest importance 

 to our physical welfare and the needs of life should 

 have made, even up to our own time, the least 

 progress ; and that this method of enlarging and 

 passing on an inheritance, entirely free from guilt, 

 should be looked upon with scorn. For other 

 methods, diverse and in conflict as it were, are at 

 odds with justice ; unless we think it more equitable 

 to have acquired spoils by the soldier's method, 

 which profits us nothing without bloodshed and 

 disaster to others. Or, to those who detest war, 8 

 can the hazard of the sea and of trade be more 

 desirable, that man, a terrestrial being, violating 

 the law of nature and exposing himself to the wrath 

 of wind and sea, should hang on the waves and always 



" In a contemptuous sense, as commonly in the use of 

 causidicus {e.g. Quintilian, XII. 1. 25). 



tenderet (alias in abbr. suprascr.) pendeat M : so fluctibus 

 audeat credere c, cett. edd. 



7 



