BOOK I, PREFACE, 8-11 



wander ovei* an unkno-wn world in the manner of 

 birds, a stranger on a distant shore ? Or is usury 

 more commendable, a thing detested even by those 

 whom it appears to aid? But certainly no more 9 

 admirable is the " canine pursuit,"" as the ancients 

 called it, of barking at every man of outstanding 

 wealth, and the practice of legal banditry against the 

 innocent and in defence of the guilty — a fraud de- 

 spised by our ancestors, but even allowed by us within 

 the city and in the very forum. Or should I regard 

 as more honourable the h}q)ocritical fawning of the 

 man who frequents the levees, for a pi-ice, and hovers 

 about the thresholds of the mighty,*" di\ining the 

 sleeping hours of his lord by heai-say ? For the 

 servants do not deign to reply to his questions as to 

 what is going on indooi's. Or am I to think it a 10 

 greater gift of fortune for a man, rebuffed by a 

 door-keeper in chains, to loiter about those ungrateful 

 doors, often until late at night, and by the most 

 demeaning servility to purchase at the price of 

 dishonour the honour and power of the fasces,'^ 

 though with the dissipation of his own inheritance ? 

 For it is not with voluntary ser\itude, but with 

 bribes, that preferments are bought. 



If good men are to shun these pursuits and their 

 kind, there remains, as I have said, one method 

 of increasing one's substance that befits a man who 

 is a gentleman and free-born, and this is found in 

 agriculture. If the precepts of this science were 11 

 put in practice in the old-fashioned way, even in 

 imprudent fashion by those without previous in- 

 struction (pro\ided, however, that they were owners 

 of the land), the business of husbandry would sustain 

 smaller loss ; for the diligence that goes >vith pro- 



