Boot I.] 
DEDICATIOIT. 
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 Grreeks include in the Encyclopaedia^ which, how- 
ever, are either not generally known or are rendered dubious 
from our ingenious conceits. And there are other matters 
which many writers 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. Livius, so celebrated an author as he is, 
in one of the books of his history of the city from its origin, 
should begin with, 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 doctrinarmn omnium circidus ; " 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. 
