OR, CAMBRIDGE Classical Researches. VOL. I. Cambridge: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, By J. Smith; FOR JOHN MURRAY, 50, ALBEMARLE STREET; T. PAYNE, J. MAWMAN, LONDON; J. DEIGHTON & SONS, CAMBRIDGE; J. PARKER, OXFORD; DUBLIN. 1826 MINNESOTA M973 PREFACE. vols. So fertile has been the ingenuity and so unwearied the exertions of our countrymen in the cause of literature during their long exclusion from the usual supplies of continental scholarship, that he who wishes to strike out a new path without intruding upon preoccupied ground, will find no less difficulty in tracing out the course of his plan, than in collecting the materials for its execution. To those, however, for whose amusement or instruction the following Work is intended, little apology is necessary for want of novelty in the subject or of originality in the design. Every scholar is fully sensible how much yet remains to be done in smoothing the asperities and removing the obstacles which occur even in the beaten track, and how much useful industry may yet be expended on the wide field of general criticism. Various important manuscripts have been hitherto wholly neglected or but imperfectly collated; a correct text of many smaller pieces of acknowledged beauty has never yet been presented to the world, much assistance to the student from philological investigation, or amusing illustration still remains to be supplied, much curious matter which has escaped the researches of former scholars, may claim his attention and regard. In some of these departments a large portion of information has been occasionally furnished by the reviewers and journalists of the a present day, but from the very nature of their several plans, their attention could not have been directed to Stecheri 565395 every point in question. As therefore the present publication, with respect to its objects and intentions, will essentially differ from any periodical work now in existence, it may be expedient, for the mutual satisfaction of the conductors and the reader, shortly to state the nature and extent of its design. While the labours of the most distinguished scholars have been expended on works of greater magnitude and more general importance, many inestimable relics of antiquity have been from various causes consigned to unmerited obscurity; and it may be difficult to determine whether they have suffered most from the errors of a careless and hasty publication, or from the indifference of total neglect. To embody the scattered remains of ancient poets, to present an accurate and amended collection of their several fragments, to introduce to public notice even the whole of such short and detached pieces, as from their own intrinsic excellence, or the interest of concurring circumstances, may be thought worthy the attention of the scholar, will be a leading object in the present work. Various unedited notes, conjectural emendations, and illustrations by the first scholars of their day, the autographs of which are deposited in the libraries of public bodies, will be presented for the first time to the literary world. Collations of various manuscripts under the same circumstances will be made from time to time, as the importance of their authors or general curiosity may require. It may not be considered as altogether useless, occasionally to reprint an amusing or instructive extract from such scarce and valuable works as are wholly withdrawn from public inspection by the rapacity of the collector, or are preserved only in the cabinets of the curious. In this part of the work, as the materials will have been furnished by the invention or the industry of others, little more can be required than judgement in the selection and arrangement. Into that department which is reserved for original communications, such miscellaneous treatises or essays will be admitted, as may contribute to throw any new light on the manners and customs, arts and sciences, history and antiquities of the Greek and Roman empires, whether from the observations of modern travellers, or the stores of ancient learning. The more immediate province of criticism will be conducted with the attention due to the important rank which it justly holds in the scale of human learning. Many indeed of the works, which will fall within the province of this publication to consider, may already have been amended by the corrections, or enriched by the observations of former scholars; but there is scarcely a book within the extended range of Greek and Roman literature which has been edited with so perfect a regard to every branch of critical information, as to require no aid from the learning and assiduity of a subsequent age. In one we have a corrupt and mutilated body adorned with the most elegant and instructive illustrations, in another we have the text restored to its original beauty and perfection, but encompassed with the barrenness of cautious reserve. The defects of former editions will never be removed by the effort of a single hand; their omissions must be gradually supplied by the labours of succeeding scholars. The works of genius, like the fame of their authors, as they devolve from one generation to another will receive new light, and acquire new strength at every transmission. As a relief to the dry and less amusing portions of the work, there will be occasionally interspersed biographical memoirs of the most eminent scholars, and short histori |