to the end on the same plan. The work was carried on, till it increased to a considerable bulk. The addition of Persius enlarged it to its present size, in which it appears in print, with a design to add its assistance in explaining these difficult authors not only to school-boys and young beginners, but to numbers in a more advanced age, who, by having been thrown into various scenes of life, remote from classical improvement, have so far forgotten their Latin, as to render these elegant and instructive remains of antiquity almost inaccessible to their comprehension, however desirous they may be to renew their acquaintance with them.

As to the old objection, that translations of the Classics tend to make boys idle, this can never happen but through the fault of the master, in not properly watching over the method of their studies. A master should never suffer a boy to construe his lesson in the school, but from the Latin by itself, nor without making the boy parse, and give an account of every necessary word; this will drive him to his grammar and dictionary, near as much as if he had no translation at all: but in private, when the boy is preparing his lesson, a literal translation, and explanatory notes, so facilitate the right comprehension and understanding of the author's language, meaning, and design, as to imprint them with ease on the learner's mind, to form his taste, and to enable him not only to construe and explain, but to get those portions of the author by heart, which he is at certain periods to repeat at school, and which, if judiciously selected, he may find useful, as well as ornamental to him, all his life.

To this end I have considered that there are three purposes to be answered. First, that the reader should know what the author says; this can only be attained by gliteral

s I trust that I shall not be reckoned guilty of inconsistency, if in some

translation: as for poetical versions, which are so often miscalled translations, paraphrases, and the like, they are but ill calculated for this fundamental and necessary purpose.

They remind one of a performer on a musical instrument, who shews his skill by playing over a piece of music with so many variations, as to disguise almost entirely the original simple melody, insomuch that the hearers depart as ignorant of the merit of the composer as they came.

All translators should transfer to themselves the directions which our Shakespeare gives to actors, at least, if they mean to assist the student, by helping him to the construction, that he may understand the language of the author. As the actor is not "to o'erstep the modesty of nature;" so a translator is not to o'erstep the simplicity of the text. As an actor is "not to speak more than is set down for him ;" so a translator is not to exercise his own fancy, and let it loose into phrases and expressions, which are totally foreign from those of the author. He should therefore sacrifice vanity to usefulness, and forego the praise of elegant writing, for the utility of faithful translation.

The next thing to be considered, after knowing what the author says, is how he says it: this can only be learnt from the original itself, to which I refer the reader, by printing the Latin, line for line, opposite to the English, and, as the lines are numbered, the eye will readily pass from the one to the other. The information which has been received from the translation, will readily assist in the grammatical construction.

The third particular, without which the reader would fall very short of understanding the author, is to know what he

few passages I have made use of paraphrase, which I have so studiously avoided through the rest of the work, because the literal sense of these is better obscured than explained, especially to young minds.

means; to explain this is the intention of the notes, for many of which I gratefully acknowledge myself chiefly indebted to various learned commentators, but who, having written in Latin, are almost out of the reach of those for whom this work is principally intended. Here and there I have selected some notes from English writers: this indeed the student might have done for himself; but I hope he will not take it amiss, that I have brought so many different commentators into one view, and saved much trouble to him, at the expence of my own labour. The rest of the notes, and those no inconsiderable number, perhaps the most, are my own, by which, if I have been happy enough to supply any deficiencies of others, I shall be glad.

Upon the whole, I am, from long observation, most perfectly convinced, that the early disgust, which, in too many instances, youth is apt to conceive against classical learning (so that the school-time is passed in a state of 1 labour and sorrow), arises mostly from the crabbed and difficult methods of instruction, which are too often imposed upon them; and that therefore all attempts to reduce the number of the difficulties, which, like so many thorns, are laid in their way, and to render the paths of instruction pleasant and easy, will encourage and invite their attention, even to the study of the most difficult authors, among the foremost of which we may rank Juvenal and Persius. Should the present publication be found to answer this end, not only to schoolboys, but to those also who would be glad to recover such a competent knowledge of the Latin tongue, as to encourage the renewal of their acquaintance with the Classics, (whose

"The books that we learn at school are generally laid aside, with this "prejudice, that they were the labours as well as the sorrows of our childhood " and education; but they are among the best of books: the Greek and Roman "authors have a spirit in them, a force both of thought and expression, that later ages have not been able to imitate." Bp. BURNET, Past. Care, cap. vii. i Quod enim munus reipublicæ affere majus, meliusve possumus, quam si docemus atque erudimus juventutem? Cic. de Divin. lib. ii. 2.

writings so richly contribute to ornament the higher and more polished walks in life, and which none but the ignorant and tasteless can undervalue,) it will afford the Editor an additional satisfaction. Still more, if it prove useful to foreigners; such I mean as are acquainted with the Latin, and wish to be helped in their study of the English language, which is now so much cultivated in many parts of Europe.

The religious reader will observe, that God, who “in "times past suffered all the nations (Tavтa Tа evη, i. e. "all the heathen) to walk in their own ways, nevertheless " left not himself without witness," not only by the outward manifestations of his power and goodness, in the works of creation and providence, but by men also, who, in their several generations, have so far shewn the work of the law written in their hearts, as to bear testimony against the unrighteousness of the world in which they lived. Hence we find the great apostle of the Gentiles, Acts xvii. 28. quoting a passage from his countryman, Aratus of Cilicia, against idolatry, or imagining there be gods made with hands. We find the same apostle" reproving the vices of lying and gluttony in the Cretans, by a quotation from the Cretan poet Epimenides, whom he calls "a prophet of their own," for they accounted their poets writers of divine oracles. Let this teach us to distinguish between the use and abuse of classical knowledge, when it tends to inform the judgment, to refine the manners, and to embellish the conversation; when it keeps a due subordination to that which is divine, makes us truly thankful of the superior light of God's infallible word, and teaches us how little can be truly known° by the wisest of men, without a divine revelation; then it has its use still more, if it awakens in us a jealousy over

k See WHITBY on Acts xiv. 16. m See Rom. ii. 15.

n

Comp. Rom. i. 19, 20. with Acts xiv. 17. Tit. i. 12. o 1 Cor. i. 20, 21.

ourselves, that we duly improve the superior light with which we are blessed, lest the very heathen rise in judgment against us. If, on the contrary, it tends to make us proud, vain, and conceited, to rest in its attainments as the summit of wisdom and knowledge; if it contributes to harden the mind against superior information, or fills it with that sour pedantry which leads to the contempt of others; then I will readily allow, that all our learning is but "splendid "ignorance and pompous folly.".

P Luke xii. 47, 48.