Note to the Fifth Edition.
The favourable reception which has been given to the first Editions of
this work, far exceeding my most sanguine hopes, affords a gratifying
proof how far, in my preface, I had overrated the extent to which the
taste for, and appreciation of, Classical Literature had declined. It
will not, I hope, be thought extraordinary that some errors and
inaccuracies should have found their way into a translation executed, I
must admit, somewhat hastily, and with less of the "limae labor" than I
should have bestowed upon it, had I ventured to anticipate for it so
extensive a circulation. My thanks, therefore, are due to those
critics, who, either publicly or privately, have called my attention to
passages in which the sense of the Author has been either incorrectly
or imperfectly rendered. All of these I have examined, and have availed
myself of several of the suggestions offered for their correction; and
a careful revision of the whole work, and renewed comparison with the
original, have enabled me to discover other defects, the removal of
which will, I hope, render the present Edition, especially in the eyes
of Classical Scholars, somewhat more worthy of the favour which has
been accorded to its predecessors.
D.
St. James's Square, May, 1885.
