M. Tullii Ciceronis Orationes with a Commentary

and he will often perplex his reader by the contradictory opinions which he transfers to his notes. This is the case with the notes to the Variorum edition of Cicero's orations. They contain much good matter, but the true and the false, the useful and the useless, are heaped together in a way to bewilder the student. I have not consulted every commentator whom I might have consulted, or ought to have consulted. Sometimes I could not get a book that I wanted, and sometimes I was ignorant of its existence. I have however used the remarks of many commentators, some of them the best; and I have consulted a great many books, principally German writers on Roman law and Roman constitutional questions, which have not been used in this country, at least for the explanation of Cicero's text. For the reasons which I have mentioned and other reasons not necessary to mention, I add that I know that I have explained some orations better than others.

My notes, I think, are sufficient in quantity. It is a great mistake to overload an ancient author with notes, and to leave nothing for the teacher or the reader to do. We do not read, or we ought not to read an ancient author for the notes, but notes ought to be written and read to assist in understanding the text. There is great danger now, and it is often the case, that people read about antiquity and about ancient authors, and know little of the authors themselves. If these writers are worth reading, they should be read with as few notes as possible, and every man who has studied them with proper care, and got over all such difficulties as a critical study can conquer, will prefer reading them afterwards without any notes at all, and reading them as he would read a book in his own language, or in a modern language which he can easily understand. A student requires many notes to some of the classical authors; for the object of his study is a critical examination of the author's words, in order that he may improve himself in the language, and pass through a useful and necessary discipline.

The faults both of omission and commission in a work like this. must be numerous, whatever pains an editor has taken; and if he has a reasonable share of modesty and judgment, nobody will know these faults better than himself. Nothing is easier than to find fault, but those who are disposed to do that and nothing else, must

either be very vain or very foolish, and certainly they have a very insufficient notion of the difficulties of such a work. Where the matter is so large and various, opinions so much divided on obscure passages, and references so numerous, many errors must be committed. I have received several useful suggestions and remarks from various gentlemen, who are strangers to me; and I have always found that those whose communications were the best, were also most indulgent to those slips and errors which even the most accurate and careful will make. It is a fact, which any man may convince himself of by making the experiment of writing notes, that an editor will sometimes blunder in an easy passage and commit errors which a schoolboy may correct; and for this reason among others, that his vigilance is more active and his understanding too, when he sees a real difficulty and tries to grapple with it. There is another thing too that he may discover. His attention being necessarily engaged with a number of small matters, he may sometimes overlook the general purport of the discourse and of the composition, which another man who reads carefully cannot fail to see. Accordingly, I find that on using for the instruction of youth what I have written, I am sometimes dissatisfied, and could easily mend my work; which I shall do, if ever I have the opportunity.

Mr. Macleane, who in conjunction with me had the general management of this series, used to read over my proof sheets, as I read over the proof sheets of his Horace, Juvenal, and Persius. Unfortunately for me his health was often bad, and I had not always the advantage of his suggestions. In the last volume particularly, he was only able to read part of the sheets, which I much regret. His remarks were always good and practical. His premature death is a loss to letters. Many men had more learning, as it is called, a great deal of which however is a thing that I do not value at all; but I have never known any man who had a more genuine love for the best writers of antiquity, or a juster judgment in duly appreciating them.

BRIGHTON COLLEGE,

June 7, 1858.

GEORGE LONG.