attention, and hopes that without injuring the sentences by too minute a division, he has succeeded in making the meaning sufficiently intelligible. In the Notes which are appended to the Text, a translation has been given of those expressions and clauses which seemed likely to obstruct the progress of the learner, together with such illustrations as appeared necessary to elucidate grammatical and idiomatic difficulties, or to put him in possession of the meaning of the Author. To prevent the Text from being overloaded with Notes, and also to hold out an inducement to the Pupil to consult the Index, the expressions in immediate connexion with Proper Names are there explained. Upwards of 400 passages have thus been illustrated, besides many others to which references merely have been given. In this part of his work the Editor has had recourse to the annotations of Gierig, Jahn, and Bach, and to Billerbeck's Dictionary to the Metamorphoses.* Numerous references have also been made in the Notes to Adam's Roman Antiquities, for the purpose of drawing the attention of the Pupil to a work an acquaintance with which is essential to the understanding of the classical writers. They are marked A.R.A., and apply to the edition of Dr Boyd, which has been preferred, both because it is cheap, and also because, being stereotyped, the numbers of the pages are not likely to be changed. The Index has been compiled solely for the purpose *Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu den Verwandlungen des QviVon Dr Julius Billerbeck. Hannover, 1831. Sind dius Naso. of illustrating the Text, and therefore lays no claim to originality. In the Mythological Articles, the Editor has availed himself of the labours of Mr Keightley, in his excellent work on "The Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy," from which, in addition to the more common sources of information, the materials have been chiefly drawn. The indelicate details have been stated very briefly, while those which bear more immediately upon the narrative of Ovid have been given at greater length. To those who are acquainted with the Ovidian Mythology, as developed in the Metamorphoses, it is hardly necessary to say that it is attended with very considerable difficulties in the explanation, in consequence of the frequent mixing up of the older Mythi with those which the author had derived from a later period of Greek literature. His system is thus rendered incongruous, and the various parts of it irreconcilable with each other. The Editor can scarcely venture to hope that he has in every case rendered it intelligible to the learner; but he has endeavoured to do so as far as the subject and the limits which he had prescribed to himself would permit. In drawing up the Articles on Geography, he has consulted the works of Dr Cramer, on Ancient Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor, and has availed himself freely of their contents, and particularly of the admirable digest of them which is given in the Eton Geography. His obligations to this last work deserve a more extensive acknowledgment; and he embraces this opportunity of expressing the great satisfaction which he has always had in consulting it, and the perfect reliance which he has felt himself justified in placing on its accuracy. In the Orthography of Modern Names he has followed it exclusively. The Historical Articles, which are not numerous, have been prepared with all possible care. On the last two pages of the Index will be found a Table of the Declension of Greek Nouns, and a list of the lines which contain any peculiarity of Scanning. EDINBURGH ACADEMY, DECERPTA, &c. BOOK İ. PROŒEMIUM. IN nova fert' animus mutatas dicere formas FAB. I.-Chaos and the Creation. ANTE mare et terras et, quod tegit omnia, cœlum, Quem dixêre Chaos; rudis indigestaque moles; 1 Animus fert (me), my mind inclines me, I purpose, I intend. 5 2 Formas mutatas in nova corpora, bodies changed into new forms, i. e. the transformation of bodies. The words formas and corpora may be here considered as synonymous. 3 Mutâstis et illas, you transformed them also; be pleased therefore to assist me in recording the transformations. 4 Perpetuum carmen, a connected or uninterrupted poem,-so that each transformation may be connected with that which precedes it. 5 Ante mare et terras, before the (separate) existence of sea and land. Terras, for which there is sufficient manuscript authority, has been adopted instead of the common reading, tellus. 6 Unus vultus erat naturæ, there was one appearance of nature, nature presented one unvaried appearance. 7 Dixère (i. e. homines). 8 Discordia semina, the incongruous principles, or elements, i. e. fire, or ether, air, earth, and water. The order is, discordiaque semina rerum non bene junctarum congesta eodem, huddled together in the same place. 9 Librata suis ponderibus, balanced by its own weight, kept in equilibrium. Margine terrarum porrexerat Amphitrite. FAB. II.-The Creation of Man. 10 Sic ubi dispositam, quisquis fuit ille Deorum, 1 Instabilis, unstable, not fired, or not to be stood upon. 3 Habentia pondus (pugnabant cum iis quæ erant) sine pondere, bodies having weight struggled with those which were without weight, i. e. heavy bodies with light. 4 Liquidum cœlum, the pure ether; aëre, the atmosphere. 5 Quæ (semina, or elementa), these, the elements previously mentioned. 6 Dissociata locis ligavit concordi pace, being disunited from their (former) places, be combined in harmonious peace. 7 Ignea et sine pondere vis convexi cœli emicuit, the fiery and weightless element of the vaulted heaven, i. e. the ether, darted up. Vis cœli are used for cœlum, and convexi is used in the sense of concavi. 8 Traxit grandia elementa, attracted the heavier particles of matter... 9 Possedit ultima (loca), took possession of the most remote parts; as encircling the extremities of the earth's surface. 10 The order is, Ubi (Deus), quisquis deorum ille fuit, secuit congeriem sic dispositam, redegitque (eam) sectam in membra, and reduced it when thus divided to (distinct) elements, i. e. to fire, air, earth and water. ĉi |