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London:

PRINTED BY WILLIAM OSTELL,

Hart-street, Bloomsbury.

PREFACE.

THE following Extracts are taken from the Fasti of Ovid, the most unexceptionable, and by many considered the best written, of the works of that poet. They certainly contain subjects of more varied interest, and of a more pure and manly character, than the Epistles, and therefore are better suited for the tuition of youth. The word Fasti originally signified the Days on which the law-courts were open, and ordinary business was transacted; next, the Tables in which such days were noted; in Ovid, the meaning is extended to the origin of religious rites and ceremonies, festivals and sacrifices; the dedications of temples, and other memorable events indicated in the Calendar of the Roman year; connected also with the sun's course in the zodiac, and with the rising and setting of the stars; a design which he has thus compendiously expressed in the opening lines of the Poem :—

66

Tempora cum causis Latium digesta per annum,
Lapsaque sub terras ortaque signa cano."

The Poet has interspersed these dry details with beautiful descriptions of nature, of rural scenery, and

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