Author Description

CONSIDERING the obvious advantages offered by the combination of translation with commentary, it is strange that the field of Greek and Roman literature has been so far neglected in this respect that the classics the basis of literary education in our schools and colleges are still, so to speak, sealed books for all but students of Greek and Latin. By those who do not possess the key to the originals they are read, if at all, with little real appreciation, while it is to be feared that the majority even of those who have acquired the key at much expense of time and labour make hardly any subsequent use of it. The difficulty seems to be met most simply and directly, not only for the ' English reader,' but for the more or less instructed student, by thoroughly annotated translations, giving to the latter the means of widening the area of his early reading and following it up in after life, so as to make the ancient literature a permanent possession. Translations on these lines from the Greek have the further recommendation that they go far to fill the gap and bring continuity into the classical work of the 'modern side,' which is restricted to Latin.