PREFACE.
"IF," says W. Wotton, in his 'Reflections on Ancient and Modern Learning,' "Homer and Virgil had been Polanders, or High Dutch, they would never, in all probability, have thought it worth their while to attempt the writing of heroic poems." Expressions like these are frequently employed by men who scorn all instruction but that which flows from classic sources, and such expressions are too often only the exhibition of proud ignorance and idleness. It is easy to despise what we do not comprehend; and to contemn an unknown language and literature is a lighter task than to study them.
To treat with an affectation of disdain the subjects respecting which we are too vain, or too cowardly to confess our want of information, is an error as old as it is grievous. Procopius, in speak-
