nearest to him in claims of antiquity, even if we grant that his style is less interesting, and his matter not so attractive. Indeed one argument for including Hesiod in the series of 'Ancient Classics for English Headers' may be found in the fact that nine out of twelve students finish their classical course with but the vaguest acquaintance with his remains. Such, therefore, ought to be as thankful as the unlearned for an idea of what he actually or probably wrote. And it is this which the larger portion of this volume endeavours to supply. The poet's life has been compiled from ancient and modern biographies with a constant eye to the internal evidence of his extant poetry, for which the editions of Paley, Goettling, and Dubner, have been chiefly studied. For illustrative quotation, use has been chiefly made of the English versions of Elton, good for the most part, and, as regards the Theogony, almost Miltonic. For the 'Works and Days,' the little-known version of the Elizabethan George Chapman—a biographical rarity made accessible by Mr Hooper's edition in J. R. Smith's Library of Old Authors—has been here and there pressed into our service. A parallel or two to Hesiod's 'Shield of Hercules,' from Homer's Shield of Achilles, belong to an unpublished version by Mr Richard Garnett. But to no student of Hesiod are so many thanks due as to Mr F. A. Paley, whose notes have been of the utmost use, as the most successful attempt to unravel Hesiodic
