8 plint's natural histoet. [Book I. a tliefb to returning what we have borrowed, especially when we have acquired capital, by usurious interest The Greeks were wonderfully happy in their titles. One work they called Kripiov, which means that it was as sweet as a honeycomb ; another Kepas 'AfxaXdeias, or Cornu copise, so that you might expect to get even a di'aught of pigeon's milk from it^. Then they have their Flowers, their Muses, Magazines, Manuals, Gardens, Pictures, and Sketches^, all of them titles for which a man might be tempted even to forfeit his bail. But when you enter upon the works, O ye Gods and Goddesses ! how full of emptiness ! Our duller countrymen have merely their Antiquities, or their Examples, or their Arts. I think one of the most humorous of them has his jN'octurnal Studies'*, a term employed by Bibaculus ; a name which he richly deserved^. Yarrb, indeed, is not much be- hind him, when he calls one of his satires A Trick and a Half, and another Turning the Tables^. Diodorus was the first among the Greeks who laid aside this trifling manner and named his history The Library'^. Apion, the grammarian, indeed — he whom Tiberius Caesar called the Trumpeter of the World, but would rather seem to be the Bell of the Town-crier^, — supposed that every one to whom he inscribed any work would thence acquire immortality. I do not regret not having given my work a more fanciful title. That I may not, however, appear to inveigh so completely against the Greeks, I should wish to be considered under the same point of view with those inventors of the arts of
- " Cum prsesertim sors fiat ex usura." The commentators and trans-
lators have differed respecting the interpretation of this passage ; I have given what appears to me the obvious meaning of the words. 2 "Lac gallinaceum ; " "Proverbium de re singulari et admodum rara," according to Hardouin, who quotes a parallel passage from Petro- nius ; Lemaire, i. 21. 3 The titles in the original are given in Greek ; I have inserted in the text the words which most nearly resemble them, and which have been employed by modern authors. 4 « Lucubratio." 5 The pun in the original cannot be preserved in the translation ; the Enghsh reader may conceive the name Bibaculus to correspond to our surname JoUy. ^ " Sesciilysses " and " Flextabula ; " hteraUy, Ulysses and a Half, and Bend-table. 7 Bi(3io6t]Kr]. ^ " Cymbalum mundi " and " pubhcse famse tympanum."
