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BOTH Text, Analysis and Commentary in this Third Edition have been again subjected to a thorough revision. To the explanatory notes I have found it necessary to add some sixty pages of new matter, while of the old compression here, expansion there, and, where superfluous or erroneous, excision has been employed unsparingly; numerous fresh illustrations have been given and frequent reference has been made to the Grammars of Zumpt, Madvig, Draeger, Kennedy, Key and Roby. A few notes will be found distinguished by the initials J. E. B. M.: for these I am indebted to Professor Mayor of Cambridge.

SCHOOL HOUSE, IPSWICH

September, 1879

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

THE present edition of the de officiis has been so much altered and enlarged that it may fairly lay claim to be considered a new work rather than a second edition of the volume published fifteen years ago. The latter laboured under so many blemishes and imperfections, which time and, I trust, more matured scholarship have enabled me to correct, that I could not rest satisfied without subjecting it to a thorough revision, notwithstanding the scanty leisure left me by arduous professional duties: under this process the commentary on the text has grown to double its original bulk, a large amount of explanation and illustration having been added to the notes, which have themselves been abridged and otherwise modified, in many cases entirely re-written.

I trust that the volume in its new form may satisfy the wants of more than one class of readers-I may now venture to add of both sexes.

An army of commentators has at various times been employed in explaining this which may perhaps be called the most popular of Cicero's writings; Orelli in his first edition of our author's entire works Vol. VI p. 334 ff. enumerates more than 250 separate editions: so that an editor has at his command a rich store of materials. The editions on which I have chiefly levied contributions are those of Heusinger, Zumpt, Beier and Heine. (See p. xliii.) Of the first his latest editor Zumpt justly remarks (ed. mai. praef. p. i) 'communi hominum doctorum opinione inter praestantissimas Latinorum scriptorum editiones censetur,' as exhibiting ' rectum iudicium et elegantem interpretandi simplicitatem. Habet enim in interpretando hoc praecipuum, quod et acute invenit in quo possis haerere et inventam difficultatem breviter ac dilucide explanat,' and again (ed. min. praef. p. v) 'perpauci libri sunt, quos magis cupiam in manibus eorum, quibus antiquae litterae curae cordique sunt, versari.' I have used with great advantage Zumpt's smaller edition of Heusinger which is enriched with some valuable remarks which are not to be found in the larger work. That of Beier contains amidst much irrelevant matter a profuse amount of more or less useful illustration, and, praiseworthy as it is in many respects, Zumpt, I think, rightly characterises it, when he says (ed. mai. praef. p. vii) 'sacco serens vera falsis, utilia inutilibus ita permiscet, ut ab ea quasi cena dubia libenter ad sobriam Heusingerorum disciplinam refugias.' The edition of Otto Heine, one of the excellent Haupt-Sauppe Classics, is a much

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