The whole of these Notes, by his Lordship's unsolicited kindness, were as unexpectedly, as they were unreservedly confided to the Editor, when nearly two thirds of his task was now completed-a circumstance which must be his apology, if the extracts which he has made from them shall appear in any instance to be ill-assorted, or imperfectly interwoven with the thread of his own work.

These purpurei panni, as the classical scholar will at once pronounce them to be-apart from any allusion to the purple with which their learned Author is now invested are distinguished by the annexation of the Bishop's initials (S. L.); and in like manner, as often as he has availed himself of the labours of preceding Commentators, the Editor has been careful to "render to all their dues." Among these next to the present Bishop of London, whose name must needs stand foremost in connection with that of Eschylus-perhaps the largest share belongs to Klausen; and to those who may not have yet seen the last foreign edition of the Agamemnon, the Editor gladly takes this opportunity of proclaiming how much assistance he has derived from it, in every department of his present undertaking.

Having thus briefly noticed the contributions of others, the Editor has only now to recommend his own portion of the work to those, for whose use it is more especially designed-the rising generation of critical and philological scholars among his countrymen. To them, he would hope, no apology is necessary for the language in which his Notes are written: even though he should not deny, that he too has found his advan

tage in dealing with his subject in what, as compared with the usual method of interpreting an ancient author, he may be permitted to call a plain and popular manner. Prescription on this point, it is notorious, has long been altogether in favour of Latin Notes; yet has it been ably argued, that at the present day this is "a custom more honoured in the breach, than in the observance ;" and not by assertion only, but by more than one successful experiment has it been shewn, that the English idiom knows how to welcome the expatiated language of Ancient Greece, not through the formal intervention alone of a learned interpreter, but with the cordial embrace of a strong instinctive sympathy, which nothing can elicit, or foster, so effectually as the establishment of a familiar and immediate communication between them.

As to the profuseness, or it will perhaps be said the prolixity, of interpretation into which he has been led, the Editor cannot better express his own foolish thought, than as he finds it set down in the weightier words of Buttman. 66 Although I was aware," says he in the Preface to his Lexilogus, "that short accounts and concise explanations may generally be sufficient for the more advanced scholar, yet, at the same time, I thought I might find an opportunity of being useful to young philologists also, by setting them the example of a mode of investigation which cannot be sufficiently recommended; namely, that of unravelling an author's

a See the conclusion of Dr. Arnold's Preface to his edition of Thucydides.

b See Mr. Fishlake's Translation, p. vii.