academica of cicero. - 912 Freedom Library
academica of cicero. - 912 Freedom Library
academica of cicero. - 912 Freedom Library
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education, which is thus made to rest on memory alone. I have therefore done my best to place<br />
before the reader the arguments for and against different readings in the most important places<br />
where the text is doubtful.<br />
My experience as a teacher and examiner has proved to me that the students for whom this<br />
edition is intended have a far smaller acquaintance than they ought to have with the peculiarities<br />
and niceties <strong>of</strong> language which the best Latin writers display. I have striven to guide them to the<br />
best teaching <strong>of</strong> Madvig, on whose foundation every succeeding editor <strong>of</strong> Cicero must build. His<br />
edition <strong>of</strong> the De Finibus contains more valuable material for illustrating, not merely the<br />
language, but also the subject-matter <strong>of</strong> the Academica, than all the pr<strong>of</strong>essed editions <strong>of</strong> the<br />
latter work in existence. Yet, even after Madvig's labours, a great deal remains to be done in<br />
pointing out what is, and what is not, Ciceronian Latin. I have therefore added very many<br />
references from my own reading, and from other sources. Wherever a quotation would not have<br />
been given but for its appearance in some other work, I have pointed out the authority from<br />
whom it was taken. I need hardly say that I do not expect or intend readers to look out all the<br />
references given. It was necessary to provide material by means <strong>of</strong> which the student might<br />
illustrate for himself a Latin usage, if it were new to him, and might solve any linguistic<br />
difficulty that occurred. Want <strong>of</strong> space has compelled me <strong>of</strong>ten to substitute a mere reference for<br />
an actual quotation.<br />
As there is no important doctrine <strong>of</strong> Ancient Philosophy which is not touched upon somewhere in<br />
the Academica, it is evidently impossible for an editor to give information which would be<br />
complete for a reader who is studying that subject for the first time. I have therefore tried to<br />
enable readers to find easily for themselves the information they require, and have only dwelt in<br />
my own language upon such philosophical difficulties as were in some special way bound up<br />
with the Academica. The two books chiefly referred to in my notes are the English translation <strong>of</strong><br />
Zeller's Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics (whenever Zeller is quoted without any further<br />
description this book is meant), and the Historia Philosophiae <strong>of</strong> Ritter and Preller. The pages,<br />
not the sections, <strong>of</strong> the fourth edition <strong>of</strong> this work are quoted. These books, with Madvig's De<br />
Finibus, all teachers ought to place in the hands <strong>of</strong> pupils who are studying a philosophical work<br />
<strong>of</strong> Cicero. Students at the Universities ought to have constantly at hand Diogenes Laertius,<br />
Stobaeus, and Sextus Empiricus, all <strong>of</strong> which have been published in cheap and convenient<br />
forms.<br />
Although this edition is primarily intended for junior students, it is hoped that it may not be<br />
without interest for maturer scholars, as bringing together much scattered information illustrative<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Academica, which was before difficult <strong>of</strong> access. The present work will, I hope, prepare<br />
the way for an exhaustive edition either from my own or some more competent hand. It must be<br />
regarded as an experiment, for no English scholar <strong>of</strong> recent times has treated any portion <strong>of</strong><br />
Cicero's philosophical works with quite the purpose which I have kept in view and have<br />
explained above. Should this attempt meet with favour, I propose to edit after the same plan<br />
some others <strong>of</strong> the less known and less edited portions <strong>of</strong> Cicero's writings.<br />
In dealing with a subject so unusually difficult and so rarely edited I cannot hope to have<br />
escaped errors, but after submitting my views to repeated revision during four years, it seems<br />
better to publish them than to withhold from students help they so greatly need. Moreover, it is a<br />
great gain, even at the cost <strong>of</strong> some errors, to throw <strong>of</strong>f that intellectual disease <strong>of</strong> overfastidiousness<br />
which is so prevalent in this University, and causes more than anything else the<br />
unproductiveness <strong>of</strong> English scholarship as compared with that <strong>of</strong> Germany,<br />
I have only to add that I shall be thankful for notices <strong>of</strong> errors and omissions from any who are<br />
interested in the subject.<br />
JAMES S. REID.<br />
CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, December, 1873.<br />
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14970/14970-h/14970-h.htm[1/5/2010 10:31:57 AM]