On Isis and Osiris

With this Monument unsealed, the fragments of ancient History, collected from everywhere, are revealed—the dismembered limbs of the wisest People’s Rites and Ceremonies, anointed with perfumes and bitumen, as it were, embalmed and preserved for the ages.

Do not be surprised, therefore, Reader, that I have selected this book in particular from the rest of Plutarch’s Works to prepare a new Edition. For I appeal to you, who have already labored in this Arena referring to the intellectual struggle of classical scholarship, how many and how great were the annoyances you endured while reading this work? I know that you have often been irritated by faulty Punctuation; often, too, the Translation has misled the unwary: how often have you been delayed by those many errors that occurred in almost every single sentence? How many passages have you been forced to abandon with a heavy heart as completely inexplicable and insurmountable by any industry? I hope and trust, therefore, that it will not be unwelcome or unpleasant if I reduce these labors for you in the future, and provide you and everyone else with a most useful Book that is both more prepared for a new edition and easier to understand.

"I would indeed wish," says that most learned Fabricius (Bibl. Graec. Vol. 3), "that more of the "distinguished monuments of Plutarch were published separately.