Preface.

or wish to become so—even among women—it will, I hope, not be entirely unpleasant for this type of reader to learn how the ancients themselves thought and judged about mythology.

I have had the third Fischer edition before my eyes during the translation and have endeavored to express not only the meaning of my author but also his, despite all brevity, almost inimitable simplicity and lightness in storytelling; a beauty for which Palaephatus alone deserves to be read in the source language by youths, who usually are accustomed to placing the charm of writing style in the quantity of applied tropes metaphorical uses of words and figures, even if his way of philosophizing should not always deserve our approval. Whether I have achieved my intention, I will let others judge. But I feel well enough that it is almost impossible to fulfill all the conditions that one now prescribes to the translators of ancient writers.

I do not have much to say about the added notes. They are for beginners and contain nothing new.