University of Virginia Library

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ANTHON'S SERIES OF CLASSICAL WORKS
FOR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES.

In presenting the volumes of this series, as far as it has been completed,
to the notice of the public, the subscribers beg leave to say a few
words respecting its general features, and the advantages that are to result
from it both to students and instructers.

The plan proposed is to give editions of all the authors usually read in
our schools and colleges, together with such elementary and subsidiary
works as may be needed by the classical student either at the commencement,
or at particular stages, of his career.

The editions of the Classical authors themselves will be based on the
latest and most accurate texts, and will be accompanied by English commentaries,
containing everything requisite for accurate preparation on
the part of the student and a correct understanding of the author. The
fear entertained by some instructers, lest too copious an array of notes
may bribe the student into habits of intellectual sloth, will be found to be
altogether visionary. That part of the series which contains the textbooks
for schools must, in order to be at all useful, have a more extensive
supply of annotations than the volumes intended for college lectures;
and when these last make their appearance, the system of commenting
adopted in them will not fail to meet with the approbation of all.

The advantages, then, which this series promises to confer are the
following: the latest and best texts; accurate commentaries, putting the
student and instructer in possession of the opinions of the best philologists;
together with all such subsidiary information as may serve, not
only to throw light upon the meaning of the author, but also to give
rise in the young student to habits of correct thinking and to the formation
of a correct taste.

Many of the works at present used in our Classical schools are either
reprints of antiquated editions, swarming with errors, not merely in the
typography, but in the matter itself; or else they are volumes, fair to
the view, indeed, as far as manual execution is concerned, but either
supplied with meager and unsatisfactory commentaries, or without any
commentaries at all. These are the works that drive students to the
use of translations, and thus mar the fairest prospects of youthful
scholarship, producing an infinitely stronger habit of intellectual indolence
than the most copious commentary could engender. Indeed,
to place this matter in its proper light, and to show, within a very
brief compass, how much good the projected series is about to accomplish,
it may be sufficient to state, that the printed translations of
those authors whose works have been thus far published in the series
meet now with a much less ready sale than formerly; and are seldom,
if ever, seen in the hands of those whose instructers have the good
sense and judgment to give a decided preference to the volumes edited
by Professor Anthon.

The publishers take the liberty to subjoin a few of the communications
relative to the published volumes of the series, which they have
received from gentlemen of high classical reputation in different parts of
the country.

New York, May, 1839.

Harper & Brothers,
82 CLIFF-STREET.