Page:The religion of Plutarch, a pagan creed of apostolic times; an essay (IA religionofplutar00oakeiala).pdf/13

 of inaccuracy brought against him by Professor von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff of Berlin, that the more general student of Classical Literature may, perhaps, feel some amount of confidence that in this edition he sees the actual work of Plutarch himself, and not the ingenious and daring conjectures of some too brilliant critic. This feeling of confidence will not be diminished by the evident anxiety displayed by Mr. W. R. Paton, an English scholar working in the same field, "to induce Mr. Bernardakis to assist and correct" him in editing a text of the "De Cupiditate Divitiarum," and it will be increased by the discovery that, greatly different as the text of Bernardakis is from that of any other previous edition, the difference frequently consists in the substitution of plain sense for undiluted absurdity, or total want of meaning.

Indebtedness to other sources of criticism and information is, the writer hopes, fully acknowledged in the footnotes as occasion arises. There has yet been published no work in English dealing with Plutarch's "Ethics" at all similar in scope and character either to Volkmann's "Leben, Schriften und Philosophie des Plutarch von Chæronea," or to Gréard's "La Morale de Plutarque." Archbishop Trench, who speaks