PREFACE. HESE translations have lain by me for THESE nearly twice the nine years during which Horace recommended that a poem should remain in its author's power. They formed part of a larger scheme long ago conceived; but in the carrying out of which I presently discovered inner difficulties; not to say that it would have required, as I also soon was aware, a far greater amount of time and labour than I was either willing or had a right to bestow upon it. The scheme was consequently laid aside. At the same time I did not lay aside the hope of rescuing a few portions of my work from the absolute oblivion to which the remainder, written |