Germania and Agricola | Page 3

since been committed to
my charge, first taught me to love the Greek and Latin classics. I have
only to regret that his ill health and absence from the country have
prevented me from deriving still greater advantages from his learning
and taste. An unforeseen event has, in like manner, deprived me of the
expected cooperation of Prof. Lyman Coleman, now of Nassau Hall
College in N. J., in concert with whom this work was planned, and was
to have been executed, and on whose ripe scholarship, and familiarity

with the German language and literature, I chiefly relied for its
successful accomplishment.
I should not do justice to my feelings, were I to omit the expression of
my obligations to the printer and publishers for the unwearied patience
with which they have labored to perfect the work, under all the
disadvantages attending the superintendance of the press, at such a
distance. If there should still be found in it inaccuracies and blemishes,
it will not be because they have spared any pains to make it a correct
and beautiful book.
It is with unfeigned diffidence that I submit to the public this first
attempt at literary labor. I am fully sensible of its many imperfections,
at the same time I am conscious of an ability to make it better at some
future day, should it meet the favorable regard of the classical teachers
of our land, to whom it is dedicated as an humble contribution to that
cause in which they are now laboring, with such unprecedented zeal.
Should it contribute in any measure to a better understanding, or a
higher appreciation by our youthful countrymen of a classic author,
from whom, beyond almost any other, I have drawn instruction and
delight, I shall not have labored in vain.
_Amherst College, June 1, 1847_.

PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION
The text of this edition has been carefully revised and compared with
those of Döderlein, Halle, 1847, Orelli, Zurich, 1848, and Ritter, Bonn
and Cambridge, 1848. The notes also have been re-examined and, to a
considerable extent, re-written; partly to correspond with the progress
of my own mind, partly in accordance with suggestions derived from
the above named editions, and from friendly criticisms either by letter
or in the public journals. Among the journals, I am particularly
indebted to the Bibliotheca Sacra and the New-Englander; and for
communications by letter, I am under especial obligations to Professors
Crosby and Sanborn of Dartmouth College, Robbins of Middlebury,
and Lincoln of Brown University.
In revising the geography of the Germania, I have consulted, without
however entering much into detail, Ukert's invaluable treatise on the
Geography of the Greeks and Romans, whose volume on Germany
contains a translation and running commentary on almost the entire

work of Tacitus. Particular attention has been paid to the ethnology of
the tribes and nations, in reference to whose origin and early history
Tacitus is among the best authorities. In this department the works of
Prichard and Latham have been my chief reliance. Grimm and Zeuss,
though often referred to, I regret to say I have been able to consult only
at second hand.
In sending out this revised edition of these most delightful treatises of
an author, in the study of whose works I never tire, I cannot but express
the hope, that it has been not a little improved by these alterations and
additions, while it will be found to have lost none of the essential
features by which the first edition was commended to so good a
measure of public favor.
W. S. Tyler.
_Amherst, May_, 1852

LIFE OF TACITUS.
It is the office of genius and learning, as of light, to illustrate other
things, and not itself. The writers, who, of all others perhaps, have told
us most of the world, just as it has been and is, have told us least of
themselves. Their character we may infer, with more or less exactness,
from their works, but their history is unwritten and must for ever
remain so. Homer, though, perhaps, the only one who has been argued
out of existence, is by no means the only one whose age and birthplace
have been disputed. The native place of Tacitus is mere matter of
conjecture. His parentage is not certainly known. The time of his birth
and the year of his death are ascertained only by approximation, and
very few incidents are recorded in the history of his life; still we know
the period in which he lived, the influences under which his character
was developed and matured, and the circumstances under which he
wrote his immortal works. In short, we know his times, though we can
scarcely gather up enough to denominate his life; and the times in
which an author lived, are