04-22-24SM, Rhet 4-4-24 COL PREFACE. NOLLECTIONS of the memorable sayings, and occurrences attending persons of learning and wit, have been long recognized in the learned world, under the title of ANA: and from the amusement and information they afford, it has often been lamented that, while they form a leading feature in the history of continental literature, they have been almost entirely neglected, and are nearly unknown in England. Wolfius, in his preface to the Casauboniana, (Hamburg, 1710) has given a very accurate and amusing history of these productions. He observes, that though the title be new, the thing itself is very old; it being the practice among the Greeks and Romans, from the earliest period, to collect the acute, critical, and lively remarks of learned and illustrious men. Among the Greeks, we are indebted to the scholars of Pythagoras, for those verses which VOL. I. a which convey to us the great principles of his moral system; and to Zenophon and Plato, who were pupils of Socrates, we owe the preservation of those maxims which he enforced, as well by his own conduct in life as his speech. Perhaps to the same cause we may attribute many of the admirable sentences of Euripides, who was also a pupil to this great man. Thus Zenophon's books of the deeds and sayings of Socrates, as well as the dialogues of Plato, are in fact Socratiana. The apophthegms of the philosophers collected by Diogenes Laertius, the sentences of Pythagoras, those of Epictetus, and the works of Athenæus, Stobæus, are all so many Anas: and, under the sanction of the name of Hierocles Alexandrinus, we find a little book, entitled, Facetia de priscorum studiosorum dictis et factis ridiculis. Even the Gemara of the Jews properly belongs to this class; to which may likewise be referred the Orphica, Esopica, Pyrrhonea, and many others. It appears that both Quintilian and Cicero highly approved of such works, although the latter, with much reason, complains that in three volumes which had been published (entitled, Foci Ciceronis), many things were attributed to him which he never said; and he laments his disappointment in having hoped that the conversation of any other person could not possibly have been taken for his. The Noctes Attice of Aulus Gellius immediately belong to this class. They consist of collections from his conversations with Herodius Atticus, Favorinus, Taurus, Marcus Frontus, and many other illustrious persons who then flourished at Athens and Rome: and the writings of Plutarch and Pliny abound with the results of similar intercourse with the learned men of their time. The learned editor of the Menagiana (Paris, 1094) observes, that Anas are known in every country where there are books or learned men. The Spaniards have the Bon Mots of the Duke d'Ossonne, and several others. The Italians have also many books |