Professor of Greek in the University of Edinburgh
Formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge
and of University College, Oxford

This Attempt
to Present the Great Thoughts of Longinus
in an English Form

Is Dedicated

in Acknowledgment of the Kind Support
but for Which It Might Never Have Seen the Light
and of the Benefits of That
Instruction to Which It Largely Owes
Whatever of Scholarly Quality It May Possess




TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE


The text which has been followed in the present Translation is that
of Jahn (Bonn, 1867), revised by Vahlen, and republished in 1884. In
several instances it has been found necessary to diverge from Vahlen’s
readings, such divergencies being duly pointed out in the Notes.

One word as to the aim and scope of the present Translation. My object
throughout has been to make Longinus speak in English, to preserve, as