represents a type of country gentleman greatly honoured in English
life, and this should ensure a favourable reception for one of his
chief works admirably rendered into idiomatic English. And the
substance of the /Cyropaedia/, which is in fact a political romance,
describing the education of the ideal ruler, trained to rule as a
benevolent despot over his admiring and willing subjects, should add a
further element of enjoyment for the reader of this famous book in its
English garb.

J. HEREFORD.



EDITOR'S NOTE

In preparing this work for the press, I came upon some notes made by
Mr. Dakyns on the margin of his Xenophon. These were evidently for his
own private use, and are full of scholarly colloquialisms, impromptu
words humorously invented for the need of the moment, and individual
turns of phrase, such as the references to himself under his initials
in small letters, "hgd." Though plainly not intended for publication,
the notes are so vivid and illuminating as they stand that I have
shrunk from putting them into a more formal dress, believing that
here, as in the best letters, the personal element is bound up with
what is most fresh and living in the comment, most characteristic of
the writer, and most delightful both to those who knew him and to
those who will wish they had. I have, therefore, only altered a word
here and there, and added a note or two of my own (always in square
brackets), where it seemed necessary for the sake of clearness.