CHAPTER XII

WHY WE HAVE CAUSED BOOKS OF GRAMMAR TO BE SO DILIGENTLY PREPARED

While we were constantly delighting ourselves with the reading of
books, which it was our custom to read or have read to us every
day, we noticed plainly how much the defective knowledge even of
a single word hinders the understanding, as the meaning of no
sentence can be apprehended, if any part of it be not understood.
Wherefore we ordered the meanings of foreign words to be noted
with particular care, and studied the orthography, prosody,
etymology, and syntax in ancient grammarians with unrelaxing
carefulness, and took pains to elucidate terms that had grown too
obscure by age with suitable explanations, in order to make a
smooth path for our students.

This is the whole reason why we took care to replace the
antiquated volumes of the grammarians by improved codices, that
we might make royal roads, by which our scholars in time to come
might attain without stumbling to any science.


CHAPTER XIII

WHY WE HAVE NOT WHOLLY NEGLECTED THE FABLES OF THE POETS

All the varieties of attack directed against the poets by the
lovers of naked truth may be repelled by a two-fold defence:
either that even in an unseemly subject-matter we may learn a