rities and niceties of language which the
best Latin writers display. I have striven to guide them to the best
teaching of Madvig, on whose foundation every succeeding editor of Cicero
must build. His edition of the _De Finibus_ contains more valuable material
for illustrating, not merely the language, but also the subject-matter of
the _Academica_, than all the professed editions of the latter work in
existence. Yet, even after Madvig's labours, a great deal remains to be
done in pointing out what is, and what is not, Ciceronian Latin. I have
therefore added very many references from my own reading, and from other
sources. Wherever a quotation would not have been given but for its
appearance in some other work, I have pointed out the authority from whom
it was taken. I need hardly say that I do not expect or intend readers to
look out all the references given. It was necessary to provide material by
means of which the student might illustrate for himself a Latin usage, if
it were new to him, and might solve any linguistic difficulty that
occurred. Want of space has compelled me often to substitute a mere
reference for an actual quotation.

As there is no important doctrine of Ancient Philosophy which is not
touched upon somewhere in the _Academica_, it is evidently impossible for
an editor to give information which would be complete for a reader who is
studying that subject for the first time. I have therefore tried to enable
readers to find easily for themselves the information they require, and
have only dwelt in my own language upon such philosophical difficulties as
were in some special way bound up with the _Academica_. The two books
chiefly referred to in my notes are the English translation of Zeller's
_Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics_ (whenever Zeller is quoted without any
further description this book is meant), and the _Historia Philosophiae_ of
Ritter and Preller. The _pages_, not the _sections_, of the fourth edition
of this work are quoted. These books, with Madvig's _De Finibus_, all
teachers ought to place in the hands of pupils who are studying a
philosophical work of Cicero. Students at the Universities ought to have
constantly at hand Diogenes Laertius, Stobaeus, and Sextus Empiricus, all
of which have been published in cheap and convenient forms.

Although this edition is primarily intended for junior students, it is
hoped that it may not be without interest for maturer scholars, as bringing
together