SOURCE: Poste, E. Preface to The Skies and Weather-Forecasts of Aratus, translated by E. Poste, pp. v-viii. London: Macmillan, 1880.

In the following preface to his translation of Aratus's Phaenomena, Poste briefly summarizes the poet's life and antique commentaries on his writing.

A little observation of the nightly skies inspired a curiosity to see what an ancient poet, now seldom read, had to say on the subject; and a moderate amount of pleasure having been derived from the perusal, the thought occurred that other students of Astronomy or Meteorology, to whom Aratus in his Greek garb was inaccessible, might feel the same curiosity. Hence the following translation.

The monosyllabic character of our language, at least of that portion of it which poetry has appropriated, causes even a prose translation of foreign verse to assume more or less of iambic rhythm. A little malice prepense on the part of the...