The number of authors, Greek, Latin, French, German, English, Dutch, whom he has laid under contribution in order to formulate his exact and judicious classifications, mounts up to a formidable total. There are to be found in the _Manual of Erotology_ something like five hundred passages, culled from more than one hundred and fifty works, all classified, explained, commented upon, and in most cases, enveloped in darkness as they had been, made plain as light itself by the mere fact of juxtaposition. With Forberg for a guide no one need henceforth fear to go astray,—to believe, for instance, like M. Leconte de Lisle, that the woman of whom Horace says that she changes neither dress nor place, “_peccatve superne_” “has not erred beyond measure”; what a mistake!—or with M. Nisard to translate Suetonius expression, “_illudere caput alicuius_” “to attempt some ones life”[3]! Forberg, a philosopher, has treated these delicate subjects like a philosopher, namely, in a purely speculative manner, as a man quite above and beyond terrestrial matters, and particularly so with respect to the lubricities which he has made it his task to examine so closely. He declares he knows nothing of them personally, has never thought of making experimental investigations on them, but derives all his knowledge, from books. His candour is beyond suspicion. He has not escaped censure; but having a reply ready for every objection and authorities to quote on every point, he found an answer to his detractors ready made in the phrase of Justus Lipsius, who had been reproached with taking pleasure in the abominations of Petronius: “The wines you set upon the table excite the drunkard and leave the sober man perfectly calm; in the same way, these kinds of reading _may_ very likely inflame an imagination already depraved, but they make no impression upon a mind that is chaste and disciplined.” FOOTNOTES - FORWARD ----- Footnote 1: _Quinque illustrium Poetarum, Antonii Panormitae; Ramusii Ariminensis; Pacifici Maximi Asculani; Io. Joviani Pontani; Io. Secundi Hagiensis, Lusus in Venerem, partim ex codicibus manuscriptis, nunc primum editi Parisiis, prostat ad Pristrinum, in Vico suavi_, (_at Paris, at Molini’s, Rue Mignon_), 1791, 8vo. Footnote 2: To certain copies are added some thirty engravings representing the principal erotic postures; these engravings are taken from the _Monuments de la Vie Privée des douze Césars_, and from the _Monuments du Culte Secret des Dames Romaines_, two works, now becoming every day rarer. Footnote 3: See below pp. ?? and ??? respectively. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE Metamorphoses of Venus