It
would be appropriate recreation for them if they
were to take up the sort of reading that, instead of
affording just pure amusement based on wit and
humour, also boasts a little food for thought that the
Muses would not altogether spurn; and I think
they will consider the present work something
of the kind. They will find it enticing not only
for the novelty of its subject, for the humour of its
plan and because I tell all kinds of lies in a plausible
and specious way, but also because everything in my
story is a more or less comical parody of one or


 

another of the poets, historians and philosophers of
old, who have written much that smacks of miracles
and fables. I would cite them by name, were it
not that you yourself will recognise them from
your reading.