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Mention should be made of a separate edition and a parallel English translation of this essay in a book entitled περὶ δεισιδαιμονίας. Plutarchus and Theophrastus on Superstition with various appendices and a life of Plutarchus. Printed a.d. 1828. (Privately) printed by Julian Hibbert . . . Kentish Town. The translation is very literal, but is sometimes an improvement on that of William Baxter in the translation of Plutarch by Several Hands (London, 1684-94). Intimate and amusing is the preface of the author, who, in his notes, admits that he has never read Plato, but ends his preface with these words: I terminate this my Preface by consigning all Greek Scholars to the special care of Beelzebub.
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A spirited defence of this essay (if any defence is needed) may be found in John Oakesmith’s The Religion of Plutarch> (London, 1902), chap. ix. pp. 179 ff. In spite of the fact that Pohlenz in his preface to Vol. I. (Leipzig, 1925) of the Moralia (p. xiv) uses these words: Codicem Paris D e recensione libidinosissima ortum! Paton, who edited this essay, accepts the readings of D a good part of the time, and his edition would have been more intelligible had he accepted them more often.
