summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/35113.txt
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to '35113.txt')
-rw-r--r--35113.txt5152
1 files changed, 5152 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/35113.txt b/35113.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..532da18
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35113.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5152 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Comfort Found in Good Old Books, by George Hamlin Fitch
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Comfort Found in Good Old Books
+
+Author: George Hamlin Fitch
+
+Release Date: January 29, 2011 [EBook #35113]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COMFORT FOUND IN GOOD OLD BOOKS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness, Christine Aldridge and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_.
+
+2. Illustrations falling inside paragraphs have been relocated to the
+ top or bottom. Where possible, text of Title Page Facsimles is
+ provided, in addition to image captions.
+
+4. Additional transcriber notes are located at the end of this e-text.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration (with text):
+
+ MR. WILLIAM
+ SHAKESPEARES
+
+ COMEDIES,
+ HISTORIES, &
+ TRAGEDIES.
+
+Published according to the True Originall Copies.
+
+ [Portrait]
+
+ LONDON
+ Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed. Blount. 1623
+
+
+ TITLE PAGE OF THE CELEBRATED
+ FIRST FOLIO EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE
+ THE PLAYS COLLECTED AND EDITED IN 1623 BY
+ HEMINGE AND CONDELL]
+
+
+
+
+ COMFORT
+ FOUND IN GOOD
+ OLD BOOKS
+
+ BY
+ GEORGE HAMLIN FITCH
+
+ _I love everything that's old:
+ old friends, old times, old manners,
+ old books, old wine._
+ --_Goldsmith._
+
+ [Illustration]
+
+ _Illustrated_
+
+
+ PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY
+ PUBLISHERS, SAN FRANCISCO
+
+
+ _Copyright, 1911_
+ _by_ PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY
+
+
+ The articles in this
+ book appeared originally in the
+ Sunday book-page of the San Francisco _Chronicle_.
+ The privilege of reproducing them
+ here is due to the courtesy of
+ M. H. de Young, Esq.
+
+
+ TO THE MEMORY
+ OF MY SON HAROLD,
+ MY BEST CRITIC, MY OTHER
+ SELF, WHOSE DEATH HAS
+ TAKEN THE LIGHT
+ OUT OF MY
+ LIFE.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+ PAGE
+
+ INTRODUCTION ix
+
+ COMFORT FOUND IN GOOD OLD BOOKS xi
+
+ Nothing Soothes Grief Like Sterling Old Books--How the
+ Sudden Death of an Only Son Proved the Value of the
+ Reading Habit.
+
+ THE GREATEST BOOK IN THE WORLD 3
+
+ How to Secure the Best that is in the Bible--Much Comfort
+ in Sorrow and Stimulus to Good Life may be Found in its
+ Study.
+
+ SHAKESPEARE STANDS NEXT TO THE BIBLE 14
+
+ Hints on the Reading of Shakespeare's Plays--How to
+ Master the best of these Dramas, the Finest of Modern
+ Work.
+
+ HOW TO READ THE ANCIENT CLASSICS 29
+
+ Authors of Greece and Rome One Should
+ Know--Masterpieces of the Ancient World that may be
+ Enjoyed in Good English Versions.
+
+ THE ARABIAN NIGHTS AND OTHER CLASSICS 39
+
+ Oriental Fairy Tales and German Legends--The Ancient
+ Arabian Stories and the Nibelungenlied among World's
+ Greatest Books.
+
+ THE CONFESSIONS OF ST. AUGUSTINE 48
+
+ An Eloquent book of Religious Meditation--The Ablest of
+ Early Christian Fathers Tells of His Youth, His
+ Friends and His Conversion.
+
+ DON QUIXOTE, ONE OF THE WORLD'S GREAT BOOKS 56
+
+ Cervantes' Masterpiece a Book for All Time--Intensely
+ Spanish, it Still Appeals to All Nations by its Deep
+ Human Interest.
+
+ THE IMITATION OF CHRIST 64
+
+ Features of Great Work by Old Thomas a
+ Kempis--Meditations of a Flemish Monk which have not
+ Lost their Influence in Five Hundred Years.
+
+ THE RUBA'IYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM 74
+
+ Popularity of an Old Persian's Quatrains--Splendid
+ Oriental Imagery Joined to Modern Doubt Found in this
+ Great Poem.
+
+ THE DIVINE COMEDY BY DANTE 83
+
+ Influence of One of the World's Great Books--The Exiled
+ Florentine's Poem has Colored the Life and Work of
+ Many Famous Writers.
+
+ HOW TO GET THE BEST OUT OF BOOKS 92
+
+ Is the Higher Education an Absolute Necessity?--Desire
+ to gain Knowledge and Culture will make one Master of
+ All the Best Books.
+
+ MILTON'S PARADISE LOST AND OTHER POEMS 100
+
+ A Book that Ranks Close to the English Bible--It Tells
+ the Story of Satan's Revolt, the Fall of Man and the
+ Expulsion from Eden.
+
+ PILGRIM'S PROGRESS THE FINEST OF ALL ALLEGORIES 108
+
+ Bunyan's Story full of the Spirit of the Bible--The
+ Simple Tale of Christian's Struggles and Triumph
+ Appeals to Old and Young.
+
+ OLD DR. JOHNSON AND HIS BOSWELL 116
+
+ His Great Fame Due to His Admirer's
+ Biography--Boswell's Work makes the Doctor the best
+ known Literary Man of his Age.
+
+ ROBINSON CRUSOE AND GULLIVER'S TRAVELS 124
+
+ Masterpieces of Defoe and Swift Widely Read--Two
+ Writers of Genius whose Stories have Delighted
+ Readers for Hundreds of Years.
+
+ BIBLIOGRAPHY 133
+
+ Notes on the Historical and best Reading Editions of
+ Great Authors.
+
+ INDEX 159
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+ FACING
+ PAGE
+
+ Title Page of the Celebrated First Folio Edition of Shakespeare _Title_
+
+ A Page from the Gutenberg Bible (Mayence, 1455) 4
+
+ A Page from the Coverdale Bible, being the First Complete
+ English Bible 14
+
+ Chandos' Portrait of Shakespeare 16
+
+ Shakespeare's Birthplace at Stratford-on-Avon before the
+ Restoration 22
+
+ The Anne Hathaway Cottage 22
+
+ Bust of Homer in the Museum of Naples 32
+
+ Portrait of Virgil, taken from a Bust by L. P. Boitard 34
+
+ Plato, after an Antique Bust 36
+
+ Edmund Dulac's Conception of Queen Scheherezade, who
+ told the "Arabian Nights" Tales 40
+
+ The Jinnee and the Merchant--A Vignette Woodcut by
+ William Harvey 42
+
+ Portrait of St. Augustine by the Famous Florentine Painter,
+ Sandro Botticelli 50
+
+ A Page from St. Augustine's "La Cite de Dieu" 54
+
+ Portrait of Cervantes, from an Old Steel Engraving 58
+
+ Don Quixote Discoursing to Sancho Panza 62
+
+ Thomas a Kempis, the Frontispiece of an Edition of "The
+ Imitation of Christ" 64
+
+ The Best-Known Portrait of Edward FitzGerald, Immortalized
+ by his Version of the "Ruba'iyat" 74
+
+ A Page from an Ancient Persian Manuscript Copy of the
+ "Ruba'iyat" with Miniatures in Color 78
+
+ One of the Gilbert James Illustrations of the "Ruba'iyat" 80
+
+ Portrait of Dante, by Giotto di Bondone 84
+
+ Page from "Dante's Inferno," printed by Nicolo Lorenzo
+ near the Close of the Fifteenth Century 88
+
+ Portrait of Milton, after the Original Crayon Drawing from
+ Life by William Faithorne, at Bayfordbury, Herts 100
+
+ Milton Dictating to his Daughters--After an Engraving by
+ W. C. Edwards, from the Famous Painting by Romney 104
+
+ Portrait of John Bunyan, after the Oil Painting by Sadler 108
+
+ Facsimile of the Title Page of the First Edition of "The
+ Pilgrim's Progress" 112
+
+ Portrait of Dr. Johnson, from the Original Picture by Sir
+ Joshua Reynolds, owned by Boswell 116
+
+ Portrait of James Boswell, after a Painting by Sir Joshua
+ Reynolds--Engraved by E. Finden 118
+
+ Facsimile of the Title Page of the First Edition of Boswell's
+ "Life of Samuel Johnson" 120
+
+ Painting by Eyre Crowe of Dr. Johnson, Boswell and Goldsmith
+ at the Mitre Tavern, Fleet Street 122
+
+ Portrait of Daniel Defoe, from an Old Steel Engraving 124
+
+ Illustration of "Robinson Crusoe" by George Cruikshank 126
+
+ Frontispiece to the First Edition of "Gulliver's Travels"--A
+ Portrait Engraved in Copper of Captain Lemuel Gulliver
+ of Redriff 128
+
+ Facsimile of the Title Page of the First Edition of "Gulliver's
+ Travels," issued in 1726 130
+
+
+
+
+_Introduction_
+
+
+_These short essays on the best old books in the world were inspired by
+the sudden death of an only son, without whom I had not thought life
+worth living. To tide me over the first weeks of bitter grief I plunged
+into this work of reviewing the great books from the Bible to the works
+of the eighteenth century writers. The suggestion came from many readers
+who were impressed by the fact that in the darkest hour of sorrow my
+only comfort came from the habit of reading, which Gibbon declared he
+"would not exchange for the wealth of the Indies." If these essays
+induce any one to cultivate the reading habit, which has been so great a
+solace to me in time of trouble, then I shall feel fully repaid._
+
+_This book is not intended for those who have had literary training in
+high school or university. It was planned to meet the wants of that
+great American public which yearns for knowledge and culture, but does
+not know how to set about acquiring it. For this reason I have discussed
+the great books of the world from De Quincey's standpoint of the
+literature of power, as distinguished from the literature of knowledge.
+By the literature of power the author of the_ Confessions of an English
+Opium Eater _meant books filled with that emotional quality which lifts
+the reader out of this prosaic world into that spiritual life, whose
+dwellers are forever young._
+
+_No book has lived beyond the age of its author unless it were full of
+this spiritual force which endures through the centuries. The words of
+the Biblical writers, of Thomas a Kempis, Milton, Bunyan, Dante and
+others who are discussed in this book, are charged with a spiritual
+potency that moves the reader of today as they have moved countless
+generations in the past. Could one wish for a more splendid immortality
+than this, to serve as the stimulus to ambitious youth long after one's
+body has moldered in the dust?_
+
+_Even the Sphinx is not so enduring as a great book, written in the
+heart's blood of a man or woman who has sounded the deeps of sorrow only
+to rise up full of courage and faith in human nature._
+
+
+
+
+_Comfort Found in Good Old Books_
+
+ _Nothing Soothes Grief Like Sterling Old Books--How the
+ Sudden Death of an Only Son Proved the Value of the
+ Reading Habit._
+
+
+_For the thirty years that I have spoken weekly to many hundreds of
+readers of_ The Chronicle _through its book review columns, it has been
+my constant aim to preach the doctrine of the importance of cultivating
+the habit of reading good books, as the chief resource in time of
+trouble or sickness. This doctrine I enforced, because for many years
+reading has been my principal recreation, and I have proved its
+usefulness in broadening one's view of life and in storing up material
+from the world's greatest writers which can be recalled at will. But it
+never occurred to me that this habit would finally come to mean the only
+thing that makes life worth living. When one passes the age of forty he
+begins to build a certain scheme for the years to come. That scheme may
+involve many things--domestic life, money-getting, public office,
+charity, education. With me it included mainly literary work, in which I
+was deeply interested, and close companionship with an only son, a boy
+of such lovable personal qualities that he had endeared himself to me
+from his very childhood. Cut off as I have been from domestic life,
+without a home for over fifteen years, my relations with my son Harold
+were not those of the stern parent and the timid son. Rather it was the
+relation of elder brother and younger brother._
+
+_Hence, when only ten days ago this close and tender association of many
+years was broken by death--swift and wholly unexpected, as a bolt from
+cloudless skies--it seemed to me for a few hours as if the keystone of
+the arch of my life had fallen and everything lay heaped in ugly ruin. I
+had waited for him on that Friday afternoon until six o'clock. Friday is
+my day off, my one holiday in a week of hard work, when my son always
+dined with me and then accompanied me to the theater or other
+entertainment. When he did not appear at six o'clock in the evening I
+left a note saying I had gone to our usual restaurant. That dinner I
+ate alone. When I returned in an hour it was to be met with the news
+that Harold lay cold in death at the very time I wrote the note that his
+eyes would never see._
+
+_When the first shock had passed came the review of what was left of
+life to me. Most of the things which I had valued highly for the sake of
+my son now had little or no worth for me; but to take up again the old
+round of work, without the vivid, joyous presence of a companion dearer
+than life itself, one must have some great compensations; and the chief
+of these compensations lay in the few feet of books in my library
+case--in those old favorites of all ages that can still beguile me,
+though my head is bowed in the dust with grief and my heart is as sore
+as an open wound touched by a careless hand._
+
+_For more than a dozen years in the school vacations and in my midsummer
+holidays my son and I were accustomed to take long tramps in the
+country. For five of these years the boy lived entirely in the country
+to gain health and strength. Both he and his older sister, Mary,
+narrowly escaped death by pneumonia in this city, so I transferred them
+to Angwin's, on Howell Mountain, an ideal place in a grove of pines--a
+ranch in the winter and a summer resort from May to November. There the
+air was soft with the balsam of pine, and the children throve
+wonderfully. Edwin Angwin was a second father to them both, and his wife
+was as fond as a real mother. For five years they remained on the
+mountain. Mary developed into an athletic girl, who became a fearless
+rider, an expert tennis player and a swimmer, who once swam two miles at
+Catalina Island on a foolish wager. She proved to be a happy, wholesome
+girl, an ideal daughter, but marriage took her from me and placed half
+the continent between us. Harold was still slight and fragile when he
+left the country, but his health was firmly established and he soon
+became a youth of exceptional strength and energy._
+
+_Many memories come to me now of visits paid to Angwin's in those five
+years. Coming home at three o'clock on winter mornings after a night of
+hard work and severe nervous strain, I would snatch two or three hours'
+sleep, get up in the chill winter darkness and make the tedious
+five-hour journey from this city to the upper Napa Valley, in order to
+spend one day with my boy and his sister. The little fellow kept a
+record on a calendar of the dates of these prospective visits, and
+always had some dainty for me--some bird or game or choice fruit which
+he knew I relished._
+
+_Then came the preparatory school and college days, when the boy looked
+forward to his vacations and spent them with me in single-minded
+enjoyment that warmed my heart like old wine. By means of constant talks
+and much reading of good books I labored patiently to develop his mind,
+and at the same time to keep his tastes simple and unspoiled. In this
+manner he came to be a curious mixture of the shrewd man of the world
+and the joyous, care-free boy. In judgment and in mental grasp he was
+like a man of thirty before he was eighteen, yet at the same time he was
+the spontaneous, fun-loving boy, whose greatest charm lay in the fact
+that he was wholly unconscious of his many gifts. He drew love from all
+he met, and he gave out affection as unconsciously as a flower yields
+its perfume._
+
+_In college he tided scores of boys over financial straits; his room at
+Stanford University was open house for the waifs and strays who had no
+abiding-place. In fact, so generous was his hospitality that the manager
+of the college dormitory warned him one day in sarcastic vein that the
+renting of a room for a term did not include the privilege of taking in
+lodgers. His friends were of all classes. He never joined a Greek
+letter fraternity because he did not like a certain clannishness that
+marked the members; but among Fraternity men as well as among Barbarians
+he counted his close associates by the score. He finished his college
+course amid trying circumstances, as he was called upon to voice the
+opinion of the great body of students in regard to an unjust ruling of
+the faculty that involved the suspension of many of the best students in
+college. And through arbitrary action of the college authorities his
+degree was withheld for six months, although he had passed all his
+examinations and had had no warnings of any condemnation of his
+independent and manly course as an editor of the student paper. Few boys
+of his age have ever shown more courage and tact than he exhibited
+during that trying time, when a single violent editorial from his pen
+would have resulted in the walking out of more than half the university
+students._
+
+_Then came his short business life, full of eager, enthusiastic work for
+the former college associate who had offered him a position on the Board
+of Fire Underwriters. Even in this role he did not work so much for
+himself as to "make good," and thus justify the confidence of the dear
+friend who stood sponsor for him. Among athletes of the Olympic Club he
+numbered many warm friends; hundreds of young men in professional and
+business life greeted him by the nickname of "Mike," which clung to him
+from his early freshman days at Stanford. The workers and the idlers,
+the studious and the joy-chasers, all gave him the welcome hand, for his
+smile and his gay speech were the password to all hearts. And yet so
+unspoiled was he that he would leave all the gayety and excitement of
+club life to spend hours with me, taking keen zest in rallying me if
+depressed or in sharing my delight in a good play, a fine concert, a
+fierce boxing bout or a spirited field day. Our tastes were of wide
+range, for we enjoyed with equal relish Mascagni's "Cavalleria," led by
+the composer himself, or a championship prize-fight; Margaret Anglin's
+somber but appealing Antigone or a funny "stunt" at the Orpheum._
+
+_Harold's full young life was also strongly colored by his close
+newspaper associations. The newspaper life, like the theatrical, puts
+its stamp on those who love it, and Harold loved it as the child who has
+been cradled in the wings loves the stage and its folk. Ever since he
+wore knickerbockers he was a familiar figure in the_ The Chronicle
+_editorial rooms. He knew the work of all departments of the paper, and
+he was a keen critic of that work. He would have made a success in this
+field, but he felt the work was too exacting and the reward too small
+for the confinement, the isolation and the nervous strain. After the
+fire he rendered good service when competent men were scarce, and in the
+sporting columns his work was always valued, because he was an expert in
+many kinds of sports and he was always scrupulously fair and never lost
+his head in any excitement. The news of his death caused as deep sorrow
+in_ The Chronicle _office as would the passing away of one of the oldest
+men on the force._
+
+_Now that this perennial spirit of youth is gone out of my life, the
+beauty of it stands revealed more clearly. Gone forever are the dear,
+the fond-remembered holidays, when the long summer days were far too
+short for the pleasure that we crowded into them. Gone are the winter
+walks in the teeth of the blustering ocean breezes, when we "took the
+wind into our pulses" and strode like Berserkers along the gray sand
+dunes, tasting the rarest spirit of life in the open air. Gone, clean
+gone, those happy days, leaving only the precious memory that wets my
+eyes that are not used to tears._
+
+_And so, in this roundabout way, I come back to my library shelves, to
+urge upon you who now are wrapped warm in domestic life and love to
+provide against the time when you may be cut off in a day from the
+companionship that makes life precious. Take heed and guard against the
+hour that may find you forlorn and unprotected against death's malignant
+hand. Cultivate the great worthies of literature, even if this means
+neglect of the latest magazine or of the newest sensational romance. Be
+content to confess ignorance of the ephemeral books that will be
+forgotten in a single half year, so that you may spend your leisure
+hours in genial converse with the great writers of all time. Dr. Eliot
+of Harvard recently aroused much discussion over his "five feet of
+books." Personally, I would willingly dispense with two-thirds of the
+books he regards as indispensable. But the vital thing is that you have
+your own favorites--books that are real and genuine, each one brimful of
+the inspiration of a great soul. Keep these books on a shelf convenient
+for use, and read them again and again until you have saturated your
+mind with their wisdom and their beauty. So may you come into the true
+Kingdom of Culture, whose gates never swing open to the pedant or the
+bigot. So may you be armed against the worst blows that fate can deal
+you in this world._
+
+_Who turns in time of affliction to the magazines or to those books of
+clever short stories which so amuse us when the mind is at peace and all
+goes well? No literary skill can bind up the broken-hearted; no beauty
+of phrase satisfy the soul that is torn by grief. No, when our house is
+in mourning we turn to the Bible first--that fount of wisdom and comfort
+which never fails him who comes to it with clean hands and a contrite
+heart. It is the medicine of life. And after it come the great books
+written by those who have walked through the Valley of the Shadow, yet
+have come out sweet and wholesome, with words of wisdom and counsel for
+the afflicted. One book through which beats the great heart of a man who
+suffered yet grew strong under the lash of fate is worth more than a
+thousand books that teach no real lesson of life, that are as broken
+cisterns holding no water, when the soul is athirst and cries out for
+refreshment._
+
+_This personal, heart-to-heart talk with you, my patient readers of many
+years, is the first in which I have indulged since the great fire swept
+away all my precious books--the hoarded treasures of forty years.
+Against my will it has been forced from me, for I am like a sorely
+wounded animal and would fain nurse my pain alone. It is written in the
+first bitterness of a crushing sorrow; but it is also written in the
+spirit of hope and confidence--the spirit which I trust will strengthen
+me to spend time and effort in helping to make life easier for some poor
+boys in memory of the one dearest boy who has gone before me into that
+"undiscovered country," where I hope some day to meet him, with the old
+bright smile on his face and the old firm grip of the hand that always
+meant love and tenderness and steadfast loyalty._
+
+_Among men of New England strain like myself it is easy to labor long
+hours, to endure nervous strain, to sacrifice comfort and ease for the
+sake of their dear ones; but men of Puritan strain, with natures as hard
+as the flinty granite of their hillsides, cannot tell their loved ones
+how dear they are to them, until Death lays his grim hand upon the
+shoulder of the beloved one and closes his ears forever to the words of
+passionate love that now come pouring in a flood from our trembling
+lips._
+
+_San Francisco, October 9, 1910._
+
+
+
+
+COMFORT FOUND IN GOOD OLD BOOKS
+
+
+
+
+THE GREATEST BOOK IN THE WORLD
+
+ HOW TO SECURE THE BEST THAT IS IN THE BIBLE--MUCH COMFORT
+ IN SORROW AND STIMULUS TO GOOD LIFE MAY BE FOUND IN ITS
+ STUDY.
+
+
+Several readers of my tribute to my dead son Harold have asked me to
+specify, in a series of short articles, some of the great books that
+have proved so much comfort to me in my hours of heart-breaking sorrow.
+In this age of cheap printing devices we are in danger of being
+overwhelmed by a great tide of books that are not real books at all. Out
+of a hundred of the new publications that come monthly from our great
+publishing houses, beautifully printed and bound and often ornamented
+with artistic pictures, not more than ten will live longer than a year,
+and not more than a single volume will retain any life ten years from
+the time it first saw the light. Hence it behooves us to choose wisely,
+for our lives are limited to the Psalmist's span of years, and there is
+no hope of securing the length of days of Methuselah and his kindred.
+
+Business or professional cares and social duties leave the average man
+or woman not over an hour a day that can be called one's very own; yet
+most of the self-appointed guides to reading--usually college professors
+or teachers or literary men with large leisure--write as though three or
+four hours a day for reading was the rule, rather than the exception. In
+my own case it is not unusual for me to spend six hours a day in
+reading, but it would be folly to shut my eyes to the fact that I am
+abnormal, an exception to the general rule. Hence in talking about books
+and reading I am going to assume that an hour a day is the maximum at
+your disposal for reading books that are real literature.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ A PAGE FROM THE GUTENBERG BIBLE
+ (MAYENCE, 1455)
+ NOTEWORTHY AS THE FIRST BIBLE PRINTED FROM
+ MOVABLE TYPE AND THE EARLIEST
+ COMPLETE PRINTED BOOK]
+
+And in this preliminary article I would like to enforce as strongly as
+words can express it my conviction that knowledge and culture should be
+set apart widely. In the reading that I shall recommend, culture of the
+mind and the heart comes first of all. This is more valuable than
+rubies, a great possession that glorifies life and opens our eyes to
+beauties in the human soul, as well as in nature, to all of which we
+were once blind and dumb. And culture can be built on the bare rudiments
+of education, at which pedagogues and pedants will sneer. Some of the
+most truly cultured men and women I have ever known have been
+self-educated; but their minds were opened to all good books by their
+passion for beauty in every form and their desire to improve their
+minds. Among the scores of letters that have come to me in my
+bereavement and that have helped to save me from bitterness, was one
+from a woman in a country town of California. After expressing her
+sympathy, greater than she could voice in words, she thanked me warmly
+for what I had said about the good old books. Then she told of her
+husband, the well-known captain of an army transport, who went to sea
+from the rugged Maine coast when a lad of twelve, with only scanty
+education, and who, in all the years that followed on many seas,
+laboriously educated himself and read the best books.
+
+In his cabin, she said, were well-worn copies of Shakespeare, Gibbon,
+Thackeray, Dickens, Burns, and others. These great worthies he had made
+a part of himself by constant reading. Of course, the man who thinks
+that the full flower of education is the ability to "parse" a sentence,
+or to express a commonplace thought in grandiloquent language that will
+force his reader to consult a dictionary for the meaning of unusual
+words--such a man and pedant would look upon this old sea captain as
+uneducated. But for real culture of mind and soul give me the man who
+has had many solitary hours for thought, with nothing but the stars to
+look down on him; who has felt the immensity of sea and sky, with no
+land and no sail to break the fearful circle set upon the face of the
+great deep.
+
+In the quest for culture, in the desire to improve your mind by close
+association with the great writers of all literature, do not be
+discouraged because you may have had little school training. The schools
+and the universities have produced only a few of the immortal writers.
+The men who speak to you with the greatest force from the books into
+which they put their living souls have been mainly men of simple life.
+The splendid stimulus that they give to every reader of their books
+sprang from the education of hard experience and the culture of the
+soul. The writers of these books yearned to aid the weak and heavy-laden
+and to bind up the wounds of the afflicted and sorely stricken. Can one
+imagine any fame so great or so enduring as the fame of him who wrote
+hundreds of years ago words that bring tears to one's eyes today--tears
+that give place to that passionate ardor for self-improvement, which is
+the beginning of all real culture?
+
+And another point is to guard against losing the small bits of leisure
+scattered through the day. Don't take up a magazine or a newspaper when
+you have fifteen minutes or a half hour of leisure alone in your room.
+Keep a good book and make it a habit to read so many pages in the time
+that is your own. Cultivate rapid reading, with your mind intent on your
+book. You will find in a month that you have doubled your speed and that
+you have fixed in your mind what you have read, and thus made it a
+permanent possession. If you persist in this course, reading always as
+though you had only a few moments to spare and concentrating your mind
+on the page before you, you will find that reading becomes automatic
+and that you can easily read thirty pages where before ten pages seemed
+a hard task.
+
+Long years ago it was my custom to reach home a half hour before dinner.
+To avoid irritability which usually assailed me when hungry, I took up
+Scott and read all the Waverley novels again. It required barely a year,
+but those half hours made at the end of the period eight whole days. In
+the same way in recent years I have reread Dickens, Thackeray, Kipling
+and Hardy, because I wanted to read something as recreation which I
+would not be forced to review. Constant practice in rapid reading has
+given me the power of reading an ordinary novel and absorbing it
+thoroughly in four hours. This permits of no dawdling, but one enjoys
+reading far better when he does it at top speed.
+
+Macaulay in his memoirs tells of the mass of reading which he did in
+India, always walking up and down his garden, because during such
+exercise his mind was more alert than when sitting at a desk.
+
+Many will recall Longfellow's work on the translation of Dante's
+_Inferno_, done in the fifteen minutes every morning which was required
+for his chocolate to boil. Every one remembers the "Pigskin Library"
+which Colonel Roosevelt carried with him to Africa on his famous hunting
+trip. The books were all standard works of pocket size, bound in
+pigskin, which defies sweat, blood, dirt or moisture, and takes on in
+time the rich tint of a well-used saddle. Roosevelt read these books
+whenever he chanced to have a few minutes of leisure. And it seems to me
+the superior diction of his hunting articles, which was recognized by
+all literary critics, came directly from this constant reading of the
+best books, joined with the fact that he had ample leisure for thought
+and wrote his articles with his own hand. Dictation to a stenographer is
+an easy way of preparing "copy" for the printer, but it is responsible
+for the decadence of literary style among English and American authors.
+
+In selecting the great books of the world place must be given first of
+all, above and beyond all, to the Bible. In the homely old King James'
+version, the spirit of the Hebrew prophets seems reflected as in a
+mirror. For the Bible, if one were cast away on a lonely island, he
+would exchange all other books; from the Bible alone could such a
+castaway get comfort and help. It is the only book in the world that is
+new every morning: the only one that brings balm to wounded hearts.
+
+Looked upon merely as literature, the Bible is the greatest book in the
+world; but he is dull and blind indeed who can study it and not see that
+it is more than a collection of supremely eloquent passages, written by
+many hands. It is surcharged with that deep religious spirit which
+marked the ancient Hebrews as a people set apart from alien races.
+Compare the Koran with the Bible and you will get a measure of the
+fathomless height this Book of books is raised above all others. Those
+who come to it with open minds and tender hearts, free from the
+worldliness that callouses so many fine natures, will find that in very
+truth it renews their strength; that it makes their spirit "mount up
+with wings as an eagle."
+
+First read the Old Testament, with its splendid imagery, its noble
+promises of rewards to those who shall be lifted out of the waters of
+trouble and sorrow. Then read the New Testament, whose simplicity gains
+new force against this fine background of promise and fulfilment. If the
+verbiage of many books of the Old Testament repels you, then get a
+single volume like _The Soul of the Bible_, arranged by Ulysses Pierce
+and printed by the American Unitarian Association of Boston. This volume
+of 500 pages contains the real essence of the Bible, revealed in all the
+beauty of incomparable phrase and sublime imagery; sounding the deeps of
+sorrow, mounting to the heights of joy; traversing the whole range of
+human life and showing that God is the only refuge for the sorely
+afflicted. How beautiful to the wounded heart the promise that always
+"underneath are the everlasting arms."
+
+Read _The Soul of the Bible_ carefully, and make it a part of your
+mental possessions. Then you will be ready to take up the real study of
+the Bible, which can never be finished, though your days may be long in
+the land. This study will take away the stony heart and will give you in
+return a heart of flesh, tender to the appeals of the sick and the
+sorrowing. If you have lost a dear child, the daily reading of the Bible
+will gird you up to go out and make life worth living for the orphan and
+the children of poverty and want, who so often are robbed from the
+cradle of their birthright of love and sunshine and opportunity for
+development of body and mind.
+
+If you have lost father or mother, then it will make your sympathy keen
+for the halting step of age and the pathetic eyes, in which you see
+patient acceptance of the part of looker-on in life, the only role left
+to those who have been shouldered out of the active ways of the world to
+dream of the ardent love and the brave work of their youth. So the
+reading of the Bible will gradually transmute your spirit into something
+which the worst blows of fate can neither bend nor break. To guard your
+feet on the stony road of grief you will be "shod with iron and brass."
+Then, in those immortal words of Zophar to Job:
+
+ "Then shall thy life be clearer than the noonday;
+ Though there be darkness, it shall be as the morning,
+ And because there is hope, thou shalt be secure;
+ Yea, thou shalt look about thee, and shalt take thy rest in safety;
+ Thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid."
+
+To this spiritual comfort will be added gain in culture through close
+and regular reading of the Bible. Happy are they who commit to the wax
+tablets of childish memory the great passages of the Old Testament.
+Such was Ruskin, who owed much of his splendid diction to early study of
+the Bible. Such also were Defoe and De Quincey, two men of widely
+different gifts, but with rare power of moving men's souls. The great
+passages of the Bible have entered into the common speech of the plain
+people of all lands; they have become part and parcel of our daily life.
+So should we go to the fountainhead of this unfailing source of
+inspiration and comfort and drink daily of its healing waters, which
+cleanse the heart and make it as the heart of a little child.
+
+
+
+
+SHAKESPEARE STANDS NEXT TO THE BIBLE
+
+ HINTS ON THE READING OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS--HOW TO
+ MASTER THE BEST OF THESE DRAMAS, THE FINEST OF MODERN
+ WORK.
+
+
+Next to the Bible in the list of great books of the world stands
+Shakespeare. No other work, ancient or modern, can challenge this; but,
+like the Bible, the great plays of Shakespeare are little read. Many of
+today prefer to read criticism about the dramatist rather than to get
+their ideas at first hand from his best works. Others spend much time on
+such nonsense as the Baconian theory--hours which they might devote to a
+close and loving study of the greatest plays the world has ever seen.
+Such a study would make the theory that the author of the _Essays_ and
+the _Novum Organum_ wrote _Hamlet_ or _Othello_ seem like midsummer
+madness. As well ask one to believe that Herbert Spencer wrote _Pippa
+Passes_ or _The Idyls of the King_.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ A PAGE FROM THE COVERDALE BIBLE
+ BEING THE FIRST COMPLETE ENGLISH BIBLE
+ IT WAS TYNDALE'S TRANSLATION REVISED BY COVERDALE
+ IT BEARS DATE OF 1535, AND DESIGNS ON THE
+ TITLE PAGE ARE ATTRIBUTED TO HOLBEIN]
+
+The peculiarity of Shakespeare's genius was that it reached far beyond
+his time; it makes him modern today, when the best work of his
+contemporaries, like Ben Jonson, Marlowe and Ford, are unreadable. Any
+theatrical manager of our time who should have the hardihood to put on
+the stage Jonson's _The Silent Woman_ or Marlowe's _Tamburlaine_ would
+court disaster. Yet any good actor can win success with Shakespeare's
+plays, although he may not coin as much money as he would from a
+screaming farce or a homespun play of American country life.
+
+Those who have heard Robert Mantell in Lear, Richard III, Hamlet or Iago
+can form some idea of the vitality and the essential modernism of
+Shakespeare's work. The good actor or the good stage manager cuts out
+the coarse and the stupid lines that may be found in all Shakespeare's
+plays. The remainder reaches a height of poetic beauty, keen insight
+into human nature and dramatic perfection which no modern work even
+approaches. Take an unlettered spectator who may never have heard
+Shakespeare's name and he soon becomes thrall to the genius of this
+great Elizabethan wizard, whose master hand reaches across the centuries
+and moves him to laughter and tears. The only modern who can claim a
+place beside him is Goethe, whose _Faust_, whether in play or in opera,
+has the same deathless grip on the sympathies of an audience.
+
+And yet in taking up Shakespeare the reader who has no guide is apt to
+stumble at the threshold and retire without satisfaction. As arranged,
+the comedies are given first, and it is not well to begin with
+Shakespeare's comedies. In reading any author it is the part of wisdom
+to begin with his best works. Our knowledge of Shakespeare is terribly
+meager, but we know that he went up to London from his boyhood home at
+Stratford-on-Avon, that he secured work in a playhouse, and that very
+soon he began to write plays. To many this sudden development of a raw
+country boy into a successful dramatist seems incredible.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ CHANDOS' PORTRAIT OF SHAKESPEARE
+ SO CALLED BECAUSE IT WAS OWNED BY THE
+ DUKE OF CHANDOS--PROBABLY
+ PAINTED AFTER DEATH FROM PERSONAL DESCRIPTION
+ THE ORIGINAL IS IN THE NATIONAL
+ GALLERY, LONDON]
+
+Yet a similar instance is afforded by Alexander Dumas, the greatest
+imaginative writer of his time, and the finest story-teller in all
+French literature. Dumas had little education, and his work, when he
+went to Paris from his native province, was purely clerical, yet he read
+very widely, and the novels and romances of Scott aroused his
+imagination. But who taught Dumas the perfect use of French verse? Who
+gave him his prose style as limpid and flowing as a country brook? These
+things Dumas doesn't think it necessary to explain in his voluminous
+memoirs. They are simply a part of that literary genius which is the
+despair of the writer who has not the gift of style or the power to move
+his readers by creative imagination.
+
+In the same way, had Shakespeare left any biographical notes, we should
+see that this raw Stratford youth unconsciously acquired every bit of
+culture that came in his way; that his mind absorbed like a sponge all
+the learning and the literary art of his famous contemporaries. The
+Elizabethan age was charged with a peculiar imaginative power; the verse
+written then surpasses in uniform strength and beauty any verse that has
+been written since; the men who wrote were as lawless, as daring, as
+superbly conscious of their own powers as the great explorers and
+adventurers who carried the British flag to the ends of the earth and
+made the English sailor feared as one whose high courage and bulldog
+tenacity never recognized defeat.
+
+Given creative literary genius in greater measure than any other man was
+ever endowed with, the limits of Shakespeare's development could not be
+marked. His capacity was boundless and, living in an atmosphere as
+favorable to literary art as that of Athens in the time of Pericles,
+Shakespeare produced in a few years those immortal plays which have
+never been equaled in mastery of human emotion and beauty and power of
+diction.
+
+There is no guide to the order in which Shakespeare wrote his plays,
+except the internal evidence of his verse. Certain habits of metrical
+work, as shown in the meter and the arrangement of the lines, have
+enabled close students of Shakespeare to place most of the comedies
+after the historical plays. Thus in the early plays Shakespeare arranged
+his blank verse so that the sense ends with each line and he was much
+given to rhymed couplets at the close of each long speech. But later,
+when he had gained greater mastery of his favorite blank verse, many
+lines are carried over, thus welding them more closely and forming verse
+that has the rhythm and beauty of organ tones. As Shakespeare advanced
+in command over the difficult blank verse he showed less desire to use
+rhyme.
+
+This close study of versification shows that _Love's Labor's Lost_ was
+probably Shakespeare's first play, followed by _The Comedy of Errors_
+and by several historical plays. One year after his first rollicking
+comedy appeared he produced _Romeo and Juliet_, but this great drama of
+young love was revised carefully six years later and put into the form
+that we know. Three years after his start he produced _Midsummer Night's
+Dream_ and _The Merchant of Venice_, and followed these with his
+greatest comedies, _Much Ado About Nothing_, _Twelfth Night_ and _As You
+Like It_, the latter the comedy which appeals most strongly to modern
+readers and modern audiences.
+
+Then came a period in which Shakespeare's world was somber, and his
+creative genius found expression in the great tragedies--_Julius Caesar_,
+_Hamlet_, _Othello_, _King Lear_, _Macbeth_ and _Antony and Cleopatra_.
+And finally we have the closing years of production, in which he wrote
+three fine plays--_The Tempest_, _Cymbeline_ and _The Winter's Tale_.
+
+According to the best authorities, Shakespeare began writing plays in
+1590 and he ended early in 1613. Into these twenty-three years he
+crowded greater intellectual activity than any other man ever showed in
+the same space of time. Probably Sir Walter Scott, laboring like a
+galley slave at the oar to pay off the huge debt rolled up by the
+reckless Ballantyne, comes next in creative literary power to
+Shakespeare; but Scott's work was in prose and was far easier of
+production.
+
+Shakespeare, like all writers of his day, took his materials from all
+sources and never scrupled to borrow plots from old or contemporary
+authors. But he so transmuted his materials by the alchemy of genius
+that one would never recognize the originals from his finished version.
+And he put into his great plays such a wealth of material drawn from
+real life that one goes to them for comfort and sympathy in affliction
+as he goes to the great books of the Bible. In a single play, as in
+_Hamlet_, the whole round of human life and passions is reviewed.
+Whatever may be his woe or his disappointment, no one goes to _Hamlet_
+without getting some response to his grief or his despair.
+
+To give a list of the plays of Shakespeare which one should read is very
+difficult, because one reader prefers this and another that, and each
+can give good reasons for his liking. What I shall try to do here is to
+indicate certain plays which, if carefully read several times, will make
+you master of Shakespeare's art and will prepare you for wider reading
+in this great storehouse of human nature. _Romeo and Juliet_, a tragedy
+of young, impulsive love, represents the fine flower of Shakespeare's
+young imagination, before it had been clouded by sorrow. The verse
+betrays some of the defects of his early style, but it is rich in beauty
+and passion. The plot is one of the best, and this, with the opportunity
+for striking stage effects and brilliant costumes, has made it the most
+popular of all Shakespeare's plays. The characters are all sharply drawn
+and the swift unfolding of the plot represents the height of dramatic
+skill. Next to this, one should read _The Merchant of Venice_. Shylock
+is one of the great characters in Shakespeare's gallery, a pathetic,
+lonely figure, barred out from all close association with his fellows in
+trade by evil traits, that finally drive him to ruin. Then take up a
+comedy like _As You Like It_, as restful to the senses as fine music,
+and filled with verse as tuneful and as varied as the singing of a great
+artist.
+
+By this reading you will be prepared for the supreme tragedies--each a
+masterpiece without a superior in any literature. These are _Hamlet_,
+_Othello_, _King Lear_, _Julius Caesar_, _Macbeth_ and _Antony and
+Cleopatra_. In no other six works in any language can one find such
+range of thought, such splendor of verse, such soundings of the great
+sea of human passions--love, jealousy, ambition, hate, remorse, fear and
+shame. Each typifies some overmastering passion, but _Hamlet_ stands
+above all as a study of a splendid mind, swayed by every wind of
+impulse, noble in defeat and pathetic in the final ruin of hope and
+love, largely due to lack of courage and decision of character. Take it
+all in all, _Hamlet_ represents the finest creative work of any modern
+author. This play is packed with bitter experience of life, cast in
+verse that is immortal in its beauty and melody.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ 1. SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTHPLACE AT
+ STRATFORD-ON-AVON BEFORE THE RESTORATION
+ WHICH HAS SPOILED IT]
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ 2. THE ANNE HATHAWAY COTTAGE]
+
+_Macbeth_ represents ambition, linked with superstition and weakness of
+will; the fruit is an evil brood--remorse struggles with desire for
+power, affection is torn by the malign influence of guilt, as seen in
+the unhinging of Lady Macbeth's mind. No one should miss the opportunity
+to see a great actor or a great actress in _Macbeth_--it is a revelation
+of the deeps of human tragedy. _King Lear_ is the tragedy of old age,
+the same tragedy that Balzac drew in _Le Pere Goriot_, save that Lear
+becomes bitter, and after weathering the storm of madness, wreaks
+vengeance on his unnatural daughters. Old Goriot, one of the most
+pathetic figures in all fiction, goes to his grave trying to convince
+the world that his heartless girls really love him.
+
+The real hero of _Julius Caesar_ is Brutus, done to death by men of
+lesser mold and coarser natures, who take advantage of his lack of
+practical sense and knowledge of human nature. This play is seldom put
+on the stage in recent years, but it is always a treat to follow it when
+depicted by good actors. _Othello_ is the tragedy of jealousy working
+upon the mind of a simple and noble nature, which is quick to accept the
+evil hints of Iago because of its very lack of knowledge of women. Iago
+is the greatest type of pure villainy in all literature, far more
+vicious than Goethe's Mephistopheles, because he wreaks his power over
+others largely from a satanic delight in showing his skill and resources
+in evil. As a play _Othello_ is the most perfectly constructed of
+Shakespeare's works. Finally in _Antony and Cleopatra_ Shakespeare shows
+the disintegrating force of guilty love, which does not revolt even when
+the Egyptian Queen ruins her lover's cause by unspeakable cowardice.
+Cleopatra is the great siren of literature, and the picture of her
+charms is fine verse.
+
+And here let me advise the hearing of good actors in Shakespeare as a
+means of culture. All the great Shakespearean actors are gone, but
+Mantell remains, and he, though not equal to Booth, is, to my mind, far
+more convincing than Irving. Mantell's Lear is the essence of great
+acting--something to recall with rare pleasure. Edwin Booth I probably
+saw in _Hamlet_ a score of times in twice that many years, but never did
+I see him without getting some new light on the melancholy Dane. Even on
+successive nights Booth was never just the same, as his mood tinged his
+acting. His sonorous voice, his perfect enunciation, his graceful
+gestures, above all his striking face, alive with the light of
+genius--these are memories it is a delight to recall.
+
+To develop appreciation of Shakespeare I would advise reading the plays
+aloud. In no other way will you be able to savor the beauty and the
+melody of the blank verse. It was my good fortune while an undergraduate
+at Cornell University to be associated for four years with Professor
+Hiram Corson, then head of the department of English literature. Corson
+believed in arousing interest in Shakespeare by reading extracts from
+the best plays, with running comment on the passages that best
+illustrated the poet's command of all the resources of blank verse. His
+voice was like a fine organ, wonderfully developed to express every
+emotion, and I can recall after nearly forty years as though it were but
+yesterday the thrilling effect of these readings. No actor on the stage,
+with the single exception of Edwin Booth, equaled Corson in beauty of
+voice or in power of expression.
+
+The result of these readings, with the comment that came from a mind
+stored with Shakespearean lore, was to stir one's ambition to study the
+great plays. Recalling the liberal education that came from Corson's
+readings, I have been deeply sorry for college students whom I have seen
+vainly trying to appreciate Shakespeare's verse as read by professors
+with harsh, rasping, monotonous voices that killed the beauty of rhyme
+and meter as a frost kills a fine magnolia blossom breathing perfume
+over a garden. When will college presidents awake to the fact that book
+learning alone cannot make a successful professor of English literature,
+when the man is unable to bring out the melody of the verse? Similar
+folly is shown by the theological schools that continue to inflict upon
+the world preachers whose faulty elocution makes a mock of the finest
+passages of the Bible.
+
+In my own case my tireless study of Shakespeare during four years at
+college, which included careful courses of reading and study during the
+long vacations, so saturated my mind with the great plays that they have
+been ever since one of my most cherished possessions. After years of
+hard newspaper work it is still possible for me to get keen pleasure
+from reading aloud to myself any of Shakespeare's plays. My early study
+of Shakespeare led me to look up every unfamiliar word, every phrase
+that was not clear. This used to be heavy labor, but now all the school
+and college editions are equipped with these aids to the student. The
+edition of Shakespeare which always appealed to me most strongly was the
+Temple edition, edited by Israel Gollancz. It is pocket size,
+beautifully printed and very well edited. For a companion on a solitary
+walk in city or country no book is superior to one of Shakespeare's
+plays in this convenient Temple edition, bound in limp leather.
+
+The best edition of Shakespeare in one volume is, to my mind, the
+Cambridge edition, issued by the Houghton Mifflin Company of Boston,
+uniform with the same edition of other English and American poets. This,
+of course, has only a few textual notes, but it has a good glossary of
+unusual and obsolete words. It makes a royal octavo volume of one
+thousand and thirty-six double-column pages, clearly printed in
+nonpareil type.
+
+In this chapter I have been able only to touch on the salient features
+of the work of the foremost English poet and dramatist, and, in my
+judgment, the greatest writer the world has ever seen. If these words of
+mine stimulate any young reader to take up the study of Shakespeare I
+shall feel well repaid. Certainly, with the single exception of the
+Bible, no book will reward a careful, loving study so well as
+Shakespeare.
+
+
+
+
+HOW TO READ THE ANCIENT CLASSICS
+
+ AUTHORS OF GREECE AND ROME ONE SHOULD KNOW--MASTERPIECES
+ OF THE ANCIENT WORLD THAT MAY BE ENJOYED IN GOOD
+ ENGLISH VERSIONS.
+
+
+In choosing the great books of the world, after the Bible and
+Shakespeare, one is brought face to face with a perplexing problem. It
+is easy to provide a list for the scholar, the literary man, the
+scientist, the philosopher; but it is extremely difficult to arrange any
+list for the general reader, who may not have had the advantage of a
+college education or any special literary training. And here, at the
+outset, enters the problem of the Greek, Latin and other ancient
+classics which have always been widely read and which you will find
+quoted by most writers, especially those of a half century ago. In this
+country literary fads have prevailed for a decade or two, only to be
+dropped for new fashions in culture.
+
+Take Emerson, for instance. His early development was strongly affected
+by German philosophy, which was labeled Transcendentalism. A. Bronson
+Alcott, who never wrote anything that has survived, was largely
+instrumental in infecting Emerson with his own passion for the dreamy
+German philosophical school. Emerson also was keenly alive to the
+beauties of the Greek and the Persian poets, although he was so
+broad-minded in regard to reading books in good translations that he
+once said he would as soon think of swimming across the Charles river
+instead of taking the bridge, as of reading any great masterpiece in the
+original when he could get a good translation.
+
+Many of Emerson's essays are an ingenious mosaic of Greek, Latin,
+Persian, Hindoo and Arabic quotations. These extracts are always apt and
+they always point some shrewd observation or conclusion of the Sage of
+Concord; but that Emerson should quote them as a novelty reveals the
+provincial character of New England culture in his day as strongly as
+the lectures of Margaret Fuller.
+
+The question that always arises in my mind when reading a new list of
+the hundred or the fifty best books by some recognized literary
+authority is: Does the ordinary business or professional man, who has
+had no special literary training, take any keen interest in the great
+masterpieces of the Greeks and Romans? Does it not require some special
+aptitude or some special preparation for one to appreciate Plato's
+_Dialogues_ or Sophocles' _OEdipus_, Homer's _Iliad_ or Horace's
+_Odes_, even in the best translations? In most cases, I think the
+reading of the Greek and Latin classics in translations is barren of any
+good results. Unless one has a passionate sympathy with Greek or Roman
+life, it is impossible, without a study of the languages and an intimate
+knowledge of the life and ideals of the people, to get any grasp of
+their best literary work. The things which the scholar admires seem to
+the great public flat and commonplace; the divine simplicity, the lack
+of everything modern, seems to narrow the intellectual horizon. This, I
+think, is the general result.
+
+But over against this must be placed the exceptions among men of
+literary genius like Keats and Richard Jefferies, both Englishmen of
+scanty school education, who rank, to my mind, among the greatest
+interpreters of the real spirit of the classical age. Keats, like
+Shakespeare, knew "small Latin and less Greek"; yet in his _Ode on a
+Grecian Urn_ and his _Endymion_ he has succeeded in bringing over into
+the alien English tongue the very essence of Greek life and thought.
+Matthew Arnold, with all his scholarship and culture, never succeeded in
+doing this, even in such fine work as _A Strayed Reveler_ or _Empedocles
+on Etna_. In the same way Jefferies, who is neglected by readers of
+today, in _The Story of My Heart_ has reproduced ancient Rome and made
+Julius Caesar more real than we find him in his own _Commentaries_.
+
+If you can once reach the point of view of Keats or Jefferies you will
+find a new world opening before you--a world of fewer ideas, but of far
+more simple and genuine life; of narrower horizon, but of intenser power
+over the primal emotions. This was a world without Christ--a world which
+placidly accepted slavery as a recognized institution; which calmly
+ignored all claims of the sick, the afflicted and the poverty-stricken,
+and which admitted the right to take one's own life when that life
+became burdensome through age or disease, or when self-destruction would
+save one from humiliation and punishment.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ BUST OF HOMER IN THE MUSEUM OF NAPLES
+ ANOTHER FINE BUST IS IN THE LOUVRE AT PARIS
+ BUT ALL ARE IDEALIZED FOR THE WORLD
+ HAS NO AUTHENTIC RECORDS OF THE
+ AUTHOR OF THE
+ "ILIAD" AND THE "ODYSSEY"]
+
+These ideas are all reflected in the great masterpieces of the Greeks
+and the Romans which have come down to us. Sometimes this reflection is
+tinged with a modern touch of sentiment, as in the _Meditations_ of
+Marcus Aurelius; but usually it is hard and repellant in its
+unconsciousness of romantic love or sympathy or regard for human rights,
+which Christianity has made the foundation stones of the modern world.
+This difference it is which prevents the average man or woman of today
+from getting very near to the classic writers. Even the greatest of
+these, with all their wealth of beauty and pathos, fail to impress one
+as do far less gifted writers of our own time.
+
+At the head of the ancient classics stand Homer's _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_
+and Virgil's _AEneid_. It is very difficult to get the spirit of either
+of these authors from a metrical translation. Many famous poets have
+tried their hand on Homer, with very poor results. About the worst
+version is that of Alexander Pope, who translated the _Iliad_ into the
+neat, heroic verse that suited so well his own _Essay on Man_ and his
+_Dunciad_. Many thousand copies were sold and the thrifty poet made a
+small fortune out of the venture. All the contemporary critics praised
+it, partly because they thought it was good, as they did not even
+appreciate the verse of Shakespeare, and partly because they feared the
+merciless pen of Pope. The Earl of Derby translated the _Iliad_ into
+good blank verse, but this becomes very tiresome before you get through
+a single book. William Cullen Bryant, the American poet, gave far
+greater variety to his verse and his metrical translation of the _Iliad_
+and the _Odyssey_ is perhaps the best version in print. The best
+metrical translation of the _AEneid_ is that of Christopher P. Cranch.
+The very best translation for the general reader is the prose version of
+Butcher and Lang. These two English scholars have rendered both the
+_Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_ into good, strong, idiomatic prose, and in
+this form the reader who doesn't understand Greek can get some idea of
+the beauty of the sonorous lines of the original poem. Conington and
+Professor Church have each done the same service for Virgil and their
+prose versions of the scholarly Latin poet will be found equally
+readable.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ PORTRAIT OF VIRGIL
+ TAKEN FROM A BUST BY L. P. BOITARD
+ AND ENGRAVED ON COPPER FOR THE
+ FRONTISPIECE OF WARTON'S
+ VIRGIL, 1753]
+
+Homer and Virgil give an excellent idea of the ancient way of looking
+upon life. Everything is clear, brilliant, free from all illusions;
+there are no moral digressions; the characters live and move as
+naturally as the beasts of the field and with the same unconscious
+enjoyment of life and love and the warmth of the sun. The gods decree
+the fate of men; the prizes of this world fall to him who has the
+stoutest heart, the strongest arm and the most cunning tongue. Each god
+and goddess of Olympus has favorites on earth, and when these favorites
+are in trouble or danger the gods appeal to Jove to intercede for them.
+None of the characters reveals any except the most primitive emotions.
+
+Helen of Troy sets the whole ancient world aflame, but it is only the
+modern poets who put any words of remorse or shame into her beautiful
+mouth. And yet these old stories are among the most attractive that have
+ever been told. They appeal to young and old alike, and when one sees
+the bright eyes of children flash over the deeds of the heroes of Homer,
+he may get some idea of what these tales were to the early Greeks. Told
+by professional story-tellers about the open fire at night, they had
+much to do with the development of the Greek mind and character, as seen
+at its best in the age of Pericles. Virgil took AEneas of Troy as his
+hero and wrote his great national epic of the founding of Rome.
+
+Only brief space can be given to the other worthies of the classical
+age. Every one should have some knowledge of Plato, whose great service
+was to tell the world of the life and teachings of Socrates, the wisest
+of the ancients. Get Jowett's translation of the _Phaedo_ and read the
+pathetic story of the last days of Socrates. Or get the _Republic_ and
+learn of Plato's ideal of good government. Jowett was one of the
+greatest Greek scholars and his translations are simple and strong, a
+delight to read.
+
+Of the great Greek dramatists read one work of each--say, the _Antigone_
+of Sophocles, the _Medea_ of Euripides and the _Prometheus_ of AEschylus.
+If you like these, it is easy to find the others. Then there is
+Plutarch, whose lives of famous Greeks and Romans used to be one of the
+favorite books of our grandfathers. It is little read today, but you can
+get much out of it that will remain as a permanent possession. The
+Romans were great letter-writers, perhaps because they had not developed
+the modern fads of society and sport which consume most of the leisure
+of today, and in these letters you will get nearer to the writer than in
+his other works.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ PLATO, AFTER AN ANTIQUE BUST
+ PLATO GAVE THE WORLD ITS CHIEF KNOWLEDGE
+ OF SOCRATES AND HE ALSO ANTICIPATED
+ MANY MODERN DISCOVERIES IN
+ SCIENCE AND THOUGHT]
+
+Cicero in his most splendid orations never touched me as he does in his
+familiar letters, while Pliny gives a mass of detail that throws a clear
+light on Roman life. Pliny would have made an excellent reporter, as he
+felt the need of detail in giving a picture of any event. There are a
+score of other famous ancient writers whose work you may get in good
+English translations, but of all these perhaps you will enjoy most the
+two philosophers--Epictetus, the Greek stoic, and Marcus Aurelius, who
+retained a refreshing simplicity of mind when he was absolute master of
+the Roman world. Most of the Greek and Latin authors may be secured in
+Bohn's series of translations, which are usually good.
+
+This ancient world of Greece and Rome is full of stimulus to the general
+reader, although he may have no knowledge either of Latin or Greek. More
+and more the colleges are abandoning the training in the classics and
+are substituting German or French or Italian for the old requirements
+of Greek and Latin. As intellectual training, the modern languages
+cannot compare with the classical, but in our day the intense
+competition in business, the struggle for mere existence has become so
+keen that it looks as though the leisurely methods of education of our
+forefathers must be abandoned.
+
+The rage for specializing has reached such a point that one often finds
+an expert mining or electrical engineer graduated from one of our great
+universities who knows no more of ancient or modern literature than an
+ignorant ditch-digger, and who cannot write a short letter in correct
+English. These things were not "required" in his course; hence he did
+not take them. And it is far more difficult to induce such a man to
+cultivate the reading habit than it is to persuade the man who has never
+been to college to devote some time every day to getting culture from
+the great books of the world.
+
+
+
+
+THE ARABIAN NIGHTS AND OTHER CLASSICS
+
+ ORIENTAL FAIRY TALES AND GERMAN LEGENDS--THE ANCIENT
+ ARABIAN STORIES AND THE NIBELUNGENLIED AMONG WORLD'S
+ GREATEST BOOKS.
+
+
+The gap between the ancient writers and the modern is bridged by several
+great books, which have been translated into all languages. Among these
+the following are entitled to a place: _The Arabian Nights_; _Don
+Quixote_, by Cervantes; _The Divine Comedy_, by Dante; _The Imitation of
+Christ_; _The Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam_, _St. Augustine's Confessions_,
+and The _Nibelungenlied_.
+
+Other great books could be added to this list, such as _Benvenuto
+Cellini's Autobiography_, _Boccaccio's Tales_, the _Analects of
+Confucius_ and _Mahomet's Koran_. But these are not among the books
+which one must read. Those that I have named first should be read by
+any one who wishes to get the best in all literature. And another reason
+is that characters and sayings from these books are so often quoted that
+to be ignorant of them is to miss much which is significant in the
+literature of the last hundred years. Whatever forms a part of everyday
+speech cannot be ignored, and the _Arabian Nights_, _Don Quixote_ and
+Dante's _Divine Comedy_ are three books that have made so strong an
+impression on the world that they have stimulated the imagination of
+hundreds of writers and have formed the text for many volumes. Dante's
+great work alone has been commented upon by hundreds of writers, and
+these commentaries and the various editions make up a library of over
+five thousand volumes. _The Arabian Nights_ has been translated from the
+original into all languages, although the primitive tales still serve to
+amuse Arabs when told by the professional story-tellers of today.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ EDMUND DULAC'S CONCEPTION
+ OF QUEEN SCHEHEREZADE, WHO TOLD THE
+ "ARABIAN NIGHTS" TALES]
+
+In choosing the great books of the world first place must be given to
+those which have passed into the common language of the people or which
+have been quoted so frequently that one cannot remain ignorant of them.
+After the Bible and Shakespeare the third place must be given to _The
+Arabian Nights_, a collection of tales of Arabia and Egypt, supposed to
+have been related by Queen Scheherezade to her royal husband when he was
+wakeful in the night. The first story was told in order that he might
+not carry out his determination to have her executed on the following
+morning; so she halted her tale at a very interesting point and,
+artfully playing upon the King's interest, every night she stopped her
+story at a point which piqued curiosity. In this way, so the legend
+goes, she entertained her spouse for one thousand and one nights, until
+he decided that so good a story-teller deserved to keep her head.
+
+Today these Arabian tales and many variants of _The Thousand and One
+Nights_ are told by professional story-tellers who call to their aid all
+the resources of gesture, facial expression and variety of tone. In
+fact, these Oriental story-tellers are consummate actors, who play upon
+the emotions of their excitable audiences until they are able to move
+them to laughter and tears. This childlike character the Arab has
+retained until today, despite the fact that he is rapidly becoming
+expert in the latest finance and that he is a past master in the
+handling of the thousands of tourists who visit Egypt, Arabia and other
+Mohammedan countries every year.
+
+The sources of the leading tales of _The Arabian Nights_ cannot be
+traced. Such stories as _Sinbad the Sailor_, _Ali Baba and the Forty
+Thieves_ and _Aladdin or the Wonderful Lamp_ may be found in the
+literature of all Oriental countries, but the form in which these
+Arabian tales have come down to us shows that they were collected and
+arranged during the reign of the good Caliph Haroun al Raschid of
+Bagdad, who flourished in the closing years of the eighth century. The
+book was first made known to European readers by Antoine Galland in
+1704. This French writer made a free paraphrase of some of the tales,
+but, singularly enough, omitted the famous stories of _Aladdin_ and _Ali
+Baba_.
+
+The first good English translation was made by E. W. Lane from an Arabic
+version, condensed from the original text. The only complete
+translations of the Arabic version were made by Sir Richard Burton for a
+costly subscription edition and by John Payne for the Villon Society.
+Burton's notes are very interesting, as he probably knew the Arab better
+than any other foreigner, but his literal translation is tedious,
+because of the many repetitions, due to the custom of telling the
+stories by word of mouth.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE JINNEE AND THE MERCHANT
+ A VIGNETTE WOODCUT BY WILLIAM HARVEY IN
+ THE FIRST EDITION OF LANE'S TRANSLATION
+ WHICH STILL REMAINS THE BEST
+ ENGLISH VERSION OF THE
+ "ARABIAN NIGHTS"]
+
+The usual editions of _The Arabian Nights_, contain eight stories. Happy
+are the children who have had these immortal stories told or read to
+them in their impressionable early years. Like the great stories of the
+Bible are these fairy tales of magicians, genii, enchanted carpets and
+flying horses; of princesses that wed poor boys who have been given the
+power to summon the wealth of the underworld; of the adventures of
+Sinbad in many waters, and of his exploits, which were more remarkable
+than those of Ulysses.
+
+The real democracy of the Orient is brought out in these tales, for the
+Grand Vizier may have been the poor boy of yesterday and the young
+adventurer with brains and cunning and courage often wins the princess
+born to the purple. All the features of Moslem life, which have not
+changed for fourteen hundred years, are here reproduced and form a very
+attractive study. For age or childhood _The Arabian Nights_ will always
+have a perennial charm, because these tales appeal to the imagination
+that remains forever young.
+
+The great poem of German literature, _The Nibelungenlied_, may be
+bracketed with _The Arabian Nights_, for it expresses perfectly the
+ideals of the ancient Germans, the historic myths that are common to all
+Teutonic and Scandinavian races, and the manners and customs that marked
+the forefathers of the present nation of "blood and iron." _The
+Nibelungenlied_ has well been called the German _Iliad_, and it is
+worthy of this appellation, for it is the story of a great crime and a
+still greater retribution.
+
+It is really the story of Siegfried, King of the Nibelungs, in lower
+Germany, favored of the Gods, who fell in love with Kriemhild, Princess
+of the Burgundians; of Siegfried's help by which King Gunther, brother
+of Kriemhild, secures as his wife the Princess Brunhilde of Iceland; of
+the rage and humiliation of Brunhilde when she discovers that she has
+been subdued by Siegfried instead of by her own overlord; of Brunhilde's
+revenge, which took the form of the treacherous slaying of Siegfried by
+Prince Hagen, and of the tremendous revenge of Kriemhild years after,
+when, as the wife of King Etzel of the Huns, she sees the flower of the
+Burgundian chivalry put to the sword, and she slays with her own hand
+both her brother Gunther and Hagen, the murderer of Siegfried.
+
+The whole story is dominated by the tragic hand of fate. Siegfried, the
+warrior whom none can withstand in the lists, is undone by a woman's
+tongue. The result of the shame he has put upon Brunhilde Siegfried
+reveals to his wife, and a quarrel between the two women ends in
+Kriemhild taunting Brunhilde with the fact that King Gunther gained her
+love by fraud and that Siegfried was the real knight who overcame and
+subdued her. Then swiftly follows the plot to kill Siegfried, but
+Brunhilde, whose wrath could be appeased only by the peerless knight's
+death, has a change of heart and stabs herself on his funeral pyre.
+Intertwined with this story of love, revenge and the slaughter of a
+whole race is the myth of a great treasure buried by the dwarfs in the
+Rhine, the secret of which goes to the grave with grim old Hagen.
+
+These tales that are told in _The Nibelungenlied_ have been made real to
+readers of today by Wagner, who uses them as the libretto of some of his
+finest operas. With variations, he has told in the greatest dramatic
+operas the world has yet seen the stories of Siegfried and Brunhilde,
+the labors of the Valkyrie, and the wrath of the gods of the old Norse
+mythology. To understand aright these operas, which have come to be
+performed by all the great companies, one should be familiar with the
+epic that first recorded these tales of chivalry.
+
+Many variants there are of this epic in the literature of Norway, Sweden
+and Iceland, but _The Nibelungenlied_ remains as the model of these
+tales of the heroism of men and the quarrels of the gods. Wagner has
+used these materials with surpassing skill, and no one can hear such
+operas as _Siegfried_, _The Valkyrie_, and _Gotterdammerung_ without
+receiving a profound impression of the reality and the power of these
+old myths and legends.
+
+Perhaps for most readers Carlyle's essay on _The Nibelungenlied_ will
+suffice, for in this the great English essayist and historian has told
+the story of the German epic and has translated many of the most
+striking passages. In verse the finest rendering of this story is found
+in _Sigurd the Volsung_ by William Morris, told in sonorous measure that
+never becomes monotonous. A good prose translation has been made by
+Professor Shumway of the University of Pennsylvania. The volume was
+brought out by Houghton Mifflin Company of Boston in 1909. His version
+is occasionally marred by archaic turns of expression, but it comes far
+nearer to reproducing the spirit of the original than any of the
+metrical translations.
+
+
+
+
+THE CONFESSIONS OF ST. AUGUSTINE
+
+ AN ELOQUENT BOOK OF RELIGIOUS MEDITATION--THE ABLEST OF
+ EARLY CHRISTIAN FATHERS TELLS OF HIS YOUTH, HIS FRIENDS
+ AND HIS CONVERSION.
+
+
+In reading the great books of the world one must be guided largely by
+his own taste. If a book is recommended to you and you cannot enjoy it
+after conscientious effort, then it is plain that the book does not
+appeal to you or that you are not ready for it. The classic that you may
+not be able to read this year may become the greatest book in the world
+to you in another year, when you have passed through some hard
+experience that has matured your mind or awakened some dormant faculties
+that call out for employment.
+
+Great success or great failure, a crushing grief or a disappointment
+that seems to take all the light out of your world--these are some of
+the things that mature and change the mind. So, if you cannot feel
+interest in some of the books that are recommended in these articles put
+the volumes aside and wait for a better day. It will be sure to come,
+unless you drop into the habit of limiting your reading to the
+newspapers and the magazines. If you fall into this common practice then
+there is little hope for you, as real literature will lose all its
+attractions. Better to read nothing than to devote your time entirely to
+what is ephemeral and simply for the day it is printed.
+
+_The Confessions of St. Augustine_ is a book which will appeal to one
+reader, while another can make little of it. For fifteen hundred years
+it has been a favorite book among priests and theologians and those who
+are given to pious meditation. Up to the middle of the last century it
+probably had a more vital influence in weaning people from the world and
+in turning their thoughts to religious things than any other single book
+except the Bible. And this influence is not hard to seek, for into this
+book the stalwart old African Bishop of the fourth century put his whole
+heart, with its passionate love of God and its equally passionate
+desire for greater perfection. As an old commentator said, "it is most
+filled with the fire of the love of God and most calculated to kindle it
+in the heart."
+
+This is the vital point and the one which it seems to me explains why
+the _Confessions_ is very hard reading for most people of today. The
+praise of God, the constant quotation of passages from the Bible and the
+fear that his feelings may relapse into his former neglect of
+religion--these were common in the writers who followed Augustine for
+more than a thousand years. In fact, they remained the staple of all
+religious works up to the close of the Georgian age in England. Then
+came a radical change, induced perhaps by the rapid spread of scientific
+thought. The old religious books were neglected and the new works showed
+a directness of statement, an absence of Biblical verbiage and a closer
+bearing on everyday life and thought. This trend has been increased in
+devotional books, as well as in sermons, until it would be impossible to
+induce a church congregation of today to accept a sermon of the type
+that was preached up to the middle of the last century.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ PORTRAIT OF ST. AUGUSTINE
+ BY THE FAMOUS FLORENTINE PAINTER
+ SANDRO BOTTICELLI--THE ORIGINAL IS IN
+ THE OGNISSANTI, FLORENCE]
+
+For this reason it seems to me that any one who wishes to cultivate St.
+Augustine should begin by reading a chapter of the _Confessions_. If you
+enjoy this, then it will be well to take up the complete _Confessions_,
+one of the best editions of which will be found in Everyman's Library,
+translated by Dr. E. B. Pusey, the leader of the great Tractarian
+movement in England. Pusey frowns on the use of any book of extracts
+from St. Augustine, but this English churchman, with his severe views,
+cannot be taken as a guide in these days. Doubtless he thought _Pamela_
+and _Coebs in Search of a Wife_ entertaining books of fiction; but
+the reader of today pronounces them too dull and too sentimental to
+read.
+
+Many there are in these days who preserve something of the old
+Covenanter spirit in regard to the Bible and other devotional books. One
+of these is Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell, superintendent of the Labrador
+Medical Mission, an Oxford man, who cast aside a brilliant career in
+England to throw in his life with the poor fishermen along the stormy
+coast which he has made his home. Dr. Grenfell has come to have the same
+influence over these uneducated men that General Gordon of Khartoum
+gained over alien races like the Chinese and the Soudanese, or that
+Stanley secured over savage African tribes. It is the intense
+earnestness, the simple-minded sincerity of the man who lives as Christ
+would live on earth which impresses these people of Labrador and gains
+their love and confidence. Grenfell in a little essay, _What the Bible
+Means to Me_, develops his feeling for the Scriptures, which is much the
+same feeling that inspired Augustine, as well as John Bunyan. Grenfell
+even goes to the length of saying that he prefers the Bible as a
+suggester of thought to any other book, and he regrets that it is not
+bound as secular books are bound, so that he might read it without
+attracting undue attention on railroad trains or in public places while
+waiting to be served with meals.
+
+Gordon carried with him to the place where he met his death pieces of
+what he firmly believed was wood of the real cross of Calvary, and on
+the last day of his life, when he looked out over the Nile for the help
+that never came, he read his Bible with simple confidence in the God of
+Battles. Stanley believed that the Lord was with him in all his
+desperate adventures in savage Africa, and this belief warded off fever
+and discouragement and gave him the tremendous energy to overcome
+obstacles that would have proved fatal to any one not keyed up to his
+high tension by implicit faith in the Lord.
+
+If you wish to know what personal faith in God means and what it can
+accomplish in this world of devotion to mammon, read Stanley's
+_Autobiography_, edited by his wife, that Dorothy Tennant who is one of
+the most brilliant of living English women. It is one of the most
+stimulating books in the world, and no young man can read it without
+having his ambition powerfully excited and his better nature stirred by
+the spectacle of the rise of this poor abused boy slave in a Welsh
+foundlings' home to a place of high honor and great usefulness--a seat
+beside kings, and a name that will live forever as the greatest of
+African explorers.
+
+It is this marvelous faith in God, which is as real as the breath in his
+nostrils, that makes St. Augustine's _Confessions_ a vital and enduring
+book. It is this faith that charges it with the potency of living words,
+although the man who wrote this book has been dead over fifteen hundred
+years. Augustine was born in Numidia and brought up amid pagan
+surroundings, although his mother, Monica, was an ardent Christian and
+prayed that he might become a convert to her faith. He was trained as a
+rhetorician and spent some time at Carthage. When his thoughts were
+directed to religion the main impediment in the way of his acceptance of
+Christianity was the fact that he lived with a concubine and had had a
+child by her. Finally came the death of his bosom friend, which called
+out one of the great laments of all time, and then his gradual
+conversion to the Christian church, largely due to careful study of St.
+Paul.
+
+Following hard upon his conversion came the death of his mother, who had
+been his constant companion for many years. Rarely eloquent is his
+tribute to this unselfish mother, whose virtues were those of the good
+women of all ages and whose love for her son was the flower of her life.
+In all literature there is nothing finer than the old churchman's tender
+memorial to his dear mother and his pathetic record of the heavy grief,
+that finally was eased by a flood of tears. Here are some of the simple
+words of this lament over the dead:
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ A PAGE FROM
+ ST. AUGUSTINE'S "LA CITE DE DIEU"
+ WHICH WAS PRINTED IN ABBEVILLE
+ FRANCE, IN 1486]
+
+"I closed her eyes; and there flowed withal a mighty sorrow into my
+heart, which was overflowing into tears; mine eyes at the same time, by
+the violent command of my mind, drank up their fountain wholly dry; and
+woe was me in such strife! * * * What then was it which did grievously
+pain me within, but a fresh wound wrought through the sudden wrench of
+that most sweet and dear custom of living together? I joyed indeed in
+her testimony, when, in her last sickness, mingling her endearments with
+my acts of duty, she called me 'dutiful,' and mentioned with great
+affection of love that she never heard any harsh or reproachful sound
+uttered by my mouth against her. But yet, O my Lord, who madest us, what
+comparison is there betwixt that honor that I paid her and her slavery
+for me?"
+
+Augustine was the ablest of the early Christian fathers and he did
+yeoman's service in laying broad and deep the foundations of the
+Christian church and in defending it against the heretics. But of all
+his many works the _Confessions_ will remain the most popular, because
+it voices the cry of a human heart and shows the human side of a great
+churchman.
+
+
+
+
+DON QUIXOTE ONE OF THE WORLD'S GREAT BOOKS
+
+ CERVANTES' MASTERPIECE A BOOK FOR ALL TIME--INTENSELY
+ SPANISH, IT STILL APPEALS TO ALL NATIONS BY ITS DEEP
+ HUMAN INTEREST.
+
+
+Among the great books of the world no contrast could be greater than
+that between St. Augustine's _Confessions_ and _Don Quixote_ by
+Cervantes, yet each in its way has influenced unnumbered thousands and
+will continue to influence other thousands so long as this world shall
+endure. Few great books have been so widely quoted as this masterpiece
+of the great Spaniard; few have contributed so many apt stories and
+pungent epigrams. Of the great imaginary characters of fiction none is
+more strongly or clearly defined than the sad-faced Knight of La Mancha
+and his squire, Sancho Panza. The grammar school pupil in his reading
+finds constant allusions to Don Quixote and his adventures, and the
+world's greatest writers have drawn upon this romance by Cervantes for
+material to point their own remarks.
+
+In this respect the only great author Spain has produced resembles
+Shakespeare. His appeal is universal because the man behind the romance
+had tasted to the bitter dregs all that life can offer, yet his nature
+had remained sweet and wholesome. Byron in _Childe Harold_, with his
+cunning trick of epigram, said that Cervantes "smiled Spain's chivalry
+away," but chivalry was as dead in the days of Cervantes as it is now.
+What the creator of _Don Quixote_ did was to ridicule the high-flown
+talk, the absurd sentimentality that marked chivalry, while at the same
+time he brought out, as no one else has ever done, the splendid
+qualities that made chivalry immortal.
+
+Don Quixote is a man who is absolutely out of touch with the world in
+which he moves, but while you laugh at his absurd misconceptions you
+feel for him the deepest respect; you would no more laugh at the man
+himself than you would at poor unfortunate Lear. The idealistic quality
+of Don Quixote himself is enhanced by the swinish nature of Sancho
+Panza, who cannot understand any of his master's raptures. Into this
+character of the sorrowful-faced knight Cervantes put all the results of
+his own hard experience. The old knight is often pessimistic, but it is
+a genial pessimism that makes one smile; while running through the whole
+book is a modern note that can be found in no other book written in the
+early days of the seventeenth century.
+
+That Cervantes himself was unconscious that he had produced a book that
+would live for centuries after he was gone is the best proof of the
+genius of the writer. The plays and romances which he liked the best are
+now forgotten, as are most of the works of Lope de Vega, the popular
+literary idol of his day. The book is intensely Spanish, yet its appeal
+is limited to no race, no creed and no age.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ PORTRAIT OF CERVANTES
+ FROM AN OLD STEEL ENGRAVING IN A
+ RARE FRENCH EDITION OF
+ "DON QUIXOTE"]
+
+We have far more data in regard to the life of Cervantes than we have
+concerning Shakespeare, yet the Spanish author died on the same day.
+Cervantes came of noble family, but its fortune had vanished when he
+entered on life. He spent his boyhood in Valladolid and at twenty went
+up to Madrid, where he soon joined the train of the Papal Ambassador,
+Monsignor Acquaviva, and with him went to Rome, then the literary center
+of the world. There he learned Italian and absorbed culture as well as
+the prevailing enthusiasm for the crusades against the Turks, who were
+then menacing Venice and all the cities along the northern shore of the
+Mediterranean.
+
+The leader of the Christian host was Don John of Austria, one of the
+great leaders of the world, who had the power of arousing the passionate
+devotion of his followers. Cervantes joined the Christian troops and at
+the battle of Lepanto, one of the great sea fights of all history, he
+was captain of a company of soldiers on deck and came out of the battle
+with two gun-shot wounds in his body and with his left hand so mutilated
+that it had to be cut off. Despite the fact that he was crippled, his
+enthusiasm still burned brightly and he saw service for the next five
+years.
+
+Then, on his way home by sea, he was captured and taken to Algiers as a
+slave. There he fell to the share of an Albanian renegade and afterward
+he was sold to the Dey of Algiers. During all the five years of his
+Moorish captivity Cervantes was the life and soul of his fellow slaves,
+and he was constantly planning to free himself and his companions. The
+personal force of the man may be seen from the fact that the Dey
+declared he "should consider captives, and barks and the whole city of
+Algiers in perfect safety could he but be sure of that handless
+Spaniard." Finally Cervantes was ransomed and returned to his home at
+the age of thirty-five. There he married and became a naval commissary
+and later a tax collector. His mind soon turned to literature, and for
+twenty years he wrote a great variety of verses and dramas, all in the
+prevailing sentimental spirit of the age. At last he produced the first
+part of _Don Quixote_ at the age of fifty-eight, and he lacked only two
+years of seventy when the second and final part of the great romance was
+given to the world.
+
+Comment has often been made on the ripe age of Cervantes when he
+produced his masterpiece, but Lockhart, who wrote an excellent short
+introduction to _Don Quixote_, points out that of all the great English
+novelists Smollett was the only one who did first-rate work while young.
+_Humphrey Clinker_ and _Roderick Random_ are little read in these days,
+but we have a noteworthy instance of the great success of a new English
+novelist when past sixty years of age in William de Morgan, whose
+_Joseph Vance_ made him famous, and who has followed this with no less
+than three great novels: _Alice for Short_, _Somehow Good_ and _It Never
+Can Happen Again_. And the marvel of it is that Mr. de Morgan actually
+took up authorship at sixty, without any previous experience in writing.
+Dickens and Kipling are about the only exceptions to the rule that a
+novelist does his best work in mature years, but they are in a class by
+themselves.
+
+_Don Quixote_ reflects all the varying fortunes of Cervantes. The book
+was begun in prison, where Cervantes was cast, probably for attempting
+to collect debts. All his remarkable experiences in the wars against the
+Turks and in captivity among the Moors are embodied in the interpolated
+tales. The philosophy put into the mouth of the Knight of La Mancha is
+the fruit of Cervantes' hard experience and mature thought. He was a
+Spaniard with the sentiments and the prejudices of his century; but by
+the gift of genius he looked beyond his age and his country and, like
+Shakespeare, he wrote for all time and all peoples.
+
+Nationality in literature never had a more striking example than is
+furnished by _Don Quixote_. It is Spanish through and through; an
+open-air romance, much of the action of which takes place on the road or
+in the wayside inns where the Knight and his squire tarry for the night.
+It swarms with characters that were common in the Spain of the close of
+the sixteenth and the early days of the seventeenth centuries. Cervantes
+never attempts to paint the life of the court or the church; he never
+introduces any great dignitaries, but he is thoroughly at home with the
+common people, and he tells his story apparently without any effort, yet
+with a keen appreciation of the natural humor that seasons every scene.
+And yet through it all Don Quixote moves a perfect figure of gentle
+knighthood, a man without fear and without reproach. You laugh at him
+but at the same time he holds your respect. Genius can no further go
+than to produce a miracle like this: the creation of a character that
+compels your respect in the face of childish follies and
+hallucinations.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ DON QUIXOTE DISCOURSING
+ TO SANCHO PANZA IN THE YARD OF THE INN WHICH
+ THE KNIGHT IMAGINED WAS A LORDLY CASTLE
+ FROM GUSTAVE DORE'S ILLUSTRATIONS
+ IN THE CLARK EDITION]
+
+No one can read _Don Quixote_ carefully without getting rich returns
+from it in entertainment and culture. The humor is often coarse, but it
+is hearty and wholesome, and underlying all the fun is the sober
+conviction that the hero of all these adventures is a man whom it would
+have been good to know. It is difficult for any one of Anglo-Saxon
+strain to understand those of Latin blood, but it seems to me that the
+American of New England ancestry is nearer to the Spaniard than to the
+Frenchman or the Italian.
+
+Underneath the surface there is a lust for adventure and an element of
+enduring stubbornness in the Spaniard which made him in the heyday of
+his nation the greatest of explorers and conquerors. And as a basis of
+character is his love of truth and his sterling honesty, traits that
+have survived through centuries of decay and degeneracy, and that may
+yet restore Spain to something of her old prestige among the nations of
+Europe. So, in reading _Don Quixote_ one may see in it an epitome of
+that old Spain which has so glorious a history in adventures that stir
+the blood, as in the conquests of Cortez and Pizarro, and in that higher
+realm of splendid sacrifice for an ideal, which witnessed the sale of
+Isabella's jewels to aid Columbus in his plans to discover a new world.
+
+
+
+
+THE IMITATION OF CHRIST
+
+ FEATURES OF GREAT WORK BY OLD THOMAS A KEMPIS--MEDITATIONS
+ OF A FLEMISH MONK WHICH HAVE NOT LOST THEIR INFLUENCE
+ IN FIVE HUNDRED YEARS.
+
+
+The great books of this world are not to be estimated by size or by the
+literary finish of their style. Behind every great book is a man greater
+than his written words, who speaks to us in tones that can be heard only
+by those whose souls are in tune with his. In other words, a great book
+is like a fine opera--it appeals only to those whose ears are trained to
+enjoy the harmonies of its music and the beauty of its words. Such a
+book is lost on one who reads only the things of the day and whose mind
+has never been cultivated to appreciate the beauty of spiritual
+aspiration, just as the finest strains of the greatest opera, sung by a
+Caruso or a Calve, fail to appeal to the one who prefers ragtime to real
+music.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THOMAS A KEMPIS, THE FRONTISPIECE OF AN
+ EDITION OF "THE IMITATION OF CHRIST" PUBLISHED
+ BY SUTTABY AND COMPANY OF LONDON
+ AMEN CORNER, 1883]
+
+In this world, in very truth, you reap what you sow. If you have made a
+study of fine music, beautiful paintings and statuary and the best
+books, you cannot fail to get liberal returns in the way of spiritual
+enjoyment from the great works in all these arts. And this enjoyment is
+a permanent possession, because you can always call up in memory and
+renew the pleasure of a great singer's splendid songs, the strains of a
+fine orchestra, the impassioned words of a famous actor, the glory of
+color of an immortal painting, or the words of a poem that has lived
+through the centuries and has stimulated thousands of readers to the
+higher life.
+
+One of the smallest of the world's famous books is _The Imitation of
+Christ_ by Thomas a Kempis. It may be slipped into one's coat pocket,
+yet this little book is second only to the Bible and Shakespeare in the
+record of the souls it has influenced. It may be read in two hours, yet
+every paragraph in it has the potency of spiritual life. Within the
+cloister, where it was written, it has always been a favorite book of
+meditation, surpassing in its appeal the _Confessions of St. Augustine_.
+
+In the great world without, it has held its own for five hundred years,
+gaining readers from all classes by sheer force of the sincerity and
+power of the man, who put into it all the yearnings of his soul, all the
+temptations, the struggles and the victories of his spirit. It was
+written in crabbed Latin of the fifteenth century, without polish and
+without logical arrangement, much as Emerson jotted down the thoughts
+which he afterward gathered up and strung together into one of his
+essays. Yet the vigor, truth, earnestness and spiritual passion of the
+poor monk in his cell fused his language into flame that warms the
+reader's heart after all these years.
+
+Thomas a Kempis was plain Thomas Haemerken of Kempen, a small town near
+Cologne, the son of a poor mechanic, who had the great advantage of a
+mother of large heart and far more than the usual stock of book
+learning. Doubtless it was through his mother that Thomas inherited his
+taste for books and his desire to enter the church. He followed an elder
+brother into the cloister, spending his novitiate of seven years at the
+training school of the Brothers of the Common Life at Deventer, in the
+Netherlands. Then he entered as postulant the monastery of Mount St.
+Agnes, near Zwolle, of which his brother John was prior. This monastery
+was ruled by the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, and it was filled by
+the Brothers of the Common Life. For another seven years he studied to
+fit himself for this life of the cloister, and finally he was ordained a
+priest in 1413. As he entered upon his religious studies at the tender
+age of 13, he had been employed for fourteen years in preparing himself
+for his life work in the monastery.
+
+The few personal details that have been handed down about him show that
+he was of unusual strength, with the full face of the people of his
+race, and that he kept until extreme old age the strength of his voice
+and the fire of his eye. For sixty years he remained a monk, spending
+most of his time in transcribing the Bible and devotional treatises and
+in teaching the neophytes of his own community. His devotion to books
+was the great passion of his life and doubtless reconciled a man of so
+much native strength of body and mind to the monotony of the cloister.
+His favorite motto was: "Everywhere have I sought for peace, but nowhere
+have I found it save in a quiet corner with a little book." The ideal of
+the community was to live as nearly as possible the life of the early
+Christians. The community had the honor of educating Erasmus, the most
+famous scholar of the Reformation.
+
+Thomas a Kempis drew most of the inspiration for _The Imitation of
+Christ_ from the Bible, and especially from the New Testament. The book
+is a series of eloquent variations on the great central theme of making
+one's life like that of Christ on earth. And with this monk, who lived
+in a community where all property was shared in common and where even
+individual earnings must be put into the general fund, this idea of
+reproducing the life of Christ was feasible. Cut off from all close
+human ties, freed from all thought of providing for food and shelter,
+the monastic life in a community like that of the Brothers of the Common
+Life was the nearest approach to the ideal spiritual existence that this
+world has ever seen. To live such a life for more than the ordinary span
+of years was good training for the production of the _Imitation_, the
+most spiritual book of all the ages.
+
+Every page of this great book reveals that the author had made the Bible
+a part of his mental possessions. So close and loving had been this
+study that the words of the Book of Books came unwittingly to his lips.
+All his spiritual experiences were colored by his Biblical studies; he
+rests his faith on the Bible as on a great rock which no force of nature
+can move. So in the _Imitation_ we have the world of life and thought as
+it looked to a devout student of the Bible, whose life was cut off from
+most of the temptations and trials of men, yet whose conscience was so
+tender that he magnified his doubts and his failings.
+
+Over and over he urges upon his readers to beware of pride, to cultivate
+humility, to keep the heart pure and the temper meek, so that happiness
+may come in this world and the assurance of peace in the world to come.
+Again and again he appeals to us not to set our hearts upon the
+treasures of this world, as they may fail us at any time, while the love
+of worldly things makes the heart callous and shuts the door on the
+finest aspirations of the soul.
+
+In every word of this book one feels the sincerity of the man who wrote
+it. The monk who jotted down his thoughts really lived the life of
+Christ on earth. He gained fame for his learning, his success as a
+teacher and his power as a writer of religious works; but at heart he
+remained as simple, sincere and humble as a little child. All his
+thoughts were devoted to gaining that perfection of character which
+marked the Master whom he loved to imitate; and in this book he pours
+out the longings that filled his soul and the joys that follow the
+realization of a good and useful life. In all literature there is no
+book which so eloquently paints the success of forgetting one's self in
+the work of helping others.
+
+The _Imitation_, like the Bible, should be read day by day, if one is to
+draw aid and inspiration from it. Read two or three pages each day, and
+you will find it a rare mental tonic, so foreign to all present-day
+literature, that its virtues will stand out by comparison. Read it with
+the desire to feel as this old monk felt in his cell, and something of
+his rare spirit will come to you, healing your grief, opening your eyes
+to the many chances of doing good that lie all about you, cleansing your
+heart of envy, greed, covetousness and other worldly desires. Here are
+a few passages of the _Imitation_, selected at random, which will serve
+to show the thought and style of the book:
+
+ "Many words do not satisfy the soul; but a good life giveth
+ ease to the mind, and a pure conscience inspireth great
+ confidence in God.
+
+ "That which profiteth little or nothing we heed, and that
+ which is especially necessary we lightly pass over, because
+ the whole man doth slide into outward things, and unless he
+ speedily recovereth himself he willingly continueth immersed
+ therein.
+
+ "Here a man is defiled by many sins, ensnared by many
+ passions, held fast by many fears, racked by many cares,
+ distracted by many curiosities, entangled by many vanities,
+ compassed about with many errors, worn out with many labors,
+ vexed with temptations, enervated by pleasures, tormented with
+ want. When shall I enjoy true liberty without any hindrances,
+ without any trouble of mind or body?"
+
+Many famous writers have borne testimony to the great influence of _The
+Imitation of Christ_ upon their spiritual development. Matthew Arnold
+often refers to the work of Thomas a Kempis, as do Ruskin and others.
+Comte made it a part of his Positivist ritual, and General Gordon, that
+strange soldier of fortune, who carried with him what he believed to be
+the wood of the true cross, and who represented the ideal mystic in this
+strenuous modern life, had _The Imitation of Christ_ in his pocket on
+the day that he fell under the spears of the Mahdi's savage fanatics at
+Khartoum. Perhaps the most eloquent tribute to the power of the
+_Imitation_ is found in George Eliot's novel, _The Mill on the Floss_.
+The great novelist makes Maggie Tulliver find in the family garret an
+old copy of the _Imitation_. Then she says:
+
+"A strange thrill of awe passed through Maggie while she read, as if she
+had been wakened in the night by a strain of solemn music, telling of
+beings whose souls had been astir, while hers was in a stupor. She knew
+nothing of doctrines and systems, of mysticism or quietism; but this
+voice of the far-off ages was the direct communication of a human soul's
+belief and experience, and came to Maggie as an unquestioned message.
+And so it remains to all time, a lasting record of human needs and human
+consolations; the voice of a brother who ages ago felt and suffered and
+renounced, in the cloister; perhaps, with serge gown and tonsured head,
+with a fashion of speech different from ours, but under the same silent,
+far-off heavens, and with the same passionate desires, the same
+stirrings, the same failures, the same weariness."
+
+Many editions of _The Imitation of Christ_ have been issued, but for one
+who wishes to make it a pocket companion none is better than the little
+edition in The Macmillan Company's _Pocket Classics_, edited by Brother
+Leo, professor of English literature in St. Mary's College, Oakland.
+This accomplished priest has written an excellent introduction to the
+book, in which he sketches the life of the old monk, the sources of his
+work and the curious controversy over its authorship which raged for
+many years. Buy this inexpensive edition and study it, and then, if you
+come to love old Thomas, get an edition that is worthy of his sterling
+merit.
+
+
+
+
+THE RUBA'IYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM
+
+ POPULARITY OF AN OLD PERSIAN'S QUATRAINS--SPLENDID
+ ORIENTAL IMAGERY JOINED TO MODERN DOUBT FOUND IN THIS
+ GREAT POEM.
+
+
+A few of the world's greatest books have been given their popularity by
+the genius of their translators. Of these the most conspicuous example
+is _The Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam_, which has enjoyed an extraordinary
+vogue among all English-speaking people for more than a half century
+since it was first given to the world by Edward FitzGerald, an
+Englishman of letters, whose reputation rests upon this free translation
+of the work of a minor Persian poet of the twelfth century. What has
+given it this extraordinary popularity is the strictly modern cast of
+thought of the old poet and the beauty of the version of the English
+translator. Each quatrain or four-line verse of the poem is supposed to
+be complete in itself, but all are closely linked in thought, and the
+whole poem might well have been written by any skeptic of the present
+day who rejects the teachings of the various creeds and narrows life
+down to exactly what we know on this earth.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ THE BEST-KNOWN PORTRAIT OF
+ EDWARD FITZGERALD, IMMORTALIZED BY HIS VERSION
+ OF THE "RUBA'IYAT"--THIS PICTURE IS FROM
+ A STEEL ENGRAVING OF A PHOTOGRAPH OF
+ "OLD FITZ," THE COLLEGE CHUM
+ AND LIFELONG FRIEND OF
+ THACKERAY AND
+ TENNYSON]
+
+The imagery of the poem is Oriental and many of the figures of speech
+and the illustrations are purely Biblical; but in its essence the poem
+is the expression of a materialist, who cannot accept the doctrine of a
+future life because no one has ever returned to tell of the
+"undiscovered country" that lies beyond the grave. Epicureanism is the
+keynote of the poem, which rings the changes on the enjoyment of the
+only life that we know; but the poem is saved from rank materialism by
+its lofty speculative note and by its sense of individual power, that
+reminds one of Henley's famous sonnet.
+
+Omar Khayyam was born at Naishapur, in Persia, and enjoyed a good
+education under a famous Imam, or holy man, of his birthplace. At this
+school he met two pupils who strangely influenced his life. One was
+Nizam ul Mulk, who in after years became Vizier to the Sultan of
+Persia; the other was Malik Shah, who gained unenviable notoriety as the
+head of the Assassins, whom the Crusaders knew as "The Old Man of the
+Mountains." These three made a vow that should one gain fortune he would
+share it equally with the other two.
+
+When Nizam became Vizier his schoolmates appeared. Hassan was given a
+lucrative office at court, but soon became involved in palace intrigues
+and was forced to flee. He afterward became the head of the Ismailians,
+a sect of fanatics, and his castle in the mountains south of the Caspian
+gave him the name which all Christians dreaded. His emissaries, sent out
+to slay his enemies, became known as Assassins. Omar made no demand for
+office of his old friend, but begged permission to live in "a corner
+under the shadow of your fortune." So the Vizier gave him a yearly
+pension, and Omar devoted his remaining years to the study of astronomy,
+in which he became very proficient, and which earned him many favors
+from the Sultan.
+
+Omar became widely celebrated for his scientific knowledge and his skill
+in mathematics, and he formed one of the commission that revised the
+Persian calendar. His heretical opinions, shown in the _Ruba'iyat_,
+gained him many enemies among the strict believers, and especially among
+the sect of the Sufis, whose faith he ridiculed. But the poet was too
+well hedged about by royal favor for these religious fanatics to reach
+him. So Omar ended his life in the scholarly seclusion which he loved,
+and the only touch of romance in his career is furnished by the
+provision in his will that his tomb should be in a spot where the north
+wind might scatter roses over it. One of his disciples relates that
+years after Omar's death he visited Naishapur and went to his beloved
+master's tomb. "Lo," he says, "it was just outside a garden, and trees
+laden with fruit stretched their boughs over the garden wall and dropped
+their flowers upon his tomb, so that the stone was hidden under them."
+
+Edward FitzGerald, the translator, who made Omar known to the western
+world, and especially to English-speaking readers, was one of the
+quaintest Englishmen of genius that the Victorian age produced. A
+college chum of men like Tennyson, Thackeray and Bishop Donne, he so
+impressed these youthful friends with his rare ability and his engaging
+personal qualities that they remained his warm admirers throughout life.
+Apparently without ambition, FitzGerald studied the Greek and Latin
+classics and made several noteworthy translations in verse, which he
+printed only for private circulation. Through a friend, Professor
+Cowell, a profound Oriental scholar, FitzGerald mastered Persian, and it
+was Cowell who first directed his attention to Omar's _Ruba'iyat_, then
+little known even to scholars.
+
+The poem evidently made a profound impression on FitzGerald and in 1858
+he gave the manuscript of his translation of the _Ruba'iyat_ to the
+publisher, Quaritch. It was printed without the translator's name, but
+soon gained notice from the praises of Rossetti, Swinburne, Burton and
+others who recognized the genius of the anonymous author. Ten years
+later FitzGerald revised his first version and added many new quatrains,
+but the text as we have it today was the fifth which he gave to the
+public. Unlike Tennyson, FitzGerald appeared to improve everything he
+labored over, with the single exception of the first quatrain of the
+_Ruba'iyat_. In the commonly printed fifth edition he omits a splendid
+figure because he happened to use it in another poem. Aside from this
+the changes are all improvements, which is more than can be said for the
+revisions of Tennyson.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ A PAGE FROM AN ANCIENT PERSIAN
+ MANUSCRIPT COPY OF THE "RUBA'IYAT"
+ WITH MINIATURES IN COLOR]
+
+The authorship of the _Ruba'iyat_, which soon ceased to be a secret,
+gave FitzGerald great fame during the closing years of his life.
+FitzGerald also translated a work of Jami, a Persian poet of the fifth
+century, and he put into English verse a free version of the _Agamemnon_
+of AEschylus, two _OEdipus_ dramas of Sophocles, and several plays by
+Calderon, the great Spanish dramatist.
+
+The _Ruba'iyat_ is far longer than Gray's _Elegy_, but it occupies much
+the same position in English literature as this classic of meditation,
+because of the finish of its verse and a certain beguiling attraction in
+its thought. The reader of the period who makes a study of the
+_Ruba'iyat_ cannot escape the conviction that old Omar is secretly
+laughing at his readers. In fact, we come to the conclusion that he had
+much of FitzGerald's quizzical humor, and consequently believed in few
+of the heresies that he voices so poetically in his work.
+
+That he was an epicurean and a materialist is very difficult to believe
+when one considers the simple life that he led and the fact that he
+voluntarily gave up high official place and the means of securing much
+wealth. To live the life of a scholar, to dwell in the world of thought
+and abstraction is not the habit of the man who loves pleasure for its
+own sake. Hence, though Omar indulges in many panegyrics on the juice of
+the grape, it is pretty safe to say, from the record left by his
+disciples, that he cared little for wine and less for kindred pleasures
+of the senses that he sings of so well. That he could not accept the
+mystical Moslem faith of his day is not strange, for he had a modern
+cast of mind. His religion was that of thousands today who long to
+believe in a future life, but who have not the faith to accept it on
+trust.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ ONE OF THE GILBERT JAMES
+ ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE "RUBA'IYAT" TAKEN
+ FROM AN EDITION PUBLISHED BY
+ PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY]
+
+This lack of faith is finely expressed in several quatrains, which might
+have been written by a poet of today so modern are they in tone, so
+thoroughly do they embody the new doctrine that happiness or misery
+depends upon one's own character and acts. The man who cheats and
+over-reaches his neighbor, who lies and deceives those who trust him,
+who indulges in base pleasures through lack of self-restraint, such a
+man lives in a real hell on earth, plagued by fears of exposure and ever
+in a mental ferment of unsatisfied desires. Old Omar Khayyam has
+pictured this doctrine in these two exquisite quatrains, which give a
+good idea of the quality of his thought, as well as the beauty of
+FitzGerald's version:
+
+ Strange, is it not? that of the myriads who
+ Before us pass'd the door of Darkness through,
+ Not one returns to tell us of the Road
+ Which to discover we must travel too.
+
+ I sent my Soul through the Invisible,
+ Some letter of that After-life to spell;
+ And by and by my Soul return'd to me,
+ And answer'd "I Myself am Heav'n and Hell."
+
+The best known quatrain of the _Ruba'iyat_, the one which is always
+quoted as typical of Omar's epicurean attitude toward life, is this:
+
+ A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
+ A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread--and Thou
+ Beside me singing in the Wilderness--
+ Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
+
+Here we will take leave of Omar. His _Ruba'iyat_ is good to read because
+FitzGerald has clothed his Oriental imagery in beautiful words that
+appeal to any one fond of melodious verse. If you wish to see what a
+great artist can evoke from the thoughts of this Persian poet, look over
+Elihu Vedder's illustrations of the _Ruba'iyat_--a series of
+memory-haunting pictures that are as full of majesty and beauty as the
+visions of the poet of Naishapur.
+
+
+
+
+THE DIVINE COMEDY BY DANTE
+
+ INFLUENCE OF ONE OF THE WORLD'S GREAT BOOKS--THE EXILED
+ FLORENTINE'S POEM HAS COLORED THE LIFE AND WORK OF MANY
+ FAMOUS WRITERS.
+
+
+Some of the world's great books are noteworthy for the profound
+influence that they have exerted, not only over the contemporaries of
+the writers, but over many succeeding generations. Some there are which
+seem to have in them a perennial stimulus to all that is best in human
+nature; to stretch hands across the gulf of the centuries and to give to
+people today the flaming zeal, the unquestioning religious faith, the
+love of beauty and of truth that inspired their authors hundreds of
+years ago. Among the small number of these transcendently great books
+stands Dante's _Divine Comedy_, one of the greatest poems of all ages
+and one of the tremendous spiritual forces that has colored and shaped
+and actually transformed many lives.
+
+History is full of examples of the vital influence of Dante's great work
+only a few years after it was given to the world. Then came a long
+period of neglect, and it was only with the opening of the nineteenth
+century that Dante came fairly into his own. The last century saw a
+great welling up of enthusiasm over this poet and his work. The _Divine
+Comedy_ became the manual of Mazzini and Manzoni and the other leaders
+of New Italy, and its influence spread over all Europe, as well as
+throughout this country. Preachers of all creeds, scholars, poets, all
+acclaimed this great religious epic as one of the chief books of all the
+ages. In it they found inspiration and stimulus to the spiritual life.
+Their testimony to its deathless force would fill a volume.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ PORTRAIT OF DANTE
+ BY GIOTTO DI BONDONE]
+
+Yet in taking up the _Divine Comedy_ the reader who does not know
+Italian is confronted with the same difficulty as in reading the Greek
+or Latin poets without knowledge of the two classical languages. He must
+be prepared to get only a dim appreciation of the beauties of the
+original, because Dante is essentially Italian, and the form in which
+his verse is cast cannot be reproduced in English without great loss. On
+this subject of translating poetry George E. Woodberry, one of the
+ablest of American literary critics, says:
+
+"To read a great poet in a translation is like seeing the sun through
+smoked glass. * * * To understand a _canzone_ of Dante or Leopardi one
+must feel as an Italian feels; to appreciate its form he must know the
+music of the form as only the Italian language can hold and eternize it.
+Translation is impotent to overcome either of these difficulties."
+
+This is the scholar's estimate; yet Emerson, who saw as clearly as any
+man of his time and who grasped the essentials of all the great books,
+favored translations and declared he got great good from them. At any
+rate, the average reader has no time to learn Italian in order to
+appreciate Dante. The best he can do is to read a good translation and
+then help out his own impressions by the comment and appreciation of
+such lovers of the great poet as Ruskin, Carlyle, Lowell and Longfellow.
+The best translation is Cary's version, which was revised and brought
+out in its present form in 1844, just before the translator's death. It
+is written in blank verse, easy and melodious.
+
+To understand even an outline of the _Divine Comedy_ one must know a few
+facts about the life of Dante and the experiences that matured his mind
+and found expression in this great poem. Dante was born in Florence in
+1265, of a good Italian family, but reduced to poverty. At eighteen he
+wrote his first poems, which were recognized by Cavalcanti, the foremost
+Italian poet of his day. He became a soldier and he was involved in the
+petty wars between the Guelfs and the Ghibellines. In 1290 Beatrice, the
+woman whom he adored and who served as the inspiration of all his
+poetry, died, and soon after he gathered under the title _Vita Nuova_,
+or _New Life_, the prose narrative, studded with lyrics, which is one of
+the great love songs of all ages. This is the highest essence of
+romantic love, a love so sublimated that it never seeks physical
+gratification. Praise of his lady, contemplation of her angelic beauty
+of face and loveliness of mind and character--these are the forms in
+which Dante's love finds its exquisite expression. And this same love
+and adoration of Beatrice will be found the chief inspiration of the
+_Divine Comedy_.
+
+For ten years after the death of Beatrice Dante was immersed in
+political conflicts. He took a prominent part in the government of
+Florence, but in 1302 he was sentenced with fifteen other citizens of
+that city to be burned alive should he at any time come within the
+confines of Florence. For three years the poet hoped to succeed in
+regaining his power in Florence, but when these hopes finally failed he
+turned to the expression of his spiritual conquests, to let the world
+know how the love of one woman and the desire to "keep vigil for the
+good of the world" could transform a man's soul. So in poverty and
+distress, wandering from one Italian city to another, Dante wrote most
+of his great epic. His final years were spent in Ravenna, where many
+friends and disciples gathered about him. The _Divine Comedy_ was
+completed only a short time before Dante's death, which occurred on
+September 14, 1321.
+
+This great poem waited nearly six hundred years before its merits were
+fully appreciated. In form it was drawn directly from the sixth book of
+Virgil's _AEneid_, and to make this likeness all the stronger Dante
+makes Virgil his guide on the imaginary journey that he describes
+through hell and purgatory. Yet though everything on this journey is
+pictured in minute detail, the whole is purely symbolical. Dante depicts
+himself carried by Virgil, who represents Human Philosophy, through the
+horrors of hell and purgatory to the abode of happiness in the _Earthly
+Paradise_.
+
+This narrative is full of allusions to the life of Italy of his day. His
+Inferno is really Italy governed by corrupt Popes and political leaders,
+and he shows by the torments of the damned how the souls of the
+condemned suffer because they have elected evil instead of good. In the
+Purgatory we have the far more cheerful view of man, removing the vices
+of the world and recovering the moral and intellectual freedom which
+fits him for a blessed estate in the _Earthly Paradise_.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ PAGE FROM "DANTE'S INFERNO"
+ PRINTED BY NICOLO LORENZO NEAR THE
+ CLOSE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY--THE VOLUME
+ IS ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS ON COPPER BY
+ BALDINI AND BOTTICELLI]
+
+In these two parts of his poem Dante shows how love is the transfiguring
+force in working the miracle of moral regeneration. And this love is
+without any trace of carnal passion; it is the supreme aspiration, which
+has such power that it makes its possessor ruler over his own spirit and
+master of his destiny. What power, what passion resided in the mind of
+this old poet that it could so charge his words that these should
+inspire the greatest writers of an alien nation, six hundred years after
+his death, to pay homage to the moving spirit of his verse. In all
+literature nothing can be found to surpass the influence of this poem of
+Dante's, struck off at white heat at the end of a life filled with the
+bitterness of worldly defeats and losses, but glorified by these visions
+of a spiritual conquest, greater than any of the victories of this
+world.
+
+Little space is left here to dwell on the most remarkable feature of
+Dante's great poem--its influence in fertilizing minds centuries after
+the death of its author. Florence, which once drove the poet into exile,
+has tried many times to recover the body of the man who has long been
+recognized as her greatest son. And the New and United Italy, which was
+ushered in by the labors of Mazzini and others, regards Dante as the
+prophet of the nation, the symbol of a regenerated land. All the great
+modern writers bear enthusiastic testimony to the influence of Dante.
+
+Carlyle said of him: "True souls in all generations of the world who
+look on this Dante will find a brotherhood in him; the deep sincerity of
+his thoughts, his woes and hopes, will speak likewise to their
+sincerity; they will feel that this Dante was once a brother."
+
+Lowell, who attributed his love of learning to the study of the
+Florentine poet, says: "It is because they find in him a spur to noble
+aims, a secure refuge in that defeat which the present day seems, that
+they prize Dante who know and love him best. He is not only a great
+poet, but an influence--part of the soul's resources in time of
+trouble."
+
+This tribute to the greatness of Dante cannot be ended more effectively
+than by referring to the sonnets of Longfellow. Our New England poet
+found solace in his bitter grief over the tragic death of his wife in
+translating the _Divine Comedy_ in metrical form. Six sonnets he wrote,
+depicting the comfort and peace that he found in the study of the great
+Florentine. The last sonnet, in which Longfellow eloquently describes
+the increasing influence of Dante among people in all lands, is among
+the finest things that he ever wrote and forms a fitting end to this
+brief study of Dante:
+
+ O star of morning and of liberty!
+ O bringer of the light, whose splendor shines
+ Above the darkness of the Apennines,
+ Forerunner of the day that is to be!
+ The voices of the city and the sea,
+ The voices of the mountains and the pines,
+ Repeat thy song, till the familiar lines
+ Are footpaths for the thought of Italy!
+ Thy fame is blown abroad from all the heights,
+ Through all the nations, and a sound is heard,
+ As of a mighty wind, and men devout,
+ Strangers of Rome, and the new proselytes,
+ In their own language hear thy wondrous word,
+ And many are amazed and many doubt.
+
+
+
+
+HOW TO GET THE BEST OUT OF BOOKS
+
+ IS THE HIGHER EDUCATION AN ABSOLUTE NECESSITY?--DESIRE TO
+ GAIN KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURE WILL MAKE ONE MASTER OF ALL
+ THE BEST BOOKS.
+
+
+In changing from the ancient and medieval world to the modern world of
+books there is a gap which cannot be bridged. A few writers flourished
+in this interval, but they are not worth consideration in the general
+scheme of reading which has been laid down in these articles. So the
+change must be made from the works that have been noticed to the first
+great writers of England who deserve a place in this popular course of
+reading. But before starting on these English writers of some of the
+world's great books I wish to say a few words on the general subject of
+books and reading, prompted mainly by a letter received from a Shasta
+county correspondent. The writer is a man who has evidently devoted
+thought to the subject, and his opinions will probably voice the
+conclusions of many others who are eager to read the best books, but who
+fancy that they lack the requisite mental training. Here is the gist of
+this letter, which is worth reproduction, because it probably represents
+the mental attitude of a large number of people who have lacked early
+opportunities of study:
+
+ "The trouble with the 'Five-foot shelf of books' is that it
+ is too long for the average man and intellectually it is up
+ out of his reach. He can, perhaps, manage the Bible, for he
+ can get commentaries on almost any part of it, and on
+ occasion can hear sermons preached, but he will get very
+ little benefit from a perusal of most of the others for the
+ simple reason that he has not education enough in order to
+ understand them. To read Shakespeare one should have at least
+ a high school education, and about all the others need
+ something even better in the way of schooling. Is it not
+ possible to obtain this comfort, instruction and
+ entertainment by a perusal of more modern books that the
+ average man can understand?
+
+ "We are apt to look back to the days of our youth as a time
+ of sunshine and flowers, a time, in fact, of all things good;
+ so, also, we are prone to give the men of ancient days some a
+ golden crown, and some a halo, and ascribe to them an
+ importance beyond their real value to us of these later days.
+ Modern times and modern nations are rich in material well
+ worth reading. Such books have the advantage in that the
+ average man can understand them, and can be entertained and
+ edified thereby.
+
+ "People who are already in possession of culture and
+ education are not so much in need of advice concerning their
+ choice of books, for they have the ability to make proper
+ discrimination. It is the common people, those who have been
+ unable to obtain this higher education and culture, that need
+ the assistance to promote the proper growth of their
+ intellectual and spiritual lives."
+
+There is much in this letter which is worthy of thought. It is evidently
+the sincere expression of a man who has tried to appreciate the world's
+great classics and has failed, mainly because he has had this mental
+consciousness that he was not prepared to read and appreciate them. It
+is this attitude toward the world's great books which I wished to remove
+in these articles. It has been my aim to write for the men and women who
+have not had the advantage of a high school or college education. Any
+higher education is of great benefit, but my experience has shown me
+that the person who has a genuine thirst for knowledge will gain more
+through self-culture than the careless or indifferent student who may
+have all the advantages of the best high school or university training.
+
+The man or woman who is genuinely in earnest and who wishes to repair
+defects of early training will go further with poor tools and limited
+opportunities than the indolent or careless student who has within reach
+the best equipment of a great university. All that is necessary to
+understand and appreciate the great books which have been noticed in
+this series of articles is an ordinary grammar school education and the
+desire to gain knowledge and culture. Given this strong desire to know
+and to appreciate good books and one will go far, even though he may be
+handicapped by a very imperfect education.
+
+My correspondent declares that he does not think Shakespeare and other
+great books mentioned may be appreciated without the benefit of a high
+school education. This seems to me an overstatement of the case. Of
+course, blank verse is more difficult to follow than prose, but much of
+Shakespeare's work, though he uses a far richer vocabulary than the King
+James' translators of the Bible, is nearly as simple, because the
+dramatist appeals to the fundamental passions and emotions of men, which
+have not changed materially since the days of Elizabeth.
+
+That this is true is shown whenever a play of Shakespeare's is given by
+a dramatic company which includes one or two fine actors. The people in
+the audience who are accustomed to cheap melodrama will be as profoundly
+affected by Othello or Shylock, or even by Hamlet, as those who are
+intimately familiar with the text and have seen all the great actors in
+these roles from the time of the elder Booth. Actors and dramatic
+critics have often commented on the power that resides in Shakespeare's
+words to move an uncultured audience far more strongly than it can be
+moved by turgid melodrama. And even in a play like _Hamlet_, which is
+introspective and demands some thought on the part of the audience,
+there is never any listlessness in front of the footlights when a really
+great actor depicts the woes and the indecision of the melancholy Dane.
+
+The same thing holds good in reading, if one will only bring to the work
+the same keen interest that moves the audience in the theater. Here are
+the same words, the same unfolding of the plot, the same skillful
+development of character, the same fatality which follows weakness or
+indecision that may be seen on the stage; only the reader, whether he
+works alone or in company with others, must bring to his labor a keen
+desire to understand the dramatist, and he must be willing to accept the
+aid of the commentators who have made Shakespearean study so simple and
+attractive a task.
+
+Get an ordinary school or college edition of one of Shakespeare's plays,
+read the notes, look up any words that are unfamiliar to you, even
+though the editor may have ignored them. Then, after you have mastered
+the text, read what the best critics have said of the play and its
+characters. You will now be in a condition to enjoy thoroughly the
+careful reading of the play as literature, and it is from such reading,
+when all the difficulties of the text have been removed, that literary
+culture comes. Always read aloud, when possible, because in this way
+alone can you train the ear to the cadence of the verse and learn to
+enjoy the music of the best poetry.
+
+From my own experience, I would suggest the formation of small reading
+clubs of four or six persons, meeting at regular times. The members
+should be of congenial tastes, and it should be understood that
+promptness and regularity of attendance are vital. Such a club will be
+able to accomplish far more work than the solitary reader, and the
+stimulus of other minds will keep the interest keen and unflagging. The
+best scheme for such a club is to set a certain amount of reading and
+have each member go over the allotted portion carefully before the club
+meeting. Then all will be prepared to make suggestions and to remove any
+difficulties.
+
+Such a club, meeting two or three evenings in a week, will be able to
+get through a very large amount of good reading in a few months, and
+what seemed labor at first will soon become a genuine pleasure and a
+means of intellectual recreation. No one knows better than myself the
+up-hill work that attends solitary reading or study. Not one in a
+thousand can be counted on to continue reading alone, month after month,
+with no stimulus, except perhaps occasional talks with some one who is
+interested in the same books. It is dreary work at best, relieved only
+by the joy of mental growth and development. To share one's pleasure in
+a book is like sharing enjoyment in a splendid view or a fine work of
+art: it helps to fix that book in the mind. One never knows whether he
+has thoroughly mastered a book until he attempts to put in words his
+impressions of the volume and of the author. To discuss favorite books
+with congenial associates is one of the great pleasures of life, as well
+as one of the best tests of knowledge.
+
+With all the equipment that has been devised in the way of notes and
+comment by the best editors, the text of the great books of the world
+should offer no difficulties to one who understands English and who has
+an ordinary vocabulary. The very fact that some of these old writers
+have novel points of view should be a stimulus to the reader; for in
+this age of the limited railroad train, the telephone, the automobile
+and the aeroplane, it is well occasionally to be reminded that
+Shakespeare and the writers of the Bible knew as much about human nature
+as we know today, and that their philosophy was far saner and simpler
+than ours, and far better to use as a basis in making life worth
+living.
+
+
+
+
+MILTON'S PARADISE LOST AND OTHER POEMS
+
+ A BOOK THAT RANKS CLOSE TO THE ENGLISH BIBLE--IT TELLS
+ THE STORY OF SATAN'S REVOLT, THE FALL OF MAN AND THE
+ EXPULSION FROM EDEN.
+
+
+In beginning with the great books of the modern world two works stand
+out in English literature as preeminent, ranking close to the Bible in
+popular regard for nearly four hundred years. These are Milton's
+_Paradise Lost_ and Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_. To those of New
+England blood whose memory runs back over forty years these two books
+fill much of the youthful horizon, for, besides the Bible, these were
+almost the only books that were allowed to be read on Sunday. It seems
+strange in these days of religious toleration that Sunday reading should
+be prescribed, but it was a mournful fact in my early days and it forced
+me, with many others, to cultivate Milton and Bunyan, when my natural
+inclinations would have been toward lighter and easier reading. But that
+old Puritan rule, like its companion rule of committing to memory on
+Sunday a certain number of verses in the Bible, served one in good
+stead, for it fixed in the plastic mind of childhood some of the best
+literature that the world has produced.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ PORTRAIT OF MILTON
+ AFTER THE ORIGINAL CRAYON DRAWING FROM
+ LIFE BY WILLIAM FAITHORNE AT
+ BAYFORDBURY, HERTS]
+
+Milton's fame rests mainly on his _Paradise Lost_ and on his sonnets and
+minor poems, although he wrote much in prose which was far in advance of
+his age in liberality of thought. He was a typical English Puritan, with
+much of the Cromwellian sternness of creed, but with a fine Greek
+culture that made him one of the great scholars of the world. His early
+life was singularly full and beautiful, and this peace and delight in
+all lovely things in nature and art may be found reflected in such poems
+as _L'Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_, and in the perfect masque of _Comus_.
+
+His later life, after many years of good service to the state, was
+clouded by blindness and loss of fortune and menaced by fear of a
+shameful death on the gallows. And it was in these years, when the sun
+of his prosperity had set and when large honors had been succeeded by
+contumely and final neglect, that the old poet produced the great work
+which assured his fame as long as the English language endures.
+
+Milton came of a good English family and he had the supreme advantage of
+splendid early training in all the knowledge of his time. The great
+Greek classics exercised the strongest influence over his youthful mind,
+but he knew all that the Latin writers had produced, and he acquired
+such a mastery of the native tongue of Virgil and Cicero that he wrote
+it like his own, and produced many Latin poems which have never been
+surpassed for easy command of this ancient language. Then for twenty
+years succeeded a period in which Milton devoted his great talents to
+the defense of his country in controversial papers, that are still the
+delight of scholars because of their high thought, their keen logic and
+their sonorous prose.
+
+The noblest of these papers is that plea for the liberty of a free press
+which is buried under the long Greek name, _Areopagitica_. It contains
+some of the finest passages in defense of freedom of thought and
+speech. As Foreign Secretary to the Council of State under Cromwell,
+Milton labored ten years, and it was his voice that defended the acts of
+the Puritan government, and it was his pen that sounded the warning to
+monarchy, which was not heard again until the roaring French mob sacked
+the Bastile and mocked the King and Queen at Versailles.
+
+At the age of forty-five Milton was stricken with total blindness, but
+he did not give up any of his activities under this crushing affliction.
+In these dark days also he learned what it was to have a home without
+peace or comfort and to be vexed daily by ungrateful children. When the
+monarchy was restored Milton was forced into retirement, and narrowly
+escaped the gallows for his part in sending Charles I to the block.
+
+Thus in his old age, beaten down by misfortune, galled by neglect, he
+turned to the development of that rich poetic faculty which had lain
+fallow for a score of years. And in three years of silent meditation he
+produced _Paradise Lost_, which ranks very close to the Bible in
+religious fervor and in splendor of genuine poetic inspiration. It is
+Biblical in its subject, for it includes the revolt of the rebellious
+angels, the splendid picture of the Garden of Eden and the noble
+conception of the creation of the world. It is Biblical, also, in a
+certain sustained sweep of the imagination, such as is seen in the great
+picture of the burning lake, in which Satan first awakes from the shock
+of his fall, and in the impressive speeches that mark his plan of
+campaign against the Lord who had thrown him and his cohorts into outer
+darkness.
+
+Yet this poem is modeled on the great epics of antiquity, and much of
+the splendor of the style is due to allusions to Greek and Roman history
+and mythology, with which Milton's mind was saturated. In other men this
+constant reference to the classics would be called pedantry; in him it
+was simply the struggle of a great mind to find fitting expression for
+his thoughts, just as in a later age we see the same process repeated in
+the essays of Macaulay, which are equally rich in references to the
+writers of all ages, whose works had been made a permanent part of this
+scholar's mental possessions.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ MILTON DICTATING TO HIS
+ DAUGHTERS--AFTER AN
+ ENGRAVING BY W. C. EDWARDS
+ FROM THE FAMOUS PAINTING
+ BY ROMNEY]
+
+Some present-day critics of Milton's _Paradise Lost_ have declared that
+his subject is obsolete and that his verse repels the modern reader. As
+well say that the average unlettered reader finds the Bible dull and
+commonplace. Even if you do not know the historical fact or the
+mythological legend to which Milton refers, you can enjoy the music of
+his verse; and if you take the trouble to look up these allusions you
+will find that each has a meaning, and that each helps out the thought
+which the poet tries to express. This work of looking up the references
+which Milton makes to history and mythology is not difficult, and it
+will reward the patient reader with much knowledge that would not come
+to him in any other way. Behind Milton's grand style, as behind the
+splendid garments of a great monarch, one may see at times the man who
+influenced his own age by his genius and whose power has gone on through
+the ages, stimulating the minds of poets and sages and men of action,
+girding up their loins for conflict, breathing into them the spirit
+which demands freedom of speech and conscience.
+
+Milton's style in _Paradise Lost_ is unrhymed heroic verse, which seems
+to move easily with the thought of the poet. The absence of rhyme
+permits the poet to carry over most of his lines and to save the verse
+from that monotony which marks the artificial verse of even great
+literary artists like Dryden and Pope. Here is a passage from the
+opening of the second book, which depicts Satan in power in the Court of
+Hades, and which may be taken as a specimen of Milton's fine style:
+
+ High on a throne of royal state, which far
+ Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind,
+ Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
+ Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,
+ Satan exalted sat.
+
+And here, in a short description of the adventures of a body of Satan's
+fallen angels in their quest for escape from the lower regions to which
+they had been condemned, may be found all the salient features of
+Milton's style at its best:
+
+ Through many a dark and dreary vale
+ They passed, and many a region dolorous,
+ O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,
+ Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens and shades of death--
+ A universe of death, which God by curse
+ Created evil, for evil only good;
+ Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds,
+ Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things,
+ Abominable, inutterable and worse
+ Than fables yet have feigned or fear conceived,
+ Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimaeras dire.
+
+In contrast to this resounding verse, which enables the poet to soar to
+lofty heights of imagination, turn to some of Milton's early work, the
+two beautiful classical idyls, _L'Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_, the fine
+_Hymn to the Nativity_, and the mournful cadences of _Lycidas_, the
+poet's lament over the death of a beloved young friend. But in parting
+with Milton one should not neglect his sonnets, which rank with
+Wordsworth's as among the finest in the language. This brief notice
+cannot be ended more appropriately than with Milton's memorable sonnet
+on his blindness:
+
+ When I consider how my light is spent
+ Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
+ And that one talent which is death to hide
+ Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
+ To serve therewith my Maker and present
+ My true account, lest He returning chide,
+ "Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
+ I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
+ That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need
+ Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best
+ Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
+ Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
+ And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
+ They also serve who only stand and wait."
+
+
+
+
+PILGRIM'S PROGRESS THE FINEST OF ALL ALLEGORIES
+
+ BUNYAN'S STORY FULL OF THE SPIRIT OF THE BIBLE--THE
+ SIMPLE TALE OF CHRISTIAN'S STRUGGLES AND TRIUMPH
+ APPEALS TO OLD AND YOUNG.
+
+
+No contrast could be greater than that between Milton and John Bunyan
+unless it be the contrast between their masterpieces, _Paradise Lost_
+and _Pilgrim's Progress_. One was born in the purple and had all the
+advantages that flow from wealth and liberal education; the other was
+the son of a tinker, who had only a common school education and who from
+boyhood was forced to work for a living. Milton produced a poem nearly
+every line of which is rich in allusions to classical literature and
+mythology; Bunyan wrote an allegory, as simple in style as the English
+Bible, but which was destined to have a sale in English-speaking
+countries second only to the Bible itself, from which its inspiration
+was drawn.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ PORTRAIT OF JOHN BUNYAN
+ AFTER THE OIL PAINTING
+ BY SADLER]
+
+Milton knew many lands and peoples; he was one of the great scholars of
+all ages, and in literary craftsmanship has never been surpassed by any
+writer. Bunyan never traveled beyond the bounds of England; he knew only
+two books well, the Bible and Fox's _Book of Martyrs_, yet he produced
+one of the great literary masterpieces which profoundly influenced his
+own time and which has been the delight of thousands of readers in
+England and America, because of the simple human nature and the
+tremendous spiritual force that he put into the many trials and the
+ultimate victory of Christian.
+
+John Bunyan was born in 1628 near Bedford, England, and he lived for
+sixty years. His father was a tinker, a calling that was held in some
+disrepute because of its association with wandering gypsies. The boy was
+a typical Saxon, large and strong, full of rude health; but by the time
+he was ten years old he began to show signs of an imagination that would
+have wrecked a weaker body. Bred in the rigid Calvinism of his day, he
+began to have visions of the consequences of sin; he began to see that
+he was perilously near to the consuming fire which the preachers
+declared was in store for all who did not repent and seek the Lord.
+
+The stories of his early years remind one of the experiences of
+Rousseau. Between the man of supreme literary genius and the epileptic
+there is a very narrow line, and more than once Bunyan seemed about to
+overstep this danger line. At seventeen the youth joined the
+Parliamentary army and saw some service. The sudden death of the soldier
+next to him in the ranks made a profound impression upon his sensitive
+mind; he seemed to see in it the hand of the Lord which had been
+stretched out to protect him.
+
+On his return from the wars he married a country girl, who brought him
+as a marriage portion a large number of pious books. These Bunyan
+devoured, and they served as fuel to his growing sense of the terrible
+results of sin. Of his spiritual wrestlings in those days he has given a
+very good account in _Grace Abounding_, a highly colored autobiography
+in which he is represented as the chief of sinners, driven to repentance
+by the power of God. The fact is that he was a very fine young Puritan
+and his only offense lay in his propensity to profane swearing.
+
+Out of this mental and moral turmoil Bunyan emerged as a wayside
+preacher who finally came to address small country congregations. Soon
+he became known far and wide as a man who could move audiences to tears,
+so strong was the feeling that he put into his words, so convincing was
+the picture that he drew of his own evil life and the peace that came
+when he accepted the mercy of the Lord. He went up and down the
+countryside and he preached in London.
+
+Finally, in 1660, he was arrested under the new law which forbade
+dissenters to preach and was thrown into Bedford jail. He had then a
+wife and three children, the youngest a blind girl whom he loved more
+than the others. To provide for them he learned to make lace. The
+authorities were anxious to free Bunyan because his life had been
+without reproach and he had made many friends, but he refused to take
+the oath that he would not preach. For twelve years he remained in
+Bedford jail, and it is in these years that he conceived the plot of
+_Pilgrim's Progress_ and wrote most of the book, although it was three
+years after his release before the volume was finally in form for
+publication.
+
+Bunyan in a rhymed introduction to the book apologizes for the story
+form, which he feared would injure the work in the eyes of his Puritan
+neighbors, but the allegory proved a great success from the outset. No
+less than ten editions were issued in fourteen years. It made Bunyan one
+of the best known men of his time and it added greatly to his influence
+as a preacher. He wrote a number of other works, including a fine
+allegory, _The Holy War_, but none of these approached the _Pilgrim's
+Progress_ in popularity.
+
+When one takes up the _Pilgrim's Progress_ in these days it is always
+with something of the same feeling that the book inspired in childhood.
+Then it ranked with the _Arabian Nights_ as a thrilling story, though
+there were many tedious passages in which Christian debated religious
+topics with his companions. Still, despite these drawbacks, the book was
+a great story, full of the keenest human interest, with Christian
+struggling through dangers on every hand; with Giant Despair and
+Apollyon as real as the terrible genii of Arabian story, and with
+Great-heart a champion who more than matched the mysterious Black Knight
+in _Ivanhoe_.
+
+[Illustration (with text):
+
+ THE
+ Pilgrim's Progress
+ FROM
+ THIS WORLD
+ TO
+ That which is to come:
+
+ Delivered under the Similitude of a
+
+ DREAM
+
+ Wherein is Discovered,
+ The manner of his setting out,
+ His Dangerous Journey; And safe
+ Arrival at the Desired Countrey.
+
+ _I have used Similitudes, Hos. 12. 10._
+
+ By _John Bunyan_.
+
+ Licensed and Entred according to Order.
+
+ _London_,
+Printed for _Nath. Ponder_ at the _Peacock_
+ in the _Poultrey_ near _Cornhil_, 1678.
+
+ FACSIMILE OF THE
+ TITLE PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION OF
+ "THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS"]
+
+Bunyan, out of his spiritual wrestlings, imagined his conflict with the
+powers of evil as a journey which he made Christian take from his home
+town along the straight and narrow way to the Shining Gate. Reproduced
+from his own imaginative sufferings were the flounderings in the Slough
+of Despond and his experiences in the Vale of Humiliation, the Valley of
+the Shadow of Death and in Vanity Fair, where he lost the company of
+Faithful.
+
+It is difficult, unless one is very familiar with the book, to separate
+the adventures in the first part from those in the second part, which
+deals with the experiences of Christiana and her children. It is in this
+second part that Great-heart, the knightly champion of the faith,
+appears, as well as the muck-raker, who has been given so much
+prominence in these last few years as the type of the magazine writers,
+who are eager to drag down into the dirt the reputations of prominent
+men. In fact, Bunyan's allegory has been a veritable mine to all
+literary people who have followed him. For a hundred years his book
+remained known only to the poor for whom it was written. Then its
+literary merits were perceived, and since then it has held its place as
+second only to the Bible in English-speaking lands.
+
+Bunyan, in his years in prison, studied the Bible so that his mind was
+saturated with its phraseology, and he knew it almost by heart. Every
+page of _Pilgrim's Progress_ bears witness to this close and loving
+study. The language of the Bible is often used, but it blends so
+perfectly with the simple, direct speech of Bunyan's characters that it
+reads like his own work. The only thing that betrays it is the reference
+to book and verse. A specimen of Bunyan's close reading of the Bible may
+be found in this list of curiosities in the museum of the House
+Beautiful on the Delectable Mountains:
+
+ "They showed him Moses' rod; the hammer and nail with which
+ Jael slew Sisera; the pitcher, trumpets and lamps, too, with
+ which Gideon put to flight the armies of Midian. Then they
+ showed him the ox's goad wherewith Shambar slew six hundred
+ men. They showed him also the jaw-bone with which Samson did
+ such mighty feats. They showed him, moreover, the sling and
+ stone with which David slew Goliath of Gath; and the sword,
+ also, with which their Lord will kill the Man of Sin, in the
+ day that he shall rise up to prey."
+
+And here is a part of Bunyan's description of the fight between Apollyon
+and Christian in the Valley of Humiliation:
+
+ "Then Apollyon straddled quite over the whole breadth of the
+ way, and said: 'I am void of fear in this matter; prepare
+ thyself to die, for I swear by my infernal den that thou
+ shalt go no further; here will I spill thy soul.' * * * In
+ this combat no man can imagine, unless he had seen and heard
+ as I did, what yelling and hideous roaring Apollyon made, nor
+ what sighs and groans burst from Christian's heart. I never
+ saw him all the while give so much as one pleasant look, till
+ he perceived he had wounded Apollyon with his two-edged
+ sword; then, indeed, he did smile, and look upward; but it
+ was the dreadfulest sight that I ever saw."
+
+The miracle of this book is that it should have been written by a man
+who had little education and small knowledge of the great world, yet
+that it should be a literary masterpiece in the simple perfection of its
+form, and that it should be so filled with wisdom that the wisest man
+may gain something from its pages. Literary genius has never been shown
+in greater measure than in this immortal allegory by the poor tinker of
+Bedfordshire.
+
+
+
+
+OLD DR. JOHNSON AND HIS BOSWELL
+
+ HIS GREAT FAME DUE TO HIS ADMIRER'S BIOGRAPHY--BOSWELL'S
+ WORK MAKES THE DOCTOR THE BEST KNOWN LITERARY MAN OF
+ HIS AGE.
+
+
+The last of the worthies of old English literature is Dr. Samuel
+Johnson, whose monumental figure casts a long shadow over most of his
+contemporaries. The man whom Boswell immortalized and made as real to us
+today as though he actually lived and worked and browbeat his associates
+in our own time, is really the last of the great eighteenth century
+writers in style, in ways of thought and in feeling. Gibbon, who was his
+contemporary, appears far more modern than Johnson because, in his
+religious views and in his way of appraising historical characters, the
+author of the _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ was a hundred years
+in advance of his time. Dr. Johnson therefore may be regarded as the
+last of the worthies who have made English literature memorable in the
+eighteenth century, and his work may fittingly conclude this series of
+articles on the good old books.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ PORTRAIT OF DR. JOHNSON
+ FROM THE ORIGINAL PICTURE BY
+ SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS OWNED BY BOSWELL
+ THIS ENGRAVING FORMED THE FRONTISPIECE OF
+ THE FIRST EDITION
+ OF BOSWELL'S FAMOUS "LIFE"]
+
+Yet in considering Dr. Johnson's work we have the curious anomaly of a
+man who is not only far greater than anything he ever wrote, but who
+depends for his fame upon a biographer much inferior to himself in
+scholarship and in literary ability. _The Life of Samuel Johnson by
+James Boswell Esquire_ is the title of the book that has preserved for
+us one of the most interesting figures in all literature. Commonly it is
+known as _Boswell's Johnson_. Though written over a hundred years ago,
+it still stands unrivaled among the world's great biographies.
+
+Boswell had in him the makings of a great reporter, for no detail of
+Johnson's life, appearance, talk or manner escaped his keen eye, and for
+years it was his custom to set down every night in notebooks all the
+table talk and other conversation of the great man whom he worshiped. In
+this way Boswell gathered little by little a mass of material which he
+afterward recast into his great work. Jotted down when every word was
+fresh in his memory, these conversations by the old doctor are full of
+meat.
+
+If Johnson was ever worsted in the wit combats that took place at his
+favorite club, then Boswell fails to record it; but hundreds of
+instances are given of the doughty old Englishman's rough usage of an
+adversary when he found himself hard pressed. As Goldsmith aptly put it:
+"If his pistol missed fire, he would knock you down with the butt end."
+
+Samuel Johnson was the son of a book-seller of Litchfield. He was born
+in 1709 and died in 1784. His early education was confined to a grammar
+school of his native town. The boy was big of figure, but he early
+showed traces of a scrofulous taint, which not only disfigured his face
+but made him morose and inclined to depression. But his mind was very
+keen and he read very widely. When nineteen years of age he went up to
+Oxford and surprised his tutors by the extent of his miscellaneous
+reading.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ PORTRAIT OF JAMES BOSWELL
+ AFTER A PAINTING BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS
+ ENGRAVED BY E. FINDEN]
+
+His college life was wretched because of his poverty, and the historical
+incident of the youth's scornful rejection of a new pair of shoes, left
+outside his chamber door, is probably true. Certain it is that he could
+not have fitted into the elegant life of most of the undergraduates of
+Pembroke College, although today his name stands among the most
+distinguished of its scholars. In 1731 he left Oxford without a degree,
+and, after an unhappy experience as a school usher, he married a widow
+old enough to be his mother and established a school to prepare young
+men for college. Among his pupils was David Garrick, who became the
+famous actor. In 1737 Johnson, in company with Garrick, tramped to
+London. In the great city which he came to love he had a very hard time
+for years. He served as a publisher's hack and he knew from personal
+experience the woes of Grub-street writers.
+
+His first literary hit was made with a poem, _London_, and this was
+followed by the _Life of Richard Savage_, in which he told of the
+miseries of the writer without regular employment. Next followed his
+finest poem, _The Vanity of Human Wishes_. Then Johnson started a weekly
+paper, _The Rambler_, in imitation of _The Spectator_, and ran it
+regularly for about two years. For some time Johnson had been
+considering the publication of a dictionary of the English language. He
+issued his prospectus in 1747 and inscribed the work to Lord
+Chesterfield. He did not secure any help from the noble lord, and when
+Chesterfield showed some interest in the work seven years after, Johnson
+wrote an open letter to the nobleman, which is one of the masterpieces
+of English satire. In 1762 Johnson accepted a Government pension of L300
+a year, and after that he lived in comparative comfort. The best
+literary work of his later years was his _Lives of the Poets_, which
+extended to ten volumes.
+
+Johnson was not an accurate scholar, nor was he a graceful writer, like
+Goldsmith; but he had a force of mind and a vigor of language that made
+him the greatest talker of his day. He was one of the founders of a
+literary club in 1764 which numbered among its members Gibbon, Burke,
+Goldsmith, Sir Joshua Reynolds and other famous men of genius. Though he
+was unpolished in manners, ill dressed and uncouth, Johnson was easily
+the leader in the debates of this club, and he remained its dominating
+force until the day of his death.
+
+[Illustration (with text):
+
+ THE LIFE OF
+ SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.
+
+ COMPREHENDING
+
+ AN ACCOUNT OF HIS STUDIES
+ AND NUMEROUS WORKS,
+ IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER;
+
+ A SERIES OF HIS EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE
+ AND CONVERSATIONS WITH MANY EMINENT PERSONS,
+
+ AND
+
+ VARIOUS ORIGINAL PIECES OF HIS COMPOSITION,
+
+ NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED.
+
+THE WHOLE EXHIBITING A VIEW OF LITERATURE AND LITERARY MEN
+ IN GREAT-BRITAIN, FOR NEAR HALF A CENTURY,
+ DURING WHICH HE FLOURISHED.
+
+ IN TWO VOLUMES.
+ BY JAMES BOSWELL, Esq.
+
+
+ ----Quo fit ut OMNIS
+ Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella
+ VITA SENIS.---- HORAT.
+
+
+ VOLUME THE FIRST.
+
+ _LONDON:_
+ PRINTED BY HENRY BALDWIN,
+ FOR CHARLES DILLY, IN THE POULTRY.
+ M DCC XCI
+
+
+ FACSIMILE OF THE
+ TITLE PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION OF BOSWELL'S
+ "LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON"--THIS HAS
+ PROVED TO BE THE MOST POPULAR
+ BIOGRAPHY IN THE ENGLISH
+ LANGUAGE]
+
+The best idea of Dr. Johnson's verse may be gained from _London_ and
+_The Vanity of Human Wishes_. These are not great poetry. The verse is
+of the style which Pope produced, but which the modern taste rejects
+because of its artificial form. Yet there are many good lines in these
+two poems and they reflect the author's wide reading as well as his
+knowledge of human life. _The Lives of the Poets_ are far better written
+than Johnson's early work, and they contain many interesting incidents
+and much keen criticism. These, with some of Johnson's prayers and his
+letter to Lord Chesterfield, include about all that the modern reader
+will care to go through.
+
+The Chesterfield letter is a little masterpiece of satire. Johnson, it
+must be borne in mind, had dedicated the prospectus of his Dictionary to
+Chesterfield, but he had been virtually turned away from this patron's
+door with the beggarly gift of L10. For seven years he wrought at his
+desk, often hungry, ragged and exposed to the weather, without any
+assistance; but when the end was in sight and the great work was passing
+through the press, the noble lord deigned to write two review articles,
+praising the work. And here is a bit of Dr. Johnson's incisive sarcasm
+in the famous letter to the selfish nobleman:
+
+"Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man
+struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground,
+encumbers him with help? The notice which you have pleased to take of my
+labors, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I
+am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot
+impart it; till I am known, and do not want it."
+
+Of Boswell's _Life of Dr. Johnson_ only a few words can be said. To
+treat it properly one should have an entire article like this, for it is
+one of the great books of the world. A good preparation for taking it up
+is the reading of the reviews of it by Macaulay and Carlyle. These two
+essays, among the most brilliant of their authors' work, give striking
+pictures of Boswell and of the man who was the dictator of English
+literature for thirty years. Then take up Boswell himself in such a
+handy edition as that in Everyman's Library, in two volumes. Read the
+book in spare half hours, when you are not hurried, and you will get
+from it much pleasure as well as profit. It is packed with amusement and
+information, and it is very modern in spirit, in spite of its
+old-fashioned style.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ PAINTING BY EYRE CROWE
+ OF DR. JOHNSON, BOSWELL AND
+ GOLDSMITH AT THE MITRE
+ TAVERN, FLEET STREET
+ THE SCENE OF MANY WORD
+ COMBATS BETWEEN THE DOUGHTY
+ DOCTOR AND HIS
+ ASSOCIATES]
+
+Through its pages you get a very strong impression of old Dr. Johnson.
+You laugh at the man's gross superstitions, at his vanity, his
+greediness at table, his absurd judgments of many of his contemporaries,
+his abuse of pensioners and his own quick acceptance of a pension. At
+all these foibles and weaknesses you smile, yet underneath them was a
+genuine man, like Milton, full of simplicity, honesty, reverence and
+humility--a man greater than any literary work that he produced or
+spoken word that he left behind him. You laugh at his groanings, his
+gluttony, his capacity for unlimited cups of hot tea; but you recall
+with tears in your eyes his pathetic prayers, his kindness to the old
+and crippled pensioners whom he fed and clothed, and his pilgrimage to
+Uttoxeter to stand bare-headed in the street, as penance for harsh words
+spoken to his father in a fit of boyish petulance years before.
+
+
+
+
+ROBINSON CRUSOE AND GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
+
+ MASTERPIECES OF DEFOE AND SWIFT WIDELY READ--TWO WRITERS
+ OF GENIUS WHOSE STORIES HAVE DELIGHTED READERS FOR
+ HUNDREDS OF YEARS.
+
+
+Two famous books that seem to follow naturally after _Pilgrim's
+Progress_ are Defoe's _Robinson Crusoe_ and Swift's _Gulliver's
+Travels_. Not to be familiar with these two English masterpieces is to
+miss allusions which occur in everyday reading even of newspapers and
+magazines. Probably not one American boy in one thousand is ignorant of
+_Robinson Crusoe_. It is the greatest book of adventure for boys that
+has ever been written, because it relates the novel and exciting
+experiences of a castaway sailor on a solitary island in a style so
+simple that a child of six is able to understand it. Yet the mature
+reader who takes up _Robinson Crusoe_ will find it full of charm,
+because he can see the art of the novelist, revealed in that passion for
+minute detail to which we have come to give the name of realism, and
+that spiritual quality which makes the reader a sharer in the fears, the
+loneliness and the simple faith of the sailor who lived alone for so
+many years on Juan Fernandez Island.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ PORTRAIT OF DANIEL DEFOE
+ FROM AN OLD STEEL ENGRAVING--DEFOE'S
+ GENIUS FOR SECRECY EFFECTUALLY DESTROYED
+ MOST MATERIAL FOR HIS BIOGRAPHY
+ AND EVEN THIS PORTRAIT IS
+ NOT AUTHENTIC]
+
+In all English literature there is nothing finer than the descriptions
+of Robinson Crusoe's solitary life, his delight in his pets, and his
+care and training of Friday. Swift's work, on the other hand, is not for
+children, although young readers may enjoy the ludicrous features of
+Gulliver's adventures. Back of these is the bitter satire on all human
+traits which no one can appreciate who has not had hard experience in
+the ways of the world. These two books are the masterpieces of their
+authors, but if any one has time to read others of their works he will
+be repaid, for both made noteworthy contributions to the literature that
+endures.
+
+Daniel Defoe, the son of a butcher, was born in 1661 and died in 1731.
+Much of his career is still a puzzle to literary students because of his
+extraordinary passion for secrecy. He gained no literary fame until
+after fifty years of age, although he had written many pamphlets and had
+conducted a review which gave to Addison the idea of _The Spectator_.
+Defoe engaged in mercantile business and failed. He also wrote much for
+the Government, his pungent and persuasive style fitting him for the
+career of a pamphleteer. But his independence and his lack of tact
+caused him to lose credit at court and he fell back upon literature. He
+may be called the first of the newspaper reporters, before the day of
+the daily newspaper, and he first saw the advantage of the interview. No
+one has ever surpassed him in the power of making an imaginary narrative
+seem real and genuine by minute detail artfully introduced.
+
+The English-reading public was captured by _Robinson Crusoe_. Four
+editions were called for in four months, and Defoe met the demand for
+more stories from his pen by issuing in the following year _Duncan
+Campbell_, _Captain Singleton_ and _Memoirs of a Cavalier_. It is
+evident that Defoe had written these works in previous years and had not
+been encouraged to print them. Readers of today seldom look into these
+books, but the _Memoirs_ are noteworthy for splendid descriptions of
+fights between Roundheads and Cavaliers, and _Captain Singleton_
+contains a memorable narrative of an expedition across Africa, then an
+unknown land, which anticipated many of the discoveries of Mungo Park,
+Bruce, Speke, and Stanley.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ ILLUSTRATION OF "ROBINSON CRUSOE"
+ BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK WHICH SERVES AS A
+ FRONTISPIECE TO MAJOR'S EDITION OF
+ DEFOE'S ROMANCE, 1831]
+
+Defoe's other works are _Moll Flanders_, _Colonel Jack_, _Roxana_, and
+_Journal of the Plague Year_. Years ago I read all the novels of Defoe,
+taking them up at night after work hours. They are not to be commended
+as books that will induce sleep, because they are far too entertaining.
+Defoe's story of the great plague in London is far more striking than
+the records of those who actually lived through the terrible months when
+a great city was converted into a huge charnel-house by the pestilence
+that walketh by noonday. Pepys in his _Diary_ has many passages on the
+plague, but these do not appeal to one as Defoe's story does, probably
+because Pepys did not have the literary faculty.
+
+The three other stories all deal with life in the underworld of London.
+Defoe in Moll Flanders and Roxana depicts two types of the courtesan
+and, despite several coarse scenes, the narratives of the lives of
+these women are singularly entertaining. The only dull spots are those
+in which he indulges in his habit of drawing pious morals from the vices
+of his characters. From these stories one may get a better idea of the
+London of the early part of the eighteenth century than from books which
+were specially written to describe the customs and manners of the time,
+because Defoe regarded nothing as too trivial to set down in his
+descriptions.
+
+Defoe wrote his masterpiece from materials furnished by a sailor,
+Alexander Selkirk, who returned to London after spending many years of
+solitude on the Island of Juan Fernandez. The records of the time give a
+brief outline of his adventures, and there is no question that Defoe
+interviewed this man and received from his lips the suggestion of his
+immortal story. But everything that has made the book a classic for
+three hundred years was furnished by Defoe himself.
+
+The life of the story lies in the artfully written details of the daily
+life of the sailor from the time when he was cast ashore on the desolate
+island. Even the mature reader takes a keen interest in the salvage by
+Crusoe of the many articles which are to prove of the greatest value to
+him, while to any healthy child this is one of the most absorbing
+stories of adventure ever written. The child cannot appreciate Crusoe's
+mental and moral attitude, but the mature reader sees between the lines
+of the solitary sailor's reflexions the lessons which Defoe learned in
+those hard years when everything he touched ended in failure.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ FRONTISPIECE TO THE
+ FIRST EDITION OF "GULLIVER'S TRAVELS"
+ A PORTRAIT ENGRAVED IN COPPER OF
+ CAPTAIN LEMUEL GULLIVER
+ OF REDRIFF]
+
+Jonathan Swift may be bracketed with Defoe, because he was born in 1667
+and died in 1745, only fourteen years after death claimed the author of
+_Robinson Crusoe_. As Defoe is known mainly by his story of the island
+castaway, so Swift is known by his bitter satire, _Gulliver's Travels_,
+although he was a prolific writer of political pamphlets. Swift is
+usually regarded as an Irishman, but he was of English stock, although
+by chance he happened to be born in Ireland. He was educated at Trinity
+College, Dublin, and he had the great advantage of several years'
+residence at the country seat of Sir William Temple, one of the most
+accomplished men of his time.
+
+There he was associated with Esther Johnson, a poor relation of Temple's
+who later became the Stella who inspired his journal. Swift, through
+the influence of Temple, hoped to get political preferment, but though
+he wrote many pamphlets and a strong satire in verse, _The Tale of a
+Tub_, his hopes of office were disappointed. Finally he obtained a
+living at Laracor, in Meath, and there he preached several years, making
+frequent visits to London and Dublin.
+
+Like Defoe, Swift wrote English that was modern in its simplicity and
+directness. He never indulged in florid metaphor or concealed his
+thought under verbiage. Everything was clear, direct, incisive. While
+Defoe accepted failure frankly and remained untinged with bitterness,
+Swift seemed to store up venom after every defeat and every humiliation,
+and this poison he injected into his writings.
+
+Although a priest of the church, he divided his attentions for years
+between Stella, the woman he first met at Sir William Temple's, and
+Vanessa, a young woman of Dublin. He was reported to have secretly
+married Stella in 1716, but there is no record of the marriage. Seven
+years later he broke off all relations with Vanessa because she wrote to
+Stella asking her if she were married to Swift, and this rupture brought
+on the woman's death. Stella's death followed soon after, and the
+closing years of Swift were clouded with remorse and fear of insanity.
+
+[Illistration (with text):
+
+ TRAVELS
+ INTO SEVERAL
+ Remote Nations
+ OF THE
+ WORLD.
+
+ In FOUR PARTS.
+
+ By _LEMUEL GULLIVER_,
+ First a SURGEON, and then a CAPTAIN
+ of several SHIPS.
+
+ VOL. I.
+
+ _LONDON:_
+ _Printed for_ BENJ. MOTTE, _at the
+ Middle_ Temple-Gate _in_ Fleet-Street.
+ MDCCXXVI.
+
+
+ FACSIMILE OF THE TITLE PAGE
+ OF THE FIRST EDITION OF "GULLIVER'S TRAVELS"
+ ISSUED IN 1726, WHICH SCORED AS GREAT
+ A POPULAR SUCCESS AS DEFOE'S
+ "ROBINSON CRUSOE"]
+
+In _Gulliver's Travels_ Swift wrote several stories of the adventures of
+an Englishman who was cast away on the shores of Lilliput, a country
+whose people were only six inches tall; then upon Brobdingnag, a land
+inhabited by giants sixty feet high; then upon Laputa, a flying island,
+and finally upon the land of the Houyhnhnms, where the horse rules and
+man is represented by a degenerate creature known as a Yahoo, who serves
+the horse as a slave. In the first two stories Gulliver's satire is
+amusing, but the picture of the old people in Laputa who cannot die and
+of the Yahoos, who have every detestable vice, are so bitter that they
+repel any except morbid readers. Yet the style never lacks clearness,
+simplicity and force, and one feels in reading these tales that he is
+listening to the voice of a master of the English tongue.
+
+
+
+
+_Bibliography_
+
+ _Notes on the Historical and Best Reading Editions of Great Authors._
+
+
+_In this bibliography no attempt has been made to give complete guides
+to the various books. In fact, to give the Bible alone its due would
+require all the space that is allotted here to the thirteen great books
+discussed in this volume. All that has been attempted is to furnish the
+reader lists of the historical editions that are noteworthy, with others
+which are best adapted for use, as well as any commentaries that are
+especially helpful to the reader who has small leisure._
+
+_In securing cheap editions of good books the reader of today has a
+decided advantage over the reader of five years ago, for in these years
+have appeared two well-edited libraries of general literature that not
+only furnish accurate texts, well printed and substantially bound, but
+furnish these at merely nominal prices. The first is Everyman's Library,
+issued in this country by E. P. Dutton & Company of New York. It
+comprises the best works from all departments of literature selected by
+a committee of English scholars, headed by Ernest Rhys, the editor of
+the Library. Associated with him were Lord Avebury, George Saintsbury,
+Sir Oliver Lodge, Andrew Lang, Stopford Brooke, Hilaire Belloc, Gilbert
+K. Chesterton, A. C. Swinburne and Dr. Richard Garnett. The result is a
+collection of good literature, each volume prefaced with a short but
+scholarly introduction. The price is 35 cents in cloth and 70 cents in
+leather._
+
+_The other series is known as the People's Library, and is issued by the
+Cassell Company of London and New York. This Library is sold at the
+remarkably low price of 25 cents a volume, well printed and fairly bound
+in cloth._
+
+
+ THE BIBLE
+
+ The Bible is the one "best seller" throughout the world. Last
+ year Bible societies printed and circulated 11,378,854
+ Bibles. The Bible is now printed in four hundred languages.
+ Last year the British and Foreign Bible Society printed
+ 6,620,024 copies, or an increase of 685,000 copies over the
+ previous year. Even China last year bought 428,000 Bibles.
+
+ The first English translation of the Bible which had a great
+ vogue was what is known as the Authorized Version issued in
+ the reign of King James I. For centuries after the Christian
+ Era the Bible appeared only in the Latin Version, called the
+ Vulgate. As early as the seventh century English churchmen
+ made translations of the Psalter, and the Venerable Bede made
+ an Anglo-Saxon version of St. John's gospel. Toward the close
+ of the fourteenth century appeared Wyclif's Bible, which
+ gained such general circulation that there are still extant
+ no less than one hundred and fifty manuscript copies of this
+ version.
+
+ Then came Tyndale, whose ambition was to make a translation
+ that any one could understand. He said: "If God spare me
+ life, ere many years I will cause the boy that driveth the
+ plough to know more of the Scriptures than you priests do."
+ His version of a few books of the Bible was published first
+ at Cologne, but its acceptance in England was greatly
+ hindered by the translator's polemical notes. Tyndale was
+ burned at the stake in Belgium for the crime of having
+ translated the Bible into the speech of the common people. He
+ will always be remembered as the pioneer who prepared the way
+ for the Authorized Version.
+
+ After Tyndale came Rogers, who carried on his work as far as
+ Isaiah. He was followed by Coverdale who wrote fine sonorous
+ English prose, but was weak in scholarship. His translation
+ was superseded by the Geneva Version, made in 1568 by English
+ refugees in the Swiss city. The Geneva translation is
+ noteworthy as the first to appear in Roman type, all the
+ others being in black letter.
+
+ The King James Bible was first proposed at the Hampden
+ Conference in 1604. The Bishops opposed the scheme, but the
+ King was greatly taken with it, and in his usual arbitrary
+ way he appointed himself director of the work and issued
+ instructions to the fifty-four scholars chosen. One-third of
+ these were from Oxford, one-third from Cambridge and the
+ remainder from Westminster. They worked three years at the
+ task and produced what is known as the Authorized Version.
+ There seems to be a strong prejudice against King James
+ because of his eccentricities, and most writers on the Bible
+ declare that this version was never authorized by King, Privy
+ Council, Convocation or Parliament. This is wrong, for King
+ James authorized the book, and it owed its existence directly
+ to him. Anglicans and Puritans in this famous Conference were
+ bitterly hostile to each other, and if they had had their way
+ we should never have had this fine version of the Bible. The
+ King was president of the Conference, but the two factions
+ were ready to fly at each other's throats over such questions
+ as the baptism of infants, the authority of the Bishop of
+ Rome and others. The King, however, brushed all these
+ questions aside. He said that the Geneva Bible taught
+ sedition and disobedience, and by royal mandate he ordered
+ Bishop Reynolds and his associates to make the best version
+ in their power. So the credit which the King received by
+ having his name joined to the Bible was well deserved.
+
+ The King James Bible or the Authorized Version has had
+ greater influence on the style of English authors than any
+ other work, and it remains today a model of the simplest and
+ best English, with few obsolete words. Out of the small
+ number of 6,000 words used in the Bible, as against 25,000 in
+ Shakespeare, not more than 250 words are now out of every-day
+ use.
+
+ The best short essay on the Authorized Version is by Albert
+ S. Cook, Professor of the English Language and Literature in
+ Yale University (N. Y., G. P. Putnam's, 1910). This was
+ originally contributed to the Cambridge History of English
+ Literature, but in book form it contains some matter not
+ printed in the History. Professor Cook shows that the King
+ James Bible today contains fewer obsolete or archaic words
+ than Shakespeare, and that this version put into the speech
+ of the common people a score of phrases that now are scarcely
+ thought of as purely Biblical, so completely have they passed
+ into every-day speech. Among these are "highways and hedges,"
+ "clear as crystal," "hip and thigh," "arose as one man,"
+ "lick the dust," "a thorn in the flesh," "a broken reed,"
+ "root of all evil," "sweat of his brow," "heap coals of
+ fire," "a law unto themselves," "the fat of the land," "a
+ soft answer," "a word in season," "weighed in the balance and
+ found wanting," and so forth.
+
+ Between the Authorized Version and the New Revised Version a
+ number of individual translations appeared. The Long
+ Parliament made an order in 1653 for a new translation of the
+ Bible, and three years later a committee was appointed, but
+ as Parliament was dissolved shortly after, the project fell
+ through. The individual versions for a hundred years are not
+ noteworthy, but in 1851 the American Bible Society issued a
+ "Standard" Bible which it circulated for five years. It was
+ simply the King James Bible free from errors and
+ discrepancies. Another important revision was made by the
+ American Bible Union in 1860 and a second revision followed
+ in 1866. Its salient feature was the adoption of the
+ paragraph form.
+
+ In 1870 a new revised version of the Bible, which should
+ receive the benefit of the labors of modern scholars, was
+ decided on. The Upper House of Convocation of Canterbury
+ appointed a committee to report on revision. A joint
+ committee from both houses a few months later was elected and
+ was empowered to begin the work. Two committees were
+ established, one for the Old and one for the New Testament.
+ Work was begun June 22, 1870, but in July it was decided to
+ ask the cooperation of American divines. An American
+ Committee of thirty members was organized, and began work
+ October 4, 1872. The English Committees sent their revision
+ to the American Committee, which returned it with suggestions
+ and emendations. Five revisions were made in this way before
+ the work was completed. Special care was taken in the
+ translation of the Greek text of the New Testament.
+
+ In 1881 the Revised New Testament appeared. Orders for three
+ million copies came from all parts of the English-speaking
+ world. The Revised Old Testament appeared in 1885. The
+ preferences of the American Committee were placed in a
+ special appendix in both books. In 1901 the American
+ Committee issued the American Standard Revised Version, which
+ is in general circulation in this country.
+
+ The tercentenary of the King James Version was celebrated in
+ March, 1911, and it brought out many interesting facts in
+ regard to the book that has been one of the chief educational
+ forces in England and in all English-speaking countries since
+ it was issued.
+
+ Among the famous Bibles are the Gutenberg Bible, which was
+ the first to be printed from movable types; the "Vinegar"
+ Bible, because of the printer's misprint of vinegar for
+ vineyard; the "Treacle" Bible, which owed its name to the
+ phrase "treacle in Gilead" for "balm in Gilead"; the "Wicked"
+ Bible, so called because the printers omitted the "not" in
+ the Seventh Commandment.
+
+ Of famous manuscript Bibles may be named the Codex
+ Alexandrinus, presented by the Sultan of Turkey to Charles
+ II of England, and the Codex Sinaiticus, discovered in a
+ monastery on Mount Sinai by the great Hebrew scholar,
+ Tischendorf.
+
+ Dr. Grenfell, who has made an international reputation by his
+ work among the fishermen of Labrador and by his books on the
+ Bible, suggests that the Scriptures should not be brought out
+ with any distinctive binding. He believes the Bible would
+ gain many more readers if it were bound like an ordinary
+ secular book, so that one could read it on trains or boats
+ without exciting comment. His suggestion is a good one and it
+ is to be hoped it will be acted on by Bible publishers.
+ Anything that will help to make people read the Bible
+ regularly deserves encouragement.
+
+ One of the best Bibles for ordinary use is _The Modern
+ Reader's Bible_, edited with introduction and notes by
+ Richard G. Moulton, Professor of Literary Theory and
+ Interpretation in the University of Chicago. The editor has
+ abolished the paragraph form and he has printed all the
+ poetry in verse form, which is a great convenience to the
+ reader. It makes a volume of 1733 pages, printed on thin but
+ opaque paper. (New York: The Macmillan Company. Price, $2.00
+ net.)
+
+ _The Soul of the Bible_ (Boston: American Unitarian
+ Association) is the very best condensation of the Scriptures.
+ It is arranged by Ulysses G. B. Pierce and consists of
+ selections from the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha.
+ The editor has brought together parts of the Bible which
+ explain and supplement each other. The result is that in five
+ hundred and twenty pages one gets the very soul of the Bible.
+ Nothing could be better than this book as an introduction to
+ the careful reading and systematic study of the Bible, which
+ is the best means of culture of spirit and mind that the
+ world affords.
+
+
+ SHAKESPEARE
+
+ The first folio edition of Shakespeare was published by J.
+ Heminge and H. Condell in 1623. A copy of the first folio is
+ now very valuable. A reprint of the first folio was issued in
+ 1807 in folio. The first photolithographic reproduction was
+ brought out in 1866. The first folio text is now being
+ brought out, with a volume to each play, by the T. Y. Crowell
+ Company of New York.
+
+ Four folio editions were brought out in all, the last in
+ 1685.
+
+ Of the famous editions may be mentioned Rowe's, the first
+ octavo, in 1709; Alexander Pope's in 1723; Theobald's in
+ 1733; Warburton's in 1747; Dr. Johnson's in 1765; Malone's,
+ the first variorum, in ten volumes, in 1790. The first
+ American edition was issued at Philadelphia in 1795. Among
+ modern editions may be mentioned Boydell's illustrated
+ edition in 1802; Charles Knight's popular pictorial edition
+ in eight volumes in 1838; Halliwell's edition in sixteen
+ volumes from 1853 to 1865; Dyce's edition in 1857; Richard
+ Grant White's edition in twelve volumes, published in Boston
+ (1857-1860).
+
+ The most noteworthy edition issued in this country is Dr. H.
+ H. Furness' variorum edition, begun in Philadelphia in 1873
+ and still continued by Dr. Furness' son. A volume is devoted
+ to each play and the various texts as well as the notes and
+ critical summaries make this the ideal edition for the
+ scholar. The Cambridge Edition, edited by W. Aldis Wright in
+ nine octavo volumes, is the standard modern text. This text
+ is also given in the Temple Edition, so popular with
+ present-day readers, issued in forty handy sized volumes with
+ prefaces and glossaries by Israel Gollancz. The expurgated
+ text edited by W. J. Rolfe has been used generally in
+ schools, as also the Hudson Shakespeare, edited by Rev. H. N.
+ Hudson.
+
+ The best concordance for many years was that of Mary Cowden
+ Clarke, first issued in 1844. The concordance by John
+ Bartlett was published more recently.
+
+ The best biography of Shakespeare is by Sydney Lee, in a
+ single volume, _A Life of Shakespeare_. (New York: The
+ Macmillan Company.)
+
+ Other interesting books that deal with the playwright and his
+ plays are _Shakespeare's London_, by H. T. Stephenson; _The
+ Development of Shakespeare as a Dramatist_, by George Pierce
+ Baker; _Shakespeare_, by E. Dowden; _Shakespeare Manual_, by
+ F. L. Fleay; _The Text of Shakespeare_, by Thomas R.
+ Lounsbury; _Shakespearean Tragedy_, by A. C. Bradley, and _An
+ Introduction to Shakespeare_, by H. N. McCracken, F. E.
+ Pierce and W. H. Durham, of the Department of English
+ Literature in the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale
+ University. This is the most valuable book for a beginner in
+ the study of Shakespeare.
+
+ A valuable book for the reader who cannot grasp readily the
+ story of a Shakespeare play is _Stories of Shakespeare's
+ Comedies_, by H. A. Guerber. (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company,
+ 1910.) The best book for the plots is Charles and Mary Lamb's
+ _Tales from Shakespeare_.
+
+ If you are interested in the subject look up these books in
+ any good library and then decide on the volumes you wish to
+ buy. Never buy a book without looking it over, unless you
+ wish to court disappointment.
+
+ The Shakespeare-Bacon controversy was first touched upon by
+ J. C. Hart in _The Romance of Yachting_, issued in New York
+ in 1848. Seven years later W. H. Smith came out with a work,
+ _Was Bacon the Author of Shakespeare's Plays?_ In 1857 Delia
+ Bacon wrote the _Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare
+ Unfolded_. She created a great furore for a time in England
+ but interest soon declined. In recent years the principal
+ defender of the theory that Bacon wrote the plays of
+ Shakespeare was Ignatius Donnelly of Minneapolis, who wrote
+ two huge books in which he developed at tedious length what
+ he claimed was a cipher or cryptogram that he had found in
+ Shakespeare's plays, but he died before he cleared up the
+ mystery or gave any adequate proofs.
+
+
+ GREEK AND ROMAN CLASSICS
+
+ The versions of Homer's _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ are numerous
+ but most readers who do not know Greek prefer the prose
+ rendering of the _Iliad_ by Lang, Leaf and Myers and the
+ prose version of the _Odyssey_ by Butcher and Lang. In
+ language that is almost Biblical in its force and simplicity
+ these scholars give far more of the spirit of the original
+ Greek than any of the translators in verse. Chapman's Homer
+ is known today only through the noble sonnet by Keats. It has
+ fine passages but it is unreadable. Cowper's Homer in blank
+ verse is also intolerably dull. The best blank verse
+ translations are by Lord Derby, William Cullen Bryant and
+ Christopher P. Cranch.
+
+ For supplementary reading on Homer these works will be found
+ valuable: Jebb, _Introduction to Homer_ (Glasgow, 1887);
+ Matthew Arnold, _Lectures on Translating Homer_; Andrew Lang,
+ _Homer and the Epic_ (London, 1893); Seymour, _Introduction
+ to the Language and Verse of Homer_ (Boston, 1889); Professor
+ J. P. Mahaffy's books on ancient Greece and Greek life will
+ be found helpful.
+
+ Virgil's _AEneid_ has been translated by many hands. Dryden
+ produced a fair version and William Morris, Cranch, Conington
+ and others have written excellent translations. Conington
+ furnished a good translation in prose.
+
+ Jowett's translation is the standard English version of
+ Plato, while good sidelights on the author of the _Republic_
+ and _Phaedo_ may be gained from Emerson's essay on Plato in
+ _Representative Men_ and from Walter Pater's _Plato and
+ Platonism_.
+
+ Professor A. J. Church's _The Story of the Iliad_ and _The
+ Story of the AEneid_ while intended for the young will appeal
+ to many mature readers.
+
+ No translation of Horace has ever been perfectly
+ satisfactory. The quality of the poet seems to elude
+ translation. Some of the most successful versions are
+ Conington, _Odes and Epodes_ (London, 1865); Lord Lytton,
+ _Odes and Epodes_ (London, 1869), and Sargent, _Odes_
+ (Boston, 1893); supplementary matter may be found in Sellar's
+ _Horace and the Elegiac Poets_ (Oxford, 1892).
+
+ Short sketches and critical estimates of all the great Greek
+ and Latin writers may be found in _The New International
+ Encyclopedia_ (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1904.). These
+ are written mainly by Harry Thurston Peck, for many years
+ Professor of Latin in Columbia University and conceded to be
+ one of the best Latin scholars in this country. They give all
+ the facts that the general reader cares to know with an
+ excellent bibliography of each writer.
+
+
+ THE ARABIAN NIGHTS
+
+ The exact title is _The Book of the Thousand and One Nights_.
+ It contains two hundred and sixty-two tales, although the
+ original edition omits one of the most famous, the story of
+ _Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp_. Antoine Galland was the
+ first translator into a European language. His French version
+ was issued in 1717, in twelve volumes. Sir Richard Burton,
+ who translated an unexpurgated edition of _The Arabian
+ Nights_, with many notes and an essay on the sources of the
+ tales, ascribed the fairy tales to Persian sources. Burton's
+ edition gives all the obscene allusions but he treated the
+ erotic element in the tales from the scholarly standpoint,
+ holding that this feature showed the Oriental view of such
+ matters, which was and is radically different from the
+ Occidental attitude.
+
+ Burton's work was issued by subscription in 1885-1886 in ten
+ volumes and is a monument to his Oriental scholarship. Burton
+ left at his death the manuscript of another celebrated
+ Oriental work, _The Scented Garden_, but Lady Burton, who was
+ made his executrix, although offered L25,000 for the
+ copyright, destroyed the manuscript. She declared that she
+ did this to protect her husband's name, as the world would
+ look upon his notes as betraying undue fondness for the
+ erotic, whereas she knew and his close friends knew that this
+ interest was purely scholarly. Scholars all over the world
+ mourned over this destruction of Burton's work.
+
+ Another noteworthy unexpurgated translation was by John
+ Payne, prepared for the Villon Society, and issued in
+ 1882-1884.
+
+ The best English translation is by E. W. Lane, an English
+ Orientalist, whose notes are valuable. The editions of _The
+ Arabian Nights_ are endless, and many famous artists have
+ given the world their conception of the principal characters
+ in these Arabian wonder stories.
+
+
+ THE NIBELUNGENLIED
+
+ _The Nibelungenlied_ is the German Iliad and dates from the
+ thirteenth to the sixteenth century. No less than
+ twenty-eight manuscripts of this great epic have come down
+ through the ages. From the time of the Reformation down to
+ the middle of the eighteenth century it seemed to be
+ forgotten. Then a Swiss writer, Bodmer, issued parts of it in
+ connection with a version of the _Klage_, a poem describing
+ the mourning at King Etzel's Court over the famous heroes who
+ fell to satisfy the vengeance of Kriemhild.
+
+ The real discoverer, who restored the epic to the world, was
+ Dr. J. H. Oberiet, who found a later version of the poem in
+ the Castle of Hohenems in the Tyrol, June 29, 1755.
+
+ C. H. Myller in 1782 published the first complete edition,
+ using part of Bodmer's version. It was not until the opening
+ of the nineteenth century and during the Romantic movement in
+ Germany that _The Nibelungenlied_ was seriously studied.
+ Partsch, a German critic, developed the theory that _The
+ Nibelungenlied_ was written about 1140 and that rhyme was
+ introduced by a later poet to take the place of the stronger
+ assonances in the original version.
+
+ The legend of Siegfried's death, resulting from the quarrel
+ of the two queens, and all the woes that followed, was the
+ common property of all the German and Scandinavian people.
+ From the banks of the Rhine to the northernmost parts of
+ Norway and Sweden and the Shetland Isles and Iceland this
+ legend of chivalry and revenge was sung around the
+ camp-fires. William Morris' _Sigurd the Volsung_ is derived
+ from a prose paraphrase of the Edda songs.
+
+ Many English versions of _The Nibelungenlied_ have been made
+ but most of them are harsh. Carlyle's summary of the epic in
+ his _Miscellanies_ is the most satisfactory for the general
+ reader. A good prose version of _The Nibelungenlied_ is by
+ Daniel Bussier Shumway, Professor of German Philology in the
+ University of Pennsylvania. It contains an admirable essay on
+ the history of the epic. (Boston, 1909.)
+
+ William Morris has made fine renderings in verse of portions
+ of _The Nibelungenlied_ but he has drawn much of his material
+ from the kindred Norse legends. Two translations into English
+ verse are those of W. N. Lettson, _The Fall of the
+ Nibelungen_ (London, 1874), and of Alice Harnton, _The Lay of
+ the Nibelungs_ (London, 1898).
+
+ A complete bibliography of works in English dealing with _The
+ Nibelungenlied_ may be found in F. E. Sandbach's _The
+ Nibelungenlied and Gudrun in England and America_ (London,
+ 1904).
+
+ Other books dealing with _The Nibelungenlied_ are F. H.
+ Hedge, _Hours With the German Classics_ (Boston, 1886); G. T.
+ Dippold, _The Great Epics of Mediaeval Germany_ (Boston,
+ 1882); G. H. Genung, _The Nibelungenlied_ in Warner's
+ _Library of the World's Best Literature_, Volume xviii (New
+ York, 1897).
+
+
+ THE CONFESSIONS OF ST. AUGUSTINE
+
+ The first translation of the _Confessions_ to gain general
+ circulation was in Dr. Pusey's _Library of the Fathers_
+ (Oxford, 1839-1855). Pusey admits his edition is merely a
+ version of W. Watts' version, originally printed in London
+ in 1650, but Pusey added many notes as well as a long
+ preface. An American edition was issued by Dr. W. G. T. Shedd
+ of Andover, Mass., in 1860; it consisted of this same
+ translation by Watts with a comparison by Shedd between
+ _Augustine's Confessions_ and those of Rousseau.
+
+ An elaborate article on St. Augustine, dealing with his life,
+ his theological work and his influence on the Church, may be
+ found in the second volume of _The Catholic Encyclopedia_
+ (Robert Appleton Company, New York, 1907). It is written by
+ Eugene Portalie, S. J., Professor of Theology at the Catholic
+ Institute of Toulouse, France.
+
+
+ CERVANTES' "DON QUIXOTE"
+
+ _Don Quixote_ first appeared in Madrid in 1605 and the second
+ part in 1615. Other noteworthy Spanish editions were by
+ Pellicier (Madrid, 1797-1798) and by Diego Clemencia (Madrid,
+ 1833-1839). The first English version of the great Spanish
+ classic appeared in London in 1612. The translator was T.
+ Skelton. Other later English editions were J. Philips, 1687;
+ P. Motteux, 1700-1712; C. Jarvis, 1742; Tobias Smollett,
+ 1755; A. J. Duffield, 1881; H. E. Watts, 1888, 1894. Watts'
+ edition contains a full biography.
+
+ A noteworthy edition of Cervantes is the English version by
+ Daniel Vierge in four volumes, with many fine illustrations,
+ which give the reader a series of sketches of Spanish life as
+ it is depicted in the pages of _Don Quixote_. Vierge's
+ edition is the most satisfactory that has ever been issued.
+ It is brought out in beautiful style by Charles Scribner's
+ Sons, New York.
+
+ A standard _Life of Cervantes_ is that by T. Roscoe, London,
+ 1839. H. E. Watts has written a fine monograph in Great
+ Writers' Series, 1891. Other lives are by J. F. Kelly, 1892,
+ and A. F. Calvert, 1905. Lockhart's introduction is printed
+ in the Everyman edition of _Don Quixote_, the translation by
+ Motteux. This introduction makes thirty pages and gives
+ enough facts for the general reader, with a good estimate of
+ _Don Quixote_ and Cervantes' other works.
+
+
+ THE IMITATION OF CHRIST
+
+ The early editions of Thomas a Kempis' great work were in
+ manuscript, many of them beautifully illuminated. A
+ noteworthy edition was brought out in 1600 at Antwerp by
+ Henry Sommalius, S. J. The works of Thomas a Kempis in three
+ volumes were issued by this same editor in 1615.
+
+ The first English version of the _Imitation_ was made by
+ Willyam Atkynson and was printed by Wykyns de Worde in 1502.
+ In 1567 Edward Hake issued a fine edition. Among the best
+ English editions are those of Canon Benham, Sir Francis
+ Cruise, Bishop Challoner and the Oxford edition of 1841. The
+ best edition for the beginner is that edited by Brother Leo,
+ F. S. C., Professor of English Literature in St. Mary's
+ College, Oakland, California. It is in the Macmillan's Pocket
+ Classics and has an admirable introduction of fifty-three
+ pages. The notes are brief but very helpful.
+
+ Some of the best articles on Thomas a Kempis are to be found
+ in _The Catholic Encyclopedia_ and _The Schaff-Herzog
+ Encyclopedia of Religious Thought_.
+
+ There has been much controversy over the authorship of _The
+ Imitation of Christ_, but the weight of evidence is
+ conclusive that Thomas a Kempis was the writer of this book,
+ which has preserved his name for five hundred years. The book
+ was issued anonymously and some manuscript copies of it bore
+ the name of St. Bernard and others that of John Gerson. As
+ Thomas a Kempis spent most of his life copying sacred books
+ it was assumed that he had merely copied the text of another
+ monk's work.
+
+ A Spanish student in 1604 found a sentence from the
+ _Imitation_ quoted in a sermon attributed to Bonaventura, who
+ died in 1273, two hundred years before the death of Thomas.
+ This caused a great literary sensation and it was some time
+ before it was established that the sermon was not by
+ Bonaventura but belonged to the fifteenth century. In casting
+ about for the real author of the _Imitation_ the Superior of
+ the Jesuit College at Arona, Father Rossignoli, found an
+ undated copy of the _Imitation_ in the college library with
+ the signature of Johannis Gerson. The college had been
+ formerly conducted by the Benedictines, so it was assumed
+ that Gerson was the real author. It was only after much
+ research that it was proved that this manuscript copy of the
+ _Imitation_ was brought to Arona from Genoa in 1579.
+ Constantine Cajetan, a fanatic in his devotion to the order
+ of St. Benedict, found in a copy of the _Imitation_ printed
+ in Venice in 1501 a note saying, "this book was not written
+ by John Gerson but by John, Abbot of Vercelli." A manuscript
+ copy was also found by him bearing the name of John of
+ Carabuco. Out of these facts Cajetan built up his theory that
+ John Gerson of Carabuco, Benedictine Abbot of Vercelli, was
+ the real author of the _Imitation_.
+
+ Thus began the most famous controversy in the annals of
+ literature, which raged for several hundred years. Among the
+ claimants to the honor of having written this book were
+ Bernard of Clairvaux, Giovanni Gerso, an Italian monk of the
+ twelfth century; Walter Hilton, an English monk; John
+ Gerson, Chancellor of Paris; John Gerson, Abbot of Vercelli,
+ and Thomas a Kempis.
+
+ What would seem to be conclusive evidence that Thomas a
+ Kempis was the author is the fact that the _Imitation_ was
+ written for chanting. Carl Hirsche compared the manuscript
+ copy of the _Imitation_ of 1441 which he found in the
+ Bourgogne Library in Brussels with other writings of Thomas a
+ Kempis, also marked for chanting, and found great similarity
+ between the _Imitation_ and the works admitted to have been
+ written by Thomas a Kempis.
+
+ The _Imitation_ has been a favorite book with many persons.
+ Mrs. Jane L. Stanford, who showed such remarkable faith in
+ the university which Leland Stanford founded and who made
+ many sacrifices to save it in critical periods, always
+ carried a fine copy of Thomas a Kempis with her. Miss Berger,
+ who was Mrs. Stanford's secretary and constant companion for
+ over fifteen years, told me that whenever Mrs. Stanford was
+ in doubt or trouble she took up the _Imitation_, opened it at
+ random and always found something which settled her doubts
+ and gave her comfort.
+
+
+ THE RUBA'IYAT
+
+ Edward FitzGerald's version of the _Ruba'iyat_ was the first
+ to appeal to the western world. It has been reproduced in
+ countless editions since it was first issued in London in
+ 1859. Dole in the _Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam_ (Boston, 1896)
+ gives a fairly complete bibliography of manuscripts,
+ editions, translations and imitations of the Quatrains.
+
+ Five hundred quatrains from the original Persian, translated
+ metrically by E. H. Whinfield, were issued in London, 1883,
+ while Payne made a poetical translation, reproducing all the
+ metrical eccentricities of the original Persian, which he
+ called "_The Quatrains of Omar Khayyam_, now first completely
+ done into English Verse from the Persian, with a Biographical
+ and Critical Introduction" (London, 1898). Heron Allen has
+ added a valuable book in _The Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam_: A
+ Facsimile of the Manuscript in the Bodleian Library,
+ Translated and Edited (Boston, 1898).
+
+ One of the best editions of the _Ruba'iyat_ is a reprint of
+ FitzGerald's various editions, showing the many changes, some
+ of which were not improvements, and the quatrains that were
+ dropped out of the final version, with a commentary by Batson
+ and an introduction by Ross (New York, 1900).
+
+ Another excellent edition of FitzGerald's final version,
+ issued by Paul Elder & Company, is edited by Arthur Guiterman
+ and contains _The Literal Omar_, that lovers of the
+ astronomer-poet may see, stanza for stanza, how the old
+ Persian originally phrased the verses that the Irish recluse
+ so musically echoed in English.
+
+
+ DANTE'S "DIVINE COMEDY"
+
+ The best known English translation of the _Divine Comedy_ is
+ that of Cary, first published in 1806. Other English versions
+ are by Dayman, Pollock and J. A. Carlyle. Longfellow made a
+ translation in verse which is musical and cast in the _terza
+ rima_ of the original.
+
+ A mass of commentary on Dante has been issued of which only a
+ few noteworthy books can be mentioned here. Among these are
+ Botta, _Introduction to the Study of Dante_ (London, 1887);
+ Maria Francesca Rossetti, _A Shadow of Dante_ (London,
+ 1884); Butler, _Dante: His Times and His Work_ (London,
+ 1895); Symonds, _Introduction to the Study of Dante_
+ (Edinburgh, 1890); Lowell, _Among My Books_, one of the
+ finest essays on the great poet and his work (Boston, 1880);
+ Macaulay, _Essays_, Vol. I; Carlyle in _Heroes and Hero
+ Worship_.
+
+ One of the largest Dante libraries in the world was collected
+ by the late Professor Willard Fiske of Cornell University. At
+ his death this splendid library was given to the university
+ which Professor Fiske served for over twenty years as head of
+ the department of Northern European languages. Professor
+ Melville B. Anderson, recently retired from the chair of
+ English Literature at Stanford University, is now completing
+ a translation of Dante, which has been a labor of love for
+ many years.
+
+
+ MILTON'S "PARADISE LOST," AND OTHER POEMS
+
+ The first edition of Milton's _Paradise Lost_, in ten books,
+ bears date of August 10, 1667. Seven years later, with many
+ changes and enlarged by two books, it appeared in a second
+ edition. All that Milton received for this poem was L10.
+ _Paradise Regained_ was first printed with _Samson Agonistes_
+ in 1671.
+
+ The standard biography of Milton is by Masson in six volumes
+ (London, 1859-1894). The best short sketch is Mark Pattison's
+ in John Morley's _English Men of Letters Series_ (New York,
+ 1880). Another good short sketch is in Richard Garnett's
+ volume in _Great Writers' Series_ (London, 1890).
+
+ One of the best editions of Milton's _Prose Works_ is in the
+ Bohn Library, five volumes, edited by St. John.
+
+ _The Poetical Works_, edited by Masson, appeared in 1890 in
+ three volumes. Buching of Oxford issued in 1900 reprints of
+ the first editions under the title, _Poetical Works After the
+ Original Texts_.
+
+ Among famous essays on Milton may be named those by Dr.
+ Johnson, Macaulay, Lowell and Trent. Dr. Hiram Corson's
+ _Introduction to Milton's Works_ will be found valuable, as
+ will also Osgood's _The Classical Mythology of Milton's
+ English Poems_. In Hale's _Longer English Poems_ there are
+ chapters on Milton which are full of good suggestions.
+
+
+ BUNYAN'S "PILGRIM'S PROGRESS"
+
+ The _Pilgrim's Progress_, which has been translated into
+ seventy-one languages and has passed through more editions
+ than any other book except the Bible, originally appeared in
+ 1678, a second edition came out in the same year and a third
+ edition in 1679. Bunyan made numerous additions to the second
+ and third editions. The second part of _Pilgrim's Progress_
+ appeared in 1684.
+
+ Bunyan's literary activity was phenomenal when it is
+ remembered that he had little early education. In all he
+ produced sixty books and pamphlets, all devoted to spreading
+ the faith to which he devoted his life. Among the best known
+ of his works besides _Pilgrim's Progress_ is _The Holy War_,
+ _The Holy City_, _Grace Abounding in the Chief of Sinners_,
+ _The Life and Death of Mr. Badman_.
+
+ The best short life of Bunyan is that by James Anthony Froude
+ in _English Men of Letters Series_ (New York, 1880).
+ Macaulay's essay on Bunyan ranks with his noble essay on
+ Milton. Other lives are those by Southey, Dr. J. Brown and
+ Canon Venables.
+
+
+ BOSWELL'S JOHNSON
+
+ The first edition of _Boswell's Johnson_ appeared in 1791 and
+ made a great hit. There was a call for a second edition in
+ 1794 and Boswell was preparing a third edition in 1795 when
+ he died. This uncompleted third edition was issued by Edward
+ Malone in 1799, who also superintended the issue of the
+ fourth, fifth and sixth editions. Malone furnished many notes
+ and he also received the assistance of Dr. Charles Burney,
+ father of the author of _Evelina_, and others who knew both
+ Boswell and Johnson. An edition in 1822 was issued by the
+ Chalmers, who contributed much information of value. All
+ these materials with much new matter went into the edition of
+ John Wilson Croker in 1831. Croker was cordially hated by
+ Macaulay and the result was the bitter criticism of Croker's
+ edition of Boswell's great work that is now included among
+ the famous essays of Macaulay. Bohn brought out Croker's
+ edition in ten volumes in 1859, and it has been reproduced in
+ this country by the John W. Lovell Company in four volumes.
+ Carlyle's _Essay on Boswell's Johnson_ is one of the best pen
+ pictures of the old Doctor and his biographer that has ever
+ been written.
+
+ Percy Fitzgerald's _Life of Boswell_ (London, 1891) is good
+ and Rogers' _Boswelliana_ gives many anecdotes of the writer
+ of the best biography in the language. _Dr. Johnson and Mrs.
+ Thrale_, by A. M. Broadley, furnishes much curious
+ information about the relations of the old Doctor with the
+ woman who studied his comfort for so many years. It is rich
+ in illustrations from rare portraits and old prints and in
+ reproductions of letters (New York: John Lane Company,
+ 1909).
+
+
+ ROBINSON CRUSOE
+
+ The first edition of _Robinson Crusoe_ appeared in 1719. It
+ made an immediate hit and was quickly translated into many
+ languages. A second part was added but this was never so
+ popular as the first. The first publication was in serial
+ form in a periodical, _The Original London Post_ or
+ _Heathcote's Intelligencer_. So great was its success that
+ four editions were called for in the same year, three in two
+ volumes and one, a condensed version, in a single volume.
+
+ In 1720 Defoe brought out _Serious Reflections During the
+ Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, with His Vision of
+ the Angelic World_. This was poorly received, although it has
+ since been included in many of the editions of this story.
+
+ Of the making of editions of _Robinson Crusoe_ there is no
+ end. Nearly every year sees a new edition, with original
+ illustrations. A noteworthy edition is that of Tyson's,
+ published in London, with many fine engravings from designs
+ by Granville, and another in 1820 in two volumes, with
+ engravings by Charles Heath.
+
+ A fine edition of _Robinson Crusoe_ in two volumes was issued
+ by Houghton Mifflin Company of Boston in 1908, with
+ illustrations from designs by Thomas Stothard.
+
+ The standard life of Defoe is that by Wm. Hazlitt, published
+ in London (1840-1843) in three volumes. Sir Walter Scott
+ edited a good edition of Defoe's complete works in 1840, in
+ twenty volumes. About fifteen years ago J. M. Dent of London
+ issued a fine edition of Defoe's works, with an excellent
+ introduction to each book. A good selection of some of
+ Defoe's best work is _Masterpieces of Defoe_, issued by the
+ Macmillan Company in a series of prose masterpieces of great
+ authors.
+
+ "There are few books one can read through and through so,
+ With new delight, either on wet or dry day,
+ As that which chronicles the acts of Crusoe,
+ And the good faith and deeds of his man Friday."
+
+
+ GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
+
+ Swift foretold very accurately the great vogue that
+ _Gulliver's Travels_ would have. In writing to Arbuthnot he
+ said: "I will make over all my profits (in a certain work)
+ for the property of _Gulliver's Travels_ which, I believe,
+ will have as great a run as John Bunyan." The success of the
+ book when issued anonymously in November, 1726, was enormous.
+ Swift derived his chief satisfaction from the fact that he
+ had hoodwinked many readers. Arbuthnot told of an
+ acquaintance who had tried to locate Lilliput on a map and
+ another told him of a shipmaster who had known Gulliver well.
+ Many editions of the book were called for in England, and in
+ France it had a great success and was dramatized.
+
+ A large paper copy of the first edition, with Swift's
+ corrections on the margin, which appeared in later editions,
+ is now in the South Kensington Museum. It shows how carefully
+ Swift revised the work, as the changes are numerous. Toward
+ the close of 1726 the work was reissued, with a second
+ volume. In 1727 appeared the first new edition of both
+ volumes. Swift's changes were mainly in "Laputa," which had
+ been severely criticized. On Dec. 28, 1727, Swift in a letter
+ suggests illustrations for the new edition and says of the
+ book: "The world glutted itself with that book at first, but
+ now it will go off but soberly, but I suppose will not be
+ soon worn out."
+
+ A Dublin edition of 1735 contained many corrections and it
+ also included a "Letter from Gulliver to his cousin Simpson,"
+ a device of Swift to mystify the public and make it believe
+ in the genuineness of Gulliver.
+
+ The best life of Swift is in two volumes, by Henry Craik (New
+ York: The Macmillan Company, 1894). The best short life is by
+ Leslie Stephen in the _English Men of Letters Series_.
+
+
+
+
+Index
+
+
+ ADDISON, JOSEPH, suggestion of the _Spectator_ given by Defoe, 126.
+
+ AGAMEMNON, THE, FitzGerald's version, 79.
+
+ AENEID, THE, features of great Latin epic, 33, 34.
+
+ AESCHYLUS, 36.
+
+ ALCOTT, A. BRONSON, introduced Emerson to German philosophy, 30.
+
+ ANALECTS OF CONFUCIUS, 39.
+
+ ANTIGONE, the greatest of Sophocles' tragedies, 36.
+
+ ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, 24.
+
+ APOLLYON, his famous fight with Christian, 115.
+
+ ARABIAN NIGHTS, 39-43.
+
+ ARNOLD, MATTHEW, his imitation of Greek lyrics, 32;
+ his fondness for _The Imitation of Christ_, 71.
+
+ AREOPAGITICA, THE, one of Milton's finest prose works, 102.
+
+
+ BACONIAN THEORY, its absurdity, 14, 15.
+
+ BALZAC, _Le Pere Goriot_, a study of a father's unselfish
+ sacrifices, 23.
+
+ BIBLE, THE, xx: 9-13.
+ Comfort in time of sorrow, 11, 12.
+ Culture from study of it, 12, 13.
+ Greatness compared with other books, 10.
+ Men who formed their style on it, 12, 13.
+ _Soul of the Bible, The_, a fine condensation of the Scriptures, 11.
+ Zophar's words to Job, 12.
+
+ BOCCACCIO'S TALES, 39.
+
+ BOHN'S TRANSLATIONS, 37.
+
+ BOOTH, EDWIN, his magnificent interpretation of Hamlet, 24, 25.
+
+ BOSWELL, JAMES, his _Life of Dr. Johnson_, 117.
+
+ BROBDINGNAG, the land of giants in Swift's _Gulliver's Travels_, 131.
+
+ BRUNHILDE, one of the heroines of _The Nibelungenlied_, 45.
+
+ BRYANT, WILLIAM CULLEN, his metrical version of the _Iliad_ and the
+ _Odyssey_, 34.
+
+ BUNYAN, JOHN, 100, 109.
+ Biography, 109-111.
+ Comparison between Bunyan and Milton, 108, 109.
+ _Holy War, The_, a good allegory, 112.
+ Life in Bedford jail, 111.
+ Saturated with the Bible, 114.
+
+ BURTON, SIR RICHARD, his unexpurgated edition of the _Arabian
+ Nights_, 42.
+
+ BYRON, LORD, epigram on Cervantes, 57.
+
+
+ CALDERON, FitzGerald's version of several plays of, 79.
+
+ CAPTAIN SINGLETON, one of Defoe's romances dealing with African
+ adventure, 126, 127.
+
+ CARLYLE, THOMAS, Essay on the _Nibelungenlied_, 46.
+ Essay on _Boswell's Johnson_, 127.
+ Tribute to Dante, 89, 90.
+
+ CERVANTES, his adventurous career, 58-60.
+ Life at Rome, 59.
+ Wounded at Lepanto, 59.
+ Wrote _Don Quixote_ at age of fifty-eight, 60.
+
+ CHESTERFIELD, LORD, Dr. Johnson dedicated his Dictionary to him, 120.
+ Johnson's bitter satirical letter to him as patron, 121, 122.
+
+ CHILDE HAROLD, 57.
+
+ CICERO, eloquence in his letters, 37.
+
+ CLEOPATRA, pictured by Shakespeare as the greatest siren of
+ history, 24.
+
+ COLONEL JACK, an entertaining picaresque romance by Defoe, 127.
+
+ COMEDIES OF SHAKESPEARE, 19.
+
+ COMTE, AUGUSTE, made the _Imitation_ part of his Positivist
+ ritual, 72.
+
+ CONFESSIONS OF ST. AUGUSTINE, THE, 48-55.
+ Influence on Churchmen, 49.
+ Reveals marvelous faith in God, 53.
+
+ CORSON, PROFESSOR HIRAM,
+ a great interpreter of Shakespeare, 25.
+
+ CRANCH, CHRISTOPHER P., author of one of the best metrical versions of
+ the _AEneid_, 34.
+
+ CULTURE, not confined to college graduates, xix.
+ An old sea captain's self culture, 5, 6.
+
+
+ DANTE, biography, 86, 87.
+ His _Divine Comedy_ one of the world's great books, 39.
+ Love of Beatrice his chief inspiration, 86.
+
+ DEFOE, DANIEL, biography, 125, 126.
+ _Robinson Crusoe_ his greatest work, 128.
+ _Colonel Jack_, _Moll Flanders_, _Roxana_, _Captain Singleton_,
+ _Memoirs of a Cavalier_, _Duncan Campbell_ and _Journal of the
+ Plague Year_, his other best known works, 126, 127.
+ One of the greatest of pamphleteers, 126.
+ Secrecy about life puzzle to biographers, 126.
+ Style formed on study of the Bible, 13.
+
+ DE MORGAN, WILLIAM, took up authorship at sixty, 61.
+
+ DE QUINCEY, THOMAS, his distinction between the literature of power
+ and the literature of knowledge, x.
+ His style full of Biblical phrases, 13.
+
+ DERBY, EARL OF, blank verse translation of the _Iliad_, 34.
+
+ DICKENS, CHARLES, novelist who gained fame in youth, 61.
+
+ DIVINE COMEDY, influence on great poets and prose writers, 89, 90.
+ Inspiration of Mazzini and New Italy, 84.
+ Mirrors the Italy of Dante's day, 88.
+ One of the greatest of the world's poems, 83, 84.
+ Tributes by Carlyle, Lowell and Longfellow, 89, 90, 91.
+
+ DON JOHN OF AUSTRIA, leader under whom Cervantes fought against
+ Moslems, 59.
+
+ DON QUIXOTE, character of hero, 58.
+ Greatest book in Spanish literature, 57.
+ Mirrors Spanish life and character, 62.
+ Written in prison, 61.
+
+ DRYDEN, JOHN, his verse, 106.
+
+ DUNCAN CAMPBELL, a story of second sight, by Defoe, 126.
+
+ DUMAS, ALEXANDRE, the elder, his remarkable literary development, 17.
+
+
+ ELIOT, DR. CHARLES W., his "five-foot shelf of books," xix.
+
+ ELIOT, GEORGE, her tribute to Thomas a Kempis, 72.
+
+ ELIZABETHAN AGE, its richness in great writers, 17.
+
+ EMERSON, RALPH WALDO, Essays mosaic of quotations, 30.
+ How he wrote his essays, 66.
+ Influenced by Oriental poets, 30.
+ Recommends translations of classic and modern foreign authors, 85.
+
+ EPICTETUS, the Greek stoic, 37.
+
+ EMPEDOCLES ON ETNA, one of Matthew Arnold's finest poems, 32.
+
+ EURIPIDES, 36.
+
+
+ FITZGERALD, EDWARD, Biography, 77, 78.
+ Friend of Tennyson and Thackeray, 77.
+ His version of the _Ruba'iyat_ made Omar's work famous, 78, 79.
+ Other translations, 79.
+
+ FIVE-FOOT SHELF OF BOOKS, xix, 93.
+
+ FOX'S BOOK OF MARTYRS, 109.
+
+
+ GALLAND, ANTOINE, introduced the _Arabian Nights_ to Europe, 42.
+
+ GARRICK, DAVID, the famous English actor who, as a youth, tramped to
+ London with Dr. Johnson, 119.
+
+ GIBBON, EDWARD, in advance of his age, 116, 117.
+ On love of reading, ix.
+ Member of Dr. Johnson's Club, 120.
+
+ GOETHE, his _Faust_ ranks with Shakespeare's best plays, 16.
+ Comparison between Mephistopheles and Iago, 23.
+
+ GOLDSMITH, OLIVER comment on Dr. Johnson's method in argument, 118.
+
+ GORDON, GENERAL, influence over barbarous races, 51, 52.
+ Had the _Imitation_ in his pocket when he fell at Khartoum, 72.
+
+ GRACE ABOUNDING, one of Bunyan's minor works, 110.
+
+ GRENFELL, DR. WILFRED T., medical missionary to Labrador and one of
+ the most stimulating of the writers of the day, 51.
+ _What the Bible Means to Me_; full of helpful suggestions, 52.
+
+ GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, Swift's greatest work, 129-131.
+ Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the land of the Houyhnhnms, 131.
+
+
+ HAMLET, the finest creative work of Shakespeare, 20, 22, 24, 96.
+
+ HELEN OF TROY, 35.
+
+ HOLY WAR, THE, one of Bunyan's religious allegories, 112.
+
+ HOMER, 31, 33, 34, 35.
+ _The Iliad_ leads all classical works, 33, 34.
+ Many translators of the _Iliad_, 34.
+ Pictures of old Greek Life, 35.
+
+ HORACE, no satisfactory translation of his odes, 31.
+
+ HOUYHNHNMS, THE, Land in _Gulliver's Travels_, in which the Horse is
+ King and men are vile slaves called Yahoos, 131.
+
+
+ ILIAD, THE, the greatest literary masterpiece of antiquity, 34.
+
+ IL PENSEROSO, one of Milton's finest lyrics, 107.
+
+ IMITATION OF CHRIST, THE, by Thomas a Kempis, 39, 64-71.
+ Appeal for the spiritual life, 70.
+ Best editions, 73.
+ Famous writers bear testimony to its influence, 71, 72.
+ Its inspiration drawn directly from the Bible, 68.
+ Some quotations, 71.
+
+ IVANHOE, 113.
+
+
+ JEFFERIES, RICHARD, a young English writer who reproduced the very
+ spirit of classical life, 31.
+ _The Story of My Heart_, 32.
+
+ JOHNSON, DR. SAMUEL, 116-122.
+ Biography, 118-120.
+ His best poems, _London_ and _The Vanity of Human Wishes_, 119, 121.
+ His best prose, _The Lives of the Poets_, and _Life of Richard
+ Savage_, 119, 120.
+ His famous letter to Lord Chesterfield, 121, 122.
+ Rare qualities of old Doctor's character, 123.
+ Boswell's Life of, 117, 122, 123.
+
+ JOHNSON, ESTHER (STELLA) one of the two women Swift loved to their
+ cost, 129.
+
+ JONSON, BEN, 15.
+
+ JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR, a work of fiction by Defoe which surpasses
+ any genuine picture of London's great pestilence, 127.
+
+ JOWETT, DR. BENJAMIN, an Oxford professor and the best Greek scholar
+ of his time who made the finest version of Plato's _Phaedo_, 36.
+
+ JUAN FERNANDEZ ISLAND, scene of Robinson Crusoe's adventures, 125.
+
+ JULIUS CAESAR, one of Shakespeare's greatest historical tragedies, 23.
+
+
+ KEATS, JOHN; without knowing Greek or Latin, he reproduced
+ most perfectly the spirit of classical life in his _Ode to a Grecian
+ Urn_, and other poems, 31, 32.
+
+ KEMPIS, THOMAS A, author of _The Imitation of Christ_, 65-68.
+ Biography, 66-68.
+
+ KING LEAR, the tragedy of old age and children's ingratitude, 23.
+
+ KIPLING, RUDYARD, his great literary success at early age, 61.
+
+ KORAN, THE, its inferiority to the Bible, 10.
+
+ KRIEMHILD, the heroine in the _Nibelungenlied_, whose revenge resulted
+ in the slaughter of the Burgundian heroes, 44.
+
+
+ L'ALLEGRO, one of Milton's finest lyrics, 107.
+
+ LANE, EDWARD W., who wrote the best translation of the _Arabian
+ Nights_, 42.
+
+ LANG, ANDREW, joint author with Butcher of a prose translation of the
+ _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_, 34.
+
+ LAPUTA, the floating island in _Gulliver's Travels_, 131.
+
+ LEO, BROTHER, Professor of English Literature in St. Mary's College,
+ Oakland, Calif., the editor of a good cheap edition of _The
+ Imitation of Christ_, 73.
+
+ LILLIPUT, a land in _Gulliver's Travels_ inhabited by pygmies, 131.
+
+ LOCKHART, JOHN GIBSON, Scott's son-in-law and biographer, who edited a
+ good edition of _Don Quixote_, 60.
+
+ LONGFELLOW, HENRY WADSWORTH, translated the _Divine Comedy_ by working
+ fifteen minutes every morning, 8.
+ His tribute to Dante, 90, 91.
+
+ LOPE DE VEGA, the most prolific of Spanish playwrights, 58.
+
+ LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL, attributed his love of learning to reading
+ Dante, 90.
+
+ LYCIDAS, Milton's exquisite lament over the death of a young
+ friend, 107.
+
+
+ MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON, his wide reading in India, 8.
+ Essays rich in allusions to many authors, 104.
+ Essay on Boswell's Johnson, 122.
+
+ MACBETH, Shakespeare's tragedy of guilty ambition, 22, 23.
+
+ MANTELL, ROBERT, one of the greatest living interpreters of
+ Shakespeare on the stage, 15.
+
+ MANZONI, 84.
+
+ MARCUS AURELIUS, his _Meditations_, 33.
+ Simplicity of character when master of the Roman world, 37.
+
+ MARLOWE, CHRISTOPHER, a contemporary of Shakespeare, whose plays are
+ almost unreadable today, 15.
+
+ MAZZINI, GIUSEPPE, the the Italian patriot who regarded Dante as the
+ prophet of the New Italy, 84, 89.
+
+ MEDEA, one of the greatest of the tragedies of Euripides, 36.
+
+ MEDITATIONS of Marcus Aurelius, one of the famous Latin classics that
+ is very modern in feeling, 33.
+
+ MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER, one of Defoe's graphic romances of the time of
+ Cromwell, 126.
+
+ MERCHANT OF VENICE, one of the most popular of Shakespeare's
+ plays, 21.
+
+ MILL ON THE FLOSS, one of George Eliot's best novels, in which Maggie
+ Tulliver feels the influence of Thomas a Kempis, 72.
+
+ MILTON, JOHN, 100-103.
+ Biography, 101-103.
+ _Paradise Lost_, dictated in blindness, 103.
+ Sonnet on his blindness, 107.
+
+ MOLL FLANDERS, the romance of a London courtesan, by Defoe, 127.
+
+ MORRIS, WILLIAM, his _Sigurd the Volsung_, 46.
+
+
+ NAISHAPUR, the home of Omar Khayyam, 75.
+
+ NIBELUNGENLIED, THE, a German epic poem of the first half of the
+ Thirteenth Century, 44, 47.
+ Story of the murder of Siegfried and the revenge of Kriemhild told
+ in Wagner's operas, 45, 46.
+
+ NIZAM UL MULK, Vizier of Persia and school friend of Omar Khayyam, who
+ gave the poet a pension, 75, 76.
+
+
+ ODYSSEY, THE, one of Homer's great epics, 34.
+
+ OLD TESTAMENT, its splendid imagery, 10.
+
+ OMAR KHAYYAM, author of _The Ruba'iyat_, 74-77.
+ Biography, 75-77.
+
+ OTHELLO, Shakespeare's tragedy of jealousy, 23.
+
+
+ PARADISE LOST, 100-106.
+ Modeled on the classical epics, 104.
+ Richness of imagery and allusions to classical mythology, 104.
+ Blank verse of the poem unsurpassed in English literature, 106.
+ Specimens of style, 106.
+
+ PAYNE, JOHN, translator of the _Arabian Nights_ for the Villon
+ Society, 42.
+
+ PEPYS' DIARY, description of the great plague in London, 127.
+
+ PHAEDO, Plato's version of the _Dialogues of Socrates_, 36.
+
+ PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, Bunyan's great romance, 108-113.
+ Evidences of close study of the Bible in this book, 114.
+ Fight between Christian and Apollyon, 115.
+ A literary masterpiece by a poor, self-educated
+ English tinker, 115.
+
+ PIGSKIN LIBRARY, THE, a collation of books carried by Colonel
+ Roosevelt on his African game-hunting trip, 9.
+
+ PLATO, the _Dialogues of Socrates_, 31.
+ Jowett's translation of the _Phaedo_, 36.
+
+ PLINY, his letters bring the classical world very near to us, 37.
+
+ PLUTARCH'S LIVES, 36.
+
+ POPE, ALEXANDER, translation of the _Iliad_, 33, 34.
+ Artificial verse of, 106.
+
+ PROMETHEUS, BOUND, a tragedy of AEschylus, 36.
+
+ PUSEY, DR. E. B., leader of the Tractarian movement in England, who
+ translated the _Confessions of St. Augustine_, 51.
+
+
+ RAMBLER, THE, weekly journal written and published by Dr. Johnson,
+ which suggested the _Spectator_ to Addison, 119.
+
+ READING CLUBS, suggestions for forming them, 97, 98.
+
+ REPUBLIC, THE, Plato's picture of an ideal commonwealth, 36.
+
+ REYNOLDS, SIR JOSHUA, famous artist and associate of Dr. Johnson, 120.
+
+ ROBINSON CRUSOE, 124-128.
+ The world's greatest book of adventure for children, 124, 125.
+ Instant success of the book, 126.
+ Materials furnished by a castaway on Juan Fernandez Island, 128.
+ Art shown in describing Crusoe's solitude and his moral and
+ religious reflections, 128, 129.
+
+ ROMEO AND JULIET, Shakespeare's great tragedy of unhappy love, 21.
+
+ ROOSEVELT, COL., his Pigskin library, 9.
+ His best literary work done in _African Game Trails_, 9.
+
+ ROXANA, one of Defoe's romances of a woman of London's
+ tenderloin, 127.
+
+ RUBA'IYAT, THE, Omar Khayyam's great poem, 39, 74, 78-81.
+ Its world-wide vogue due to FitzGerald's splendid free
+ version, 74, 75.
+ Its Oriental imagery, 75.
+ Omar's Epicureanism largely imaginary, 80.
+ Specimen quatrains from FitzGerald's version, 81.
+
+ RUSKIN, JOHN, his splendid diction due to early Bible study, 13.
+
+
+ SANCHO PANZA, squire to Don Quixote, 56.
+
+ ST. AUGUSTINE, the most famous father of the Latin church of the
+ fourth century, author of the _Confessions_, 39, 49, 50, 54, 55.
+ Biography, 53-55.
+ Influence of the _Confessions_, 54.
+ His tribute to his mother, Monica, 55.
+
+ SCOTT, SIR WALTER, among English authors next to Shakespeare in
+ creative power, 20.
+
+ SELKIRK, ALEXANDER, the English sailor whose adventures gave Defoe
+ the materials for _Robinson Crusoe_, 128.
+
+ SHAKESPEARE, 14-28.
+ Ranks next to Bible, 14.
+ His plays very modern, 15.
+ Robert Mantell in his finest roles, 15, 16.
+ Rhymes in the blank verse give clue to order of the plays, 18.
+ Comedies the work of his early years, 19.
+ The period of great tragedies, 19, 20.
+ His last three plays, _The Tempest_, _Cymbeline_, and _The Winter's
+ Tale_, 20.
+ Enormous creative activity, 20.
+ _Hamlet_ sums up human life, 20, 21, 22.
+ _Romeo and Juliet_, 21.
+ _The Merchant of Venice_, 21.
+ _As You Like It_, 22.
+ _Macbeth_, 22, 23.
+ _Julius Caesar_, 23.
+ _Othello_, 23.
+ _Antony and Cleopatra_, 24.
+ Best means of studying Shakespeare, 25.
+ Some of the best editions of Shakespeare, 26, 27.
+
+ SHEHEREZADE, the Queen in _The Arabian Nights_ who saved her life by
+ relating the tales of _The Thousand and One Nights_ to her
+ husband, Sultan Schariar of India, 41.
+
+ SIEGFRIED, one of the heroes of _The Nibelungenlied_ who is foully
+ slain by Prince Hagen, 45.
+
+ SMOLLETT, TOBIAS, an English novelist who wrote _Humphrey Clinker_ and
+ _Roderick Random_, 60.
+
+ SOCRATES, 36.
+
+ SOPHOCLES, _OEdipus_, 31.
+
+ SOUL OF THE BIBLE, THE, a condensed version of the Old and New
+ Testaments which will be found useful by Bible students, 11.
+
+ STORY OF MY HEART, THE, an eloquent book by Richard Jefferies in which
+ the spiritual aspirations of a self-educated young man are
+ vividly described, 32.
+
+ STRAYED REVELER, A, one of Matthew Arnold's finest lyrical poems, 32.
+
+ STANLEY, HENRY M., his autobiography records the great work done by a
+ poor foundling whose spirit in boyhood was nearly crushed by
+ cruelty, 53.
+
+ STELLA, the pet name given by Dean Swift to Esther Johnson, a young
+ woman whom he immortalized by his journal, written for her
+ amusement, 129, 130, 131.
+
+ SWIFT, JONATHAN, Dean of St. Patrick's, one of the greatest of English
+ writers and author of _Gulliver's Travels_, 129, 130.
+
+
+ TALE OF A TUB, THE, a vitriolic satire in verse by Swift, 130.
+
+ TEMPLE, SIR WILLIAM, an English statesman and author and patron of
+ Swift, 129.
+
+ TENNANT, DOROTHY, widow of Stanley, who edited his _Autobiography_, 53.
+
+
+ UTTOXETER, a Staffordshire town where Dr. Johnson did penance for
+ harsh words spoken years before to his father, 123.
+
+
+ VANESSA, the name given by Swift to Esther Vanhomrigh, a brilliant
+ pupil who fell in love with him and was ruined, like
+ "Stella," 129, 130.
+
+ VEDDER, ELIHU, the American artist who illustrated the _Ruba'iyat_, 82.
+
+ VIRGIL, difficulty in translating his work, 33.
+ Story of the _AEneid_, 35, 36.
+
+
+ WAGNER, RICHARD, his great operas drawn from the principal incidents
+ of _The Nibelungenlied_ and allied Norse epics, 45, 46.
+
+ WOODBERRY, GEORGE E., his opinion that Dante is untranslatable, 85.
+
+
+ YAHOO, in _Gulliver's Travels_ a race of slaves with the form of men
+ but with none their of virtues, 131.
+
+
+HERE ENDS COMFORT FOUND IN GOOD OLD BOOKS, BEING A SERIES OF ESSAYS ON
+GREAT BOOKS AND THEIR WRITERS, BY GEORGE HAMLIN FITCH. PUBLISHED BY PAUL
+ELDER AND COMPANY AND PRINTED FOR THEM BY THEIR TOMOYE PRESS IN THE CITY
+OF SAN FRANCISCO UNDER THE DIRECTION OF JOHN HENRY NASH IN THE MONTH OF
+JUNE AND THE YEAR NINETEEN HUNDRED & ELEVEN
+
+
+ * * * * *
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
+
+Minor punctuation corrections have been made without comment.
+
+Corrected spelling on p. 46, "Sigura" to "Sigurd" (Sigurd the Volsung,
+by William Morris).
+
+Added page number (82) to "Index" listing for "VEDDER, ELIHU" on p. 171.
+
+Word Variations:
+
+ "Alexander" (1) and "Alexandre" (1) (---- Dumas)
+ "every-day" (2) and "everyday" (3)
+ "Scheherezade" (3) and "Sheherezade" (1)
+
+Words using the [OE] and [oe] ligatures, which have been changed
+to "OE" and "oe" in this e-text are: OEdipus and Coelebs
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Comfort Found in Good Old Books, by
+George Hamlin Fitch
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COMFORT FOUND IN GOOD OLD BOOKS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 35113.txt or 35113.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+ http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/1/1/35113/
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness, Christine Aldridge and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
+paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works. See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+ the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+ you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is
+ owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+ has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+ Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments
+ must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+ prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+ returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+ sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+ address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+ the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+ you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+ does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+ License. You must require such a user to return or
+ destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+ and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+ Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+ money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+ electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+ of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+ distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+ Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+ Chief Executive and Director
+ gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+ http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
generated by cgit v1.2.3 (git 2.25.1) at 2025-12-29 17:52:01 +0000