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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:03:03 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:03:03 -0700 |
| commit | 070fc72441a8e35b1d492e54d19baecf7fd2984a (patch) | |
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diff --git a/35113-h/35113-h.htm b/35113-h/35113-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..79b9aec --- /dev/null +++ b/35113-h/35113-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7167 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Comfort Found In Good Old Books, By George Hamlin Fitch. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +h2.txt200 {font-size: 200%;} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +p.pub {margin-top: 5em;} +p.hang {padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.tr { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 5%; + margin-top: 5%; + margin-bottom: 5%; + padding: 2em; + background-color: #f6f2f2; + color: black; + border: dotted black 1px; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +td.tcol1 {text-align:left; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em; padding-right:5ex; vertical-align:top;} +td.tcol2 {text-align:left; padding-top: 1.2em; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em; padding-right:10ex; vertical-align:top;} +td.tcol3 {text-align:right; vertical-align:bottom;} +td.tcol4 {text-align:left; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -1em; padding-right:10ex; vertical-align:top;} + +ul {list-style-type:none;} + + body > ul.sub {font-size: 90%;} + .sub li {margin-left: -5%; margin-top: 0;} + +li {margin-top: 0.25em; line-height: 1.2em; padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.pagenumidx { + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + padding-left: 2em; +} /* to compensate for hanging indents in index */ + + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.nowrap {white-space: nowrap;} + +.section {margin-top: 1.5em;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.txt105 {font-size: 105%;} +.txt120 {font-size: 120%;} +.txt150 {font-size: 150%;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold; font-variant: small-caps;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.noshow {display: none; visibility: hidden; } +/* for verse and pooem presentation in non-css browsers */ + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } +.poem span.i0h {display: block; margin-left: .50em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } +.poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } +.poem span.i1h {display: block; margin-left: 1.50em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } +.poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } +.poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +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: ISO-8859-1 + +*** 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) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 299px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="299" height="500" alt="Outer Cover" title="Outer Cover" /> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 294px;"><a name="Shakespeare_Folio" id="Shakespeare_Folio"></a> +<img src="images/shakespeare_folio.jpg" width="294" height="500" alt="Title Page of the Celebrated +First Folio Edition of Shakespeare +The Plays Collected and Edited in 1623 By +Heminge and Condell" title="Title Page of the Celebrated +First Folio Edition of Shakespeare +The Plays Collected and Edited in 1623 By +Heminge and Condell" /> +<span class="caption">Title Page of the Celebrated +First Folio Edition of Shakespeare<br /> +The Plays Collected and Edited in 1623 By +Heminge and Condell</span> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h1> +COMFORT<br /> +FOUND IN GOOD<br /> +OLD BOOKS</h1> + +<p class="center" style="margin-bottom: 0;"><b>BY</b></p> +<h2 style="margin-top: 0;">GEORGE HAMLIN FITCH</h2> + +<p class="center"><i>I love everything that's old:<br /> +old friends, old times, old manners,<br /> +old books, old wine.</i><br /> +—<i>Goldsmith.</i></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 75px;"> +<img src="images/tpage_deco.jpg" width="75" height="79" alt="Publishers Logo" title="Publishers Logo" /> +</div> + +<p class="center txt120"><i>Illustrated</i></p> + +<p class="center pub">PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY<br /> +PUBLISHERS, SAN FRANCISCO</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center"><i>Copyright, 1911</i><br /> +<i>by</i> <span class="smcap">Paul Elder and Company</span></p> + +<p class="center">The articles in this<br /> +book appeared originally in the<br /> +Sunday book-page of the San Francisco <i>Chronicle</i>.<br /> +The privilege of reproducing them<br /> +here is due to the courtesy of<br /> +M. H. de Young, Esq.</p> + +<hr /> +<p class="center">TO THE MEMORY<br /> +OF MY SON HAROLD,<br /> +MY BEST CRITIC, MY OTHER<br /> +SELF, WHOSE DEATH HAS<br /> +TAKEN THE LIGHT<br /> +OUT OF MY<br /> +LIFE.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="txt200"><span class="smcap">Contents</span></h2> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td class="tcol2"> </td><td class="tcol3"><span class="smcap">Page</span></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol2"><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcol2"><span class="smcap">Comfort Found in Good Old Books</span></td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Page_xi">xi</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" class="tcol4">Nothing Soothes Grief Like Sterling Old Books—How the +Sudden Death of an Only Son Proved the Value of the +Reading Habit.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcol2"><span class="smcap">The Greatest Book in the World</span></td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" class="tcol4">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.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcol2"><span class="smcap">Shakespeare Stands Next to the Bible</span></td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Page_14">14</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" class="tcol4">Hints on the Reading of Shakespeare's Plays—How +to Master the best of these Dramas, the Finest of +Modern Work.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcol2"><span class="smcap">How to Read the Ancient Classics</span></td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" class="tcol4">Authors of Greece and Rome One Should Know—Masterpieces +of the Ancient World that may be +Enjoyed in Good English Versions.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcol2"><span class="smcap">The Arabian Nights and Other Classics</span></td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" class="tcol4">Oriental Fairy Tales and German Legends—The Ancient +Arabian Stories and the Nibelungenlied among +World's Greatest Books.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcol2"><span class="smcap">The Confessions of St. Augustine</span></td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" class="tcol4">An Eloquent book of Religious Meditation—The Ablest +of Early Christian Fathers Tells of His Youth, His +Friends and His Conversion.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcol2"><span class="smcap">Don Quixote, One of the World's Great Books</span></td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" class="tcol4">Cervantes' Masterpiece a Book for All Time—Intensely +Spanish, it Still Appeals to All Nations by its Deep +Human Interest.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcol2"><span class="smcap">The Imitation of Christ</span></td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Page_64">64</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" class="tcol4">Features of Great Work by Old Thomas à Kempis—Meditations +of a Flemish Monk which have not +Lost their Influence in Five Hundred Years.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcol2"><span class="smcap">The Rubá'iyát of Omar Khayyám</span></td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" class="tcol4">Popularity of an Old Persian's Quatrains—Splendid +Oriental Imagery Joined to Modern Doubt Found in +this Great Poem.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcol2"><span class="smcap">The Divine Comedy by Dante</span></td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" class="tcol4">Influence of One of the World's Great Books—The +Exiled Florentine's Poem has Colored the Life and +Work of Many Famous Writers.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcol2"><span class="smcap">How to Get the Best Out of Books</span></td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" class="tcol4">Is the Higher Education an Absolute Necessity?—Desire +to gain Knowledge and Culture will make one +Master of All the Best Books.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcol2"><span class="smcap">Milton's Paradise Lost and Other Poems</span></td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Page_100">100</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" class="tcol4">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.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcol2"><span class="smcap">Pilgrim's Progress the Finest of all Allegories</span></td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" class="tcol4">Bunyan's Story full of the Spirit of the Bible—The +Simple Tale of Christian's Struggles and Triumph +Appeals to Old and Young.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcol2"><span class="smcap">Old Dr. Johnson and His Boswell</span></td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" class="tcol4">His Great Fame Due to His Admirer's Biography—Boswell's +Work makes the Doctor the best known +Literary Man of his Age.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcol2"><span class="smcap">Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver's Travels</span></td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" class="tcol4">Masterpieces of Defoe and Swift Widely Read—Two +Writers of Genius whose Stories have Delighted +Readers for Hundreds of Years.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcol2"><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span></td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Page_133">133</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2" class="tcol4">Notes on the Historical and best Reading Editions of +Great Authors.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcol2"><span class="smcap">Index</span></td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Page_159">159</a></td></tr> +</table> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="txt200"><span class="smcap">Illustrations</span></h2> + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations"> +<tr><td class="tcol1"> </td><td class="tcol3"><span class="smcap">Facing<br />Page</span></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Title Page of the Celebrated First Folio Edition of Shakespeare</td><td class="tcol3"><i><a href="#Shakespeare_Folio">Title</a></i></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">A Page from the Gutenberg Bible (Mayence, 1455)</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Gutenburg_Bible">4</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">A Page from the Coverdale Bible, being the First Complete English Bible</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Coverdale_Bible">14</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Chandos' Portrait of Shakespeare</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Shakespeare_Chandos">16</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Shakespeare's Birthplace at Stratford-on-Avon before the Restoration</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Shakespeare_Home">22</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">The Anne Hathaway Cottage</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Shakespeare_Home">22</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Bust of Homer in the Museum of Naples</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Homer">32</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Portrait of Virgil, taken from a Bust by L. P. Boitard</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Virgil">34</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Plato, after an Antique Bust</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Plato">36</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Edmund Dulac's Conception of Queen Scheherezade, who told the "Arabian Nights" Tales</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Scheherezade">40</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">The Jinnee and the Merchant—A Vignette Woodcut by William Harvey</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Jinnee">42</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Portrait of St. Augustine by the Famous Florentine Painter, Sandro Botticelli</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#St_Augustine">50</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">A Page from St. Augustine's "La Cite de Dieu"</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#La_Cite">54</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Portrait of Cervantes, from an Old Steel Engraving</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Cervantes">58</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Don Quixote Discoursing to Sancho Panza</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Don_Quixote">62</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Thomas à Kempis, the Frontispiece of an Edition of "The Imitation of Christ"</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Kempis">64</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">The Best-Known Portrait of Edward FitzGerald, Immortalized by his Version of the "Rubá'iyát"</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Fitzgerald">74</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">A Page from an Ancient Persian Manuscript Copy of the "Rubá'iyát" with Miniatures in Color</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Persian_Page">78</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">One of the Gilbert James Illustrations of the "Rubá'iyát"</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Rubaiyat">80</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Portrait of Dante, by Giotto di Bondone</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Dante">84</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Page from "Dante's Inferno," printed by Nicolo Lorenzo near the Close of the Fifteenth Century</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Inferno">88</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Portrait of Milton, after the Original Crayon Drawing from Life by William Faithorne, at Bayfordbury, Herts</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Milton">100</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Milton Dictating to his Daughters—After an Engraving by W. C. Edwards, from the Famous Painting by Romney</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Milton_Daughters">104</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Portrait of John Bunyan, after the Oil Painting by Sadler</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Bunyan">108</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Facsimile of the Title Page of the First Edition of "The Pilgrim's Progress"</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Progress">112</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Portrait of Dr. Johnson, from the Original Picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds, owned by Boswell</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Johnson_Portrait">116</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Portrait of James Boswell, after a Painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds—Engraved by E. Finden</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Boswell">118</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Facsimile of the Title Page of the First Edition of Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson"</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Johnson_Life">120</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Painting by Eyre Crowe of Dr. Johnson, Boswell and Goldsmith at the Mitre Tavern, Fleet Street</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Johnson_Painting">122</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Portrait of Daniel Defoe, from an Old Steel Engraving</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Defoe">124</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Illustration of "Robinson Crusoe" by George Cruikshank</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Crusoe">126</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Frontispiece to the First Edition of "Gulliver's Travels"—A Portrait Engraved in Copper of Captain Lemuel Gulliver of Redriff</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Gulliver_Portrait">128</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcol1">Facsimile of the Title Page of the First Edition of "Gulliver's Travels," issued in 1726</td><td class="tcol3"><a href="#Gulliver_Page">130</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="txt200"><i>Introduction</i></h2> + + +<p><i>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.</i></p> + +<p><i>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</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span> +<i>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</i> <span class="txt105">Confessions of an +English Opium Eater</span> <i>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.</i></p> + +<p><i>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 +à 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?</i></p> + +<p><i>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.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="txt200"><i>Comfort<br /> +Found in Good Old<br /> +Books</i></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang txt120"><i>Nothing Soothes Grief Like Sterling Old +Books—How the Sudden Death of an +Only Son Proved the Value of the +Reading Habit.</i></p></div> + + + +<p><i>For the thirty years that I have spoken +weekly to many hundreds of readers of</i> +<span class="txt105">The Chronicle</span> <i>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.</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span> +<i>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.</i></p> + +<p><i>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.</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span> +<i>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.</i></p> + +<p><i>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.</i></p> + +<p><i>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</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</a></span> +<i>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.</i></p> + +<p><i>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</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[xv]</a></span> +<i>or game or choice fruit which he knew I +relished.</i></p> + +<p><i>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.</i></p> + +<p><i>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.</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</a></span> +<i>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.</i></p> + +<p><i>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</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[xvii]</a></span> +<i>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.</i></p> + +<p><i>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</i> <span class="txt105">The Chronicle</span> <i>editorial rooms. +He knew the work of all departments of the</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[xviii]</a></span> +<i>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</i> <span class="txt105">The Chronicle</span> <i>office +as would the passing away of one of the oldest +men on the force.</i></p> + +<p><i>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.</i></p> + +<p><i>And so, in this roundabout way, I come back +to my library shelves, to urge upon you who</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[xix]</a></span> +<i>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.</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">[xx]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>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.</i></p> + +<p><i>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</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">[xxi]</a></span> +<i>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.</i></p> + +<p><i>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.</i></p> + +<p><i>San Francisco, October 9, 1910.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> +<h1>COMFORT<br /> +FOUND IN GOOD<br /> +OLD BOOKS</h1> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="txt200"><span class="smcap">The<br /> +Greatest Book in<br /> +the World</span></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang txt120"><span class="smcap">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.</span></p></div> + + + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 304px;"><a name="Gutenburg_Bible" id="Gutenburg_Bible"></a> +<img src="images/gutenburg_bible.jpg" width="304" height="500" alt="A Page from the Gutenberg Bible +(Mayence, 1455) +Noteworthy as the First Bible Printed from +Movable Type and the Earliest +Complete Printed Book" title="A Page from the Gutenberg Bible +(Mayence, 1455) +Noteworthy as the First Bible Printed from +Movable Type and the Earliest +Complete Printed Book" /> +<span class="caption">A Page from the Gutenberg Bible<br /> +(Mayence, 1455)<br /> +Noteworthy as the First Bible Printed from<br /> +Movable Type and the Earliest<br /> +Complete Printed Book</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In his cabin, she said, were well-worn +copies of Shakespeare, Gibbon, Thackeray,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +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?</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +that reading becomes automatic and that +you can easily read thirty pages where before +ten pages seemed a hard task.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Many will recall Longfellow's work on +the translation of Dante's <i>Inferno</i>, done in +the fifteen minutes every morning which +was required for his chocolate to boil.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +is the only book in the world that is new +every morning: the only one that brings +balm to wounded hearts.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +<i>The Soul of the Bible</i>, 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."</p> + +<p>Read <i>The Soul of the Bible</i> 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Then shall thy life be clearer than the noonday;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though there be darkness, it shall be as the morning,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And because there is hope, thou shalt be secure;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, thou shalt look about thee, and shalt take thy rest in safety;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +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.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="txt200"><span class="smcap">Shakespeare<br /> +Stands Next to the<br /> +Bible</span></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang txt120"><span class="smcap">Hints on the Reading of Shakespeare's +Plays—How to Master the Best of +These Dramas, the Finest of Modern +Work.</span></p></div> + + + +<p>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 +<i>Essays</i> and the <i>Novum Organum</i> wrote +<i>Hamlet</i> or <i>Othello</i> seem like midsummer +madness. As well ask one to believe that +Herbert Spencer wrote <i>Pippa Passes</i> or +<i>The Idyls of the King</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 315px;"><a name="Coverdale_Bible" id="Coverdale_Bible"></a> +<img src="images/coverdale_bible.jpg" width="315" height="500" alt="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" title="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" /> +<span class="caption">A Page from the Coverdale Bible<br /> +Being the First Complete English Bible<br /> +It was Tyndale's Translation Revised by Coverdale<br /> +It Bears Date of 1535, and Designs on the<br /> +Title Page are Attributed<br /> +to Holbein</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span></p> + +<p>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 <i>The Silent Woman</i> or Marlowe's +<i>Tamburlaine</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +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 <i>Faust</i>, whether in play or in opera, +has the same deathless grip on the sympathies +of an audience.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 389px;"><a name="Shakespeare_Chandos" id="Shakespeare_Chandos"></a> +<img src="images/shakespeare_chandos.jpg" width="389" height="500" alt="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" title="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" /> +<span class="caption">Chandos' Portrait of Shakespeare<br /> +so called because it was owned by the<br /> +Duke of Chandos—Probably<br /> +Painted after Death from Personal Description<br /> +The Original is in the National<br /> +Gallery, London</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>This close study of versification shows +that <i>Love's Labor's Lost</i> was probably +Shakespeare's first play, followed by <i>The +Comedy of Errors</i> and by several historical +plays. One year after his first rollicking +comedy appeared he produced <i>Romeo and +Juliet</i>, 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 <i>Midsummer +Night's Dream</i> and <i>The Merchant of +Venice</i>, and followed these with his greatest +comedies, <i>Much Ado About Nothing</i>, <i>Twelfth +Night</i> and <i>As You Like It</i>, the latter the +comedy which appeals most strongly to +modern readers and modern audiences.</p> + +<p>Then came a period in which Shakespeare's +world was somber, and his creative +genius found expression in the great tragedies—<i>Julius +Cæsar</i>, <i>Hamlet</i>, <i>Othello</i>, <i>King +Lear</i>, <i>Macbeth</i> and <i>Antony and Cleopatra</i>. +And finally we have the closing years of +production, in which he wrote three fine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +plays—<i>The Tempest</i>, <i>Cymbeline</i> and <i>The +Winter's Tale</i>.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Hamlet</i>, +the whole round of human life and passions +is reviewed. Whatever may be his woe or +his disappointment, no one goes to <i>Hamlet</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +without getting some response to his grief +or his despair.</p> + +<p>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. <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>, 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 <i>The Merchant of Venice</i>. +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +finally drive him to ruin. Then take up +a comedy like <i>As You Like It</i>, as restful to +the senses as fine music, and filled with +verse as tuneful and as varied as the singing +of a great artist.</p> + +<p>By this reading you will be prepared +for the supreme tragedies—each a masterpiece +without a superior in any literature. +These are <i>Hamlet</i>, <i>Othello</i>, <i>King Lear</i>, +<i>Julius Cæsar</i>, <i>Macbeth</i> and <i>Antony and Cleopatra</i>. +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 <i>Hamlet</i> 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, <i>Hamlet</i> +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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 320px;"><a name="Shakespeare_Home" id="Shakespeare_Home"></a> +<img src="images/shakespeare_home.jpg" width="320" height="500" alt="1. Shakespeare's Birthplace at +Stratford-on-Avon before the Restoration +which has Spoiled It +2. The Anne Hathaway Cottage" title="1. Shakespeare's Birthplace at +Stratford-on-Avon before the Restoration +which has Spoiled It +2. The Anne Hathaway Cottage" /> +<div class="caption"> +<p class="center">1. Shakespeare's Birthplace at +Stratford-on-Avon before the Restoration +which has Spoiled It</p> +<p class="center">2. The Anne Hathaway Cottage</p></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Macbeth</i> 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 <i>Macbeth</i>—it +is a revelation of the deeps of human +tragedy. <i>King Lear</i> is the tragedy of old +age, the same tragedy that Balzac drew in +<i>Le Pere Goriot</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>The real hero of <i>Julius Cæsar</i> 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. <i>Othello</i> 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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +because he wreaks his power over +others largely from a satanic delight in +showing his skill and resources in evil. As +a play <i>Othello</i> is the most perfectly constructed +of Shakespeare's works. Finally +in <i>Antony and Cleopatra</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Hamlet</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +are memories it is a delight to +recall.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="txt200"><span class="smcap">How to<br /> +Read the Ancient<br /> +Classics</span></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang txt120"><span class="smcap">Authors of Greece and Rome One +Should Know—Masterpieces of the +Ancient World that may be Enjoyed +in Good English Versions.</span></p></div> + + + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +have prevailed for a decade or two, only to +be dropped for new fashions in culture.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p> + +<p>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 <i>Dialogues</i> or Sophocles' <i>Œdipus</i>, +Homer's <i>Iliad</i> or Horace's <i>Odes</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>But over against this must be placed the +exceptions among men of literary genius +like Keats and Richard Jefferies, both Englishmen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +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 <i>Ode on a +Grecian Urn</i> and his <i>Endymion</i> 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 +<i>A Strayed Reveler</i> or <i>Empedocles on Etna</i>. +In the same way Jefferies, who is neglected +by readers of today, in <i>The Story of My +Heart</i> has reproduced ancient Rome and +made Julius Cæsar more real than we find +him in his own <i>Commentaries</i>.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 396px;"><a name="Homer" id="Homer"></a> +<img src="images/homer.jpg" width="396" height="500" alt="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"" title="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"" /> +<span class="caption">Bust of Homer in the Museum of Naples<br /> +Another Fine Bust is in the Louvre at Paris<br /> +but all are Idealized for the World<br /> +has no Authentic Records of the<br /> +Author of the<br /> +"Iliad" and the "Odyssey"</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p> + +<p>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 <i>Meditations</i> 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.</p> + +<p>At the head of the ancient classics stand +Homer's <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i> and Virgil's +<i>Æneid</i>. 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 <i>Iliad</i> +into the neat, heroic verse that suited so +well his own <i>Essay on Man</i> and his <i>Dunciad</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +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 <i>Iliad</i> +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 <i>Iliad</i> and the <i>Odyssey</i> is perhaps the +best version in print. The best metrical +translation of the <i>Æneid</i> 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 +<i>Iliad</i> and the <i>Odyssey</i> 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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 340px;"><a name="Virgil" id="Virgil"></a> +<img src="images/virgil.jpg" width="340" height="500" alt="Portrait of Virgil +Taken from a Bust by L. P. Boitard +and Engraved on Copper for the +Frontispiece of Warton's +Virgil, 1753" title="Portrait of Virgil +Taken from a Bust by L. P. Boitard +and Engraved on Copper for the +Frontispiece of Warton's +Virgil, 1753" /> +<span class="caption">Portrait of Virgil<br /> +Taken from a Bust by L. P. Boitard<br /> +and Engraved on Copper for the<br /> +Frontispiece of Warton's<br /> +Virgil, 1753</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +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 Æneas of Troy as +his hero and wrote his great national epic +of the founding of Rome.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Phædo</i> and read the pathetic +story of the last days of Socrates. Or get +the <i>Republic</i> 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.</p> + +<p>Of the great Greek dramatists read one +work of each—say, the <i>Antigone</i> of Sophocles, +the <i>Medea</i> of Euripides and the <i>Prometheus</i> +of Æschylus. 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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 317px;"><a name="Plato" id="Plato"></a> +<img src="images/plato.jpg" width="317" height="500" alt="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" title="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" /> +<span class="caption">Plato, after an Antique Bust<br /> +Plato Gave the World its Chief Knowledge<br /> +of Socrates and he also Anticipated<br /> +Many Modern Discoveries in<br /> +Science and Thought</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="txt200"><span class="smcap">The<br /> +Arabian Nights and<br /> +Other Classics</span></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang txt120"><span class="smcap">Oriental Fairy Tales and German +Legends—The Ancient Arabian Stories +and the Nibelungenlied Among +World's Greatest Books.</span></p></div> + + + +<p>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: <i>The Arabian +Nights</i>; <i>Don Quixote</i>, by Cervantes; <i>The +Divine Comedy</i>, by Dante; <i>The Imitation of +Christ</i>; <i>The Rubá'iyát of Omar Khayyám</i>, <i>St. +Augustine's Confessions</i>, and The <i>Nibelungenlied</i>.</p> + +<p>Other great books could be added to this +list, such as <i>Benvenuto Cellini's Autobiography</i>, +<i>Boccaccio's Tales</i>, the <i>Analects of Confucius</i> +and <i>Mahomet's Koran</i>. But these are +not among the books which one must read.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +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 <i>Arabian +Nights</i>, <i>Don Quixote</i> and Dante's <i>Divine +Comedy</i> 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. <i>The Arabian +Nights</i> 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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 283px;"><a name="Scheherezade" id="Scheherezade"></a> +<img src="images/scheherezade.jpg" width="283" height="600" alt="Edmund Dulac's Conception +of Queen Scheherezade, who told the +"Arabian Nights" Tales" title="Edmund Dulac's Conception +of Queen Scheherezade, who told the +"Arabian Nights" Tales" /> +<span class="caption">Edmund Dulac's Conception<br /> +of Queen Scheherezade, who told the<br /> +"Arabian Nights" Tales</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p> + +<p>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 <i>The Arabian +Nights</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>Today these Arabian tales and many +variants of <i>The Thousand and One Nights</i> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>The sources of the leading tales of <i>The +Arabian Nights</i> cannot be traced. Such +stories as <i>Sinbad the Sailor</i>, <i>Ali Baba and +the Forty Thieves</i> and <i>Aladdin or the Wonderful +Lamp</i> 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 <i>Aladdin</i> and <i>Ali Baba</i>.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 362px;"><a name="Jinnee" id="Jinnee"></a> +<img src="images/jinnee.jpg" width="362" height="500" alt="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"" title="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"" /> +<span class="caption">The Jinnee and the Merchant<br /> +A Vignette Woodcut by William Harvey in<br /> +the First Edition of Lane's Translation<br /> +which Still Remains the Best<br /> +English Version of The<br /> +"Arabian Nights"</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p> + +<p>The usual editions of <i>The Arabian +Nights</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>The Arabian +Nights</i> will always have a perennial charm,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +because these tales appeal to the imagination +that remains forever young.</p> + +<p>The great poem of German literature, +<i>The Nibelungenlied</i>, may be bracketed with +<i>The Arabian Nights</i>, 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." <i>The Nibelungenlied</i> has well been +called the German <i>Iliad</i>, and it is worthy +of this appellation, for it is the story of a +great crime and a still greater retribution.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>These tales that are told in <i>The Nibelungenlied</i> +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>Many variants there are of this epic in +the literature of Norway, Sweden and Iceland, +but <i>The Nibelungenlied</i> 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 <i>Siegfried</i>, +<i>The Valkyrie</i>, and <i>Gotterdammerung</i> +without receiving a profound impression of +the reality and the power of these old myths +and legends.</p> + +<p>Perhaps for most readers Carlyle's essay +on <i>The Nibelungenlied</i> 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 <i>Sigurd the Volsung</i> by +William Morris, told in sonorous measure +that never becomes monotonous. A good +prose translation has been made by Professor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="txt200"><span class="smcap">The<br /> +Confessions of<br /> +St. Augustine</span></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang txt120"><span class="smcap">An Eloquent Book of Religious Meditation—The +Ablest of Early Christian +Fathers Tells of His Youth, +His Friends and His Conversion.</span></p></div> + + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Great success or great failure, a crushing +grief or a disappointment that seems to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p><i>The Confessions of St. Augustine</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>This is the vital point and the one which +it seems to me explains why the <i>Confessions</i> +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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 343px;"><a name="St_Augustine" id="St_Augustine"></a> +<img src="images/augustine.jpg" width="343" height="500" alt="Portrait of St. Augustine +by the Famous Florentine Painter +Sandro Botticelli—The Original is in +the Ognissanti, Florence" title="Portrait of St. Augustine +by the Famous Florentine Painter +Sandro Botticelli—The Original is in +the Ognissanti, Florence" /> +<span class="caption">Portrait of St. Augustine<br /> +by the Famous Florentine Painter<br /> +Sandro Botticelli—The Original is in<br /> +the Ognissanti, Florence</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p> + +<p>For this reason it seems to me that any +one who wishes to cultivate St. Augustine +should begin by reading a chapter of the +<i>Confessions</i>. If you enjoy this, then it will +be well to take up the complete <i>Confessions</i>, +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 <i>Pamela</i> and <i>Cœlebs +in Search of a Wife</i> entertaining books of +fiction; but the reader of today pronounces +them too dull and too sentimental to read.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +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, +<i>What the Bible Means to Me</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Autobiography</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>It is this marvelous faith in God, which +is as real as the breath in his nostrils, that +makes St. Augustine's <i>Confessions</i> 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 322px;"><a name="La_Cite" id="La_Cite"></a> +<img src="images/la_cite.jpg" width="322" height="500" alt="A Page from +St. Augustine's "La Cite de Dieu" +which was Printed in Abbeville +France, in 1486" title="A Page from +St. Augustine's "La Cite de Dieu" +which was Printed in Abbeville +France, in 1486" /> +<span class="caption">A Page from<br /> +St. Augustine's "La Cite de Dieu"<br /> +which was Printed in Abbeville<br /> +France, in 1486</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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 <i>Confessions</i> will remain +the most popular, because it voices the cry +of a human heart and shows the human +side of a great churchman.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="txt200"><span class="smcap">Don Quixote<br /> +One of the World's<br /> +Great Books</span></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang txt120"><span class="smcap">Cervantes' Masterpiece a Book for All +Time—Intensely Spanish, it Still +Appeals to All Nations by its Deep +Human Interest.</span></p></div> + + + +<p>Among the great books of the world no +contrast could be greater than that +between St. Augustine's <i>Confessions</i> and +<i>Don Quixote</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Childe Harold</i>, 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 <i>Don Quixote</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 407px;"><a name="Cervantes" id="Cervantes"></a> +<img src="images/cervantes.jpg" width="407" height="500" alt="Portrait of Cervantes +from an Old Steel Engraving in a +Rare French Edition of +"Don Quixote"" title="Portrait of Cervantes +from an Old Steel Engraving in a +Rare French Edition of +"Don Quixote"" /> +<span class="caption">Portrait of Cervantes<br /> +from an Old Steel Engraving in a<br /> +Rare French Edition of<br /> +"Don Quixote"</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +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 <i>Don Quixote</i> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Don +Quixote</i>, points out that of all the great +English novelists Smollett was the only +one who did first-rate work while young. +<i>Humphrey Clinker</i> and <i>Roderick Random</i> are +little read in these days, but we have a noteworthy +instance of the great success of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +new English novelist when past sixty years +of age in William de Morgan, whose <i>Joseph +Vance</i> made him famous, and who has followed +this with no less than three great +novels: <i>Alice for Short</i>, <i>Somehow Good</i> and +<i>It Never Can Happen Again</i>. 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.</p> + +<p><i>Don Quixote</i> 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p> + +<p>Nationality in literature never had a +more striking example than is furnished by +<i>Don Quixote</i>. 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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 358px;"><a name="Don_Quixote" id="Don_Quixote"></a> +<img src="images/quixote.jpg" width="358" height="450" alt="Don Quixote Discoursing +to Sancho Panza in the Yard of the Inn which +the Knight Imagined was a Lordly Castle +From Gustave Doré's Illustrations +in the Clark Edition" title="Don Quixote Discoursing +to Sancho Panza in the Yard of the Inn which +the Knight Imagined was a Lordly Castle +From Gustave Doré's Illustrations +in the Clark Edition" /> +<span class="caption">Don Quixote Discoursing<br /> +to Sancho Panza in the Yard of the Inn which<br /> +the Knight Imagined was a Lordly Castle<br /> +From Gustave Doré's Illustrations<br /> +in the Clark Edition</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p> + +<p>No one can read <i>Don Quixote</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Don +Quixote</i> 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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="txt200"><span class="smcap">The<br /> +Imitation Of<br /> +Christ</span></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang txt120"><span class="smcap">Features of Great Work by Old +Thomas à Kempis—Meditations of a +Flemish Monk Which Have Not +Lost Their Influence in Five Hundred +Years.</span></p></div> + + + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 346px;"><a name="Kempis" id="Kempis"></a> +<img src="images/kempis.jpg" width="346" height="496" alt="Thomas à Kempis, the Frontispiece of an +edition of "The Imitation of Christ" published +by Suttaby and Company of London +Amen Corner, 1883" title="Thomas à Kempis, the Frontispiece of an +edition of "The Imitation of Christ" published +by Suttaby and Company of London +Amen Corner, 1883" /> +<span class="caption">Thomas à Kempis, the Frontispiece of an<br /> +edition of "The Imitation of Christ" published<br /> +by Suttaby and Company of London<br /> +Amen Corner, 1883</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>One of the smallest of the world's famous +books is <i>The Imitation of Christ</i> by Thomas +à 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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +it has always been a favorite book of meditation, +surpassing in its appeal the <i>Confessions +of St. Augustine</i>.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Thomas à 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>Thomas à Kempis drew most of the inspiration +for <i>The Imitation of Christ</i> 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 <i>Imitation</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +the most spiritual book of all the ages.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Imitation</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In every word of this book one feels the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>The <i>Imitation</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +desires. Here are a few passages of the +<i>Imitation</i>, selected at random, which will +serve to show the thought and style of the +book:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p></div> + +<p>Many famous writers have borne testimony +to the great influence of <i>The Imitation +of Christ</i> upon their spiritual development. +Matthew Arnold often refers to the +work of Thomas à Kempis, as do Ruskin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +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 <i>The Imitation of Christ</i> 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 <i>Imitation</i> is found in George +Eliot's novel, <i>The Mill on the Floss</i>. The +great novelist makes Maggie Tulliver find +in the family garret an old copy of the +<i>Imitation</i>. Then she says:</p> + +<p>"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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>Many editions of <i>The Imitation of Christ</i> +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 <i>Pocket Classics</i>, 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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="txt200"><span class="smcap">The<br /> +Rubá'iyát of Omar<br /> +Khayyám</span></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang txt120"><span class="smcap">Popularity of an Old Persian's Quatrains—Splendid +Oriental Imagery +Joined to Modern Doubt Found in +This Great Poem.</span></p></div> + + + +<p>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 <i>The Rubá'iyát +of Omar Khayyám</i>, 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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 362px;"><a name="Fitzgerald" id="Fitzgerald"></a> +<img src="images/fitzgerald.jpg" width="362" height="500" alt="The Best-Known Portrait of +Edward FitzGerald, Immortalized by his Version +of the "Rubá'iyát"—This Picture is from +a Steel Engraving of a Photograph of +"Old Fitz," the College Chum +and Lifelong Friend of +Thackeray and +Tennyson" title="The Best-Known Portrait of +Edward FitzGerald, Immortalized by his Version +of the "Rubá'iyát"—This Picture is from +a Steel Engraving of a Photograph of +"Old Fitz," the College Chum +and Lifelong Friend of +Thackeray and +Tennyson" /> +<span class="caption">The Best-Known Portrait of<br /> +Edward FitzGerald, Immortalized by his Version<br /> +of the "Rubá'iyát"—This Picture is from<br /> +a Steel Engraving of a Photograph of<br /> +"Old Fitz," the College Chum<br /> +and Lifelong Friend of<br /> +Thackeray and<br /> +Tennyson</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Omar Khayyám 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Omar became widely celebrated for his +scientific knowledge and his skill in mathematics, +and he formed one of the commission<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +that revised the Persian calendar. +His heretical opinions, shown in the <i>Rubá'iyát</i>, +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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +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 <i>Rubá'iyát</i>, then little known +even to scholars.</p> + +<p>The poem evidently made a profound +impression on FitzGerald and in 1858 he +gave the manuscript of his translation of +the <i>Rubá'iyát</i> 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 <i>Rubá'iyát</i>. 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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 291px;"><a name="Persian_Page" id="Persian_Page"></a> +<img src="images/persian_page.jpg" width="291" height="500" alt="A Page from an Ancient Persian +Manuscript Copy of the "Rubá'iyát" +with Miniatures in Color." title="A Page from an Ancient Persian +Manuscript Copy of the "Rubá'iyát" +with Miniatures in Color." /> +<span class="caption">A Page from an Ancient Persian<br /> +Manuscript Copy of the "Rubá'iyát"<br /> +with Miniatures in Color.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p> + +<p>The authorship of the <i>Rubá'iyát</i>, 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 <i>Agamemnon</i> of Æschylus, two +<i>Œdipus</i> dramas of Sophocles, and several +plays by Calderon, the great Spanish +dramatist.</p> + +<p>The <i>Rubá'iyát</i> is far longer than Gray's +<i>Elegy</i>, 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 <i>Rubá'iyát</i> 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 353px;"><a name="Rubaiyat" id="Rubaiyat"></a> +<img src="images/rubaiyat.jpg" width="353" height="500" alt="One of the Gilbert James +Illustrations of the "Rubá'iyát" taken +from an Edition Published by +Paul Elder and Company" title="One of the Gilbert James +Illustrations of the "Rubá'iyát" taken +from an Edition Published by +Paul Elder and Company" /> +<span class="caption">One of the Gilbert James<br /> +Illustrations of the "Rubá'iyát" taken<br /> +from an Edition Published by<br /> +Paul Elder and Company</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p> + +<p>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 Khayyám 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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Strange, is it not? that of the myriads who<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before us pass'd the door of Darkness through,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Not one returns to tell us of the Road<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which to discover we must travel too.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I sent my Soul through the Invisible,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some letter of that After-life to spell;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And by and by my Soul return'd to me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And answer'd "I Myself am Heav'n and Hell."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The best known quatrain of the <i>Rubá'iyát</i>, +the one which is always quoted as +typical of Omar's epicurean attitude toward +life, is this:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beside me singing in the Wilderness—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here we will take leave of Omar. His +<i>Rubá'iyát</i> is good to read because FitzGerald +has clothed his Oriental imagery<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +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 <i>Rubá'iyát</i>—a +series of memory-haunting pictures +that are as full of majesty and beauty as +the visions of the poet of Naishapur.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="txt200"><span class="smcap">The<br /> +Divine Comedy<br /> +by Dante</span></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang txt120"><span class="smcap">Influence of One of the World's +Great Books—The Exiled Florentine's +Poem Has Colored the Life +and Work of Many Famous Writers.</span></p></div> + + + +<p>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 +<i>Divine Comedy</i>, one of the greatest poems<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +of all ages and one of the tremendous +spiritual forces that has colored and shaped +and actually transformed many lives.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Divine Comedy</i> 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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 369px;"><a name="Dante" id="Dante"></a> +<img src="images/dante.jpg" width="369" height="500" alt="Portrait of Dante +by Giotto di Bondone" title="Portrait of Dante +by Giotto di Bondone" /> +<span class="caption">Portrait of Dante<br /> +by Giotto di Bondone</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p> + +<p>Yet in taking up the <i>Divine Comedy</i> 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:</p> + +<p>"To read a great poet in a translation is +like seeing the sun through smoked <span class="nowrap">glass. +* * * To</span> understand a <i>canzone</i> 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."</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +in 1844, just before the translator's death. +It is written in blank verse, easy and +melodious.</p> + +<p>To understand even an outline of the +<i>Divine Comedy</i> 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 <i>Vita Nuova</i>, or <i>New Life</i>, +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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +will be found the chief inspiration of +the <i>Divine Comedy</i>.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Divine Comedy</i> was completed +only a short time before Dante's +death, which occurred on September 14, +1321.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Æneid</i>, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +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 <i>Earthly Paradise</i>.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Earthly Paradise</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 331px;"><a name="Inferno" id="Inferno"></a> +<img src="images/inferno.jpg" width="331" height="500" alt="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" title="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" /> +<span class="caption">Page from "Dante's Inferno"<br /> +Printed by Nicolo Lorenzo near the<br /> +Close of the Fifteenth Century—The Volume<br /> +is Illustrated with Engravings on Copper by<br /> +Baldini and Botticelli</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Carlyle said of him: "True souls in all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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 <i>Divine Comedy</i> 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:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O star of morning and of liberty!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O bringer of the light, whose splendor shines<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Above the darkness of the Apennines,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Forerunner of the day that is to be!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The voices of the city and the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The voices of the mountains and the pines,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Repeat thy song, till the familiar lines<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Are footpaths for the thought of Italy!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy fame is blown abroad from all the heights,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Through all the nations, and a sound is heard,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As of a mighty wind, and men devout,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strangers of Rome, and the new proselytes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In their own language hear thy wondrous word,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And many are amazed and many doubt.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="txt200"><span class="smcap">How to<br /> +Get the Best Out<br /> +of Books</span></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang txt120"><span class="smcap">Is the Higher Education an Absolute +<span class="nowrap">Necessity?—Desire</span> to Gain Knowledge +and Culture Will Make One +Master of All the Best Books.</span></p></div> + + + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"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?</p> + +<p>"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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p></div> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p> + +<p>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 <i>Hamlet</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="txt200"><span class="smcap">Milton's<br /> +Paradise Lost and<br /> +Other Poems</span></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang txt120"><span class="smcap">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.</span></p></div> + + + +<p>In beginning with the great books of the +modern world two works stand out in +English literature as preëminent, ranking +close to the Bible in popular regard for +nearly four hundred years. These are +Milton's <i>Paradise Lost</i> and Bunyan's <i>Pilgrim's +Progress</i>. 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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 378px;"><a name="Milton" id="Milton"></a> +<img src="images/milton.jpg" width="378" height="500" alt="Portrait of Milton +after the Original Crayon Drawing from +Life by William Faithorne at +Bayfordbury, Herts" title="Portrait of Milton +after the Original Crayon Drawing from +Life by William Faithorne at +Bayfordbury, Herts" /> +<span class="caption">Portrait of Milton<br /> +after the Original Crayon Drawing from<br /> +Life by William Faithorne at<br /> +Bayfordbury, Herts</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p> + +<p>Milton's fame rests mainly on his <i>Paradise +Lost</i> 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 <i>L'Allegro</i> and <i>Il Penseroso</i>, +and in the perfect masque of <i>Comus</i>.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The noblest of these papers is that plea +for the liberty of a free press which is +buried under the long Greek name, <i>Areopagitica</i>. +It contains some of the finest +passages in defense of freedom of thought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Paradise Lost</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Milton_Daughters" id="Milton_Daughters"></a> +<img src="images/milton_daughters.jpg" width="500" height="408" alt="Milton Dictating to His +Daughters—After an +Engraving by W. C. Edwards +from the Famous Painting +by Romney" title="Milton Dictating to His +Daughters—After an +Engraving by W. C. Edwards +from the Famous Painting +by Romney" /> +<span class="caption">Milton Dictating to His<br /> +Daughters—After an<br /> +Engraving by W. C. Edwards<br /> +from the Famous Painting<br /> +by Romney</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span></p> + +<p>Some present-day critics of Milton's +<i>Paradise Lost</i> 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.</p> + +<p>Milton's style in <i>Paradise Lost</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">High on a throne of royal state, which far<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Satan exalted sat.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Through many a dark and dreary vale<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They passed, and many a region dolorous,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens and shades of death—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A universe of death, which God by curse<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Created evil, for evil only good;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Abominable, inutterable and worse<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than fables yet have feigned or fear conceived,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimæras dire.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>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, <i>L'Allegro</i> and <i>Il Penseroso</i>, +the fine <i>Hymn to the Nativity</i>, and the +mournful cadences of <i>Lycidas</i>, 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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When I consider how my light is spent<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And that one talent which is death to hide<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To serve therewith my Maker and present<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My true account, lest He returning chide,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And post o'er land and ocean without rest;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">They also serve who only stand and wait."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> +<h2 class="txt200"><span class="smcap">Pilgrim's<br /> +Progress the Finest of<br /> +All Allegories</span></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang txt120"><span class="smcap">Bunyan's Story Full of the Spirit +of the Bible—The Simple Tale of +Christian's Struggles and Triumph +Appeals to Old and Young.</span></p></div> + + + +<p>No contrast could be greater than that +between Milton and John Bunyan +unless it be the contrast between their +masterpieces, <i>Paradise Lost</i> and <i>Pilgrim's +Progress</i>. 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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 383px;"><a name="Bunyan" id="Bunyan"></a> +<img src="images/bunyan.jpg" width="383" height="500" alt="Portrait of John Bunyan +after the Oil Painting by +Sadler" title="Portrait of John Bunyan +after the Oil Painting by +Sadler" /> +<span class="caption">Portrait of John Bunyan<br /> +after the Oil Painting by<br /> +Sadler</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p> + +<p>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 <i>Book of Martyrs</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Grace Abounding</i>, a highly colored +autobiography in which he is represented +as the chief of sinners, driven to +repentance by the power of God. The fact<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +is that he was a very fine young Puritan +and his only offense lay in his propensity +to profane swearing.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Pilgrim's Progress</i> and wrote most of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +book, although it was three years after his +release before the volume was finally in +form for publication.</p> + +<p>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, <i>The Holy War</i>, but none of +these approached the <i>Pilgrim's Progress</i> +in popularity.</p> + +<p>When one takes up the <i>Pilgrim's Progress</i> +in these days it is always with something +of the same feeling that the book +inspired in childhood. Then it ranked with +the <i>Arabian Nights</i> 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 <i>Ivanhoe</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 303px;"><a name="Progress" id="Progress"></a> +<img src="images/progress_page.jpg" width="303" height="500" alt="Facsimile of the +Title Page of the First Edition of +"The Pilgrim's Progress"" title="Facsimile of the +Title Page of the First Edition of +"The Pilgrim's Progress"" /> +<span class="caption">Facsimile of the<br /> +Title Page of the First Edition of<br /> +"The Pilgrim's Progress"</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Pilgrim's Progress</i> +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:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"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."</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span></p> + +<p>And here is a part of Bunyan's description +of the fight between Apollyon and +Christian in the Valley of Humiliation:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"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 <span class="nowrap">soul.' * * * In</span> 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."</p></div> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="txt200"><span class="smcap">Old<br /> +Dr. Johnson and<br /> +His Boswell</span></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang txt120"><span class="smcap">His Great Fame Due to His Admirer's +Biography—Boswell's Work Makes +the Doctor the Best Known Literary +Man of His Age.</span></p></div> + + + +<p>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 <i>Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire</i> +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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 391px;"><a name="Johnson_Portrait" id="Johnson_Portrait"></a> +<img src="images/johnson_portrait.jpg" width="391" height="500" alt="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"" title="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"" /> +<span class="caption">Portrait of Dr. Johnson<br /> +from the Original Picture by<br /> +Sir Joshua Reynolds owned by Boswell<br /> +This Engraving formed the Frontispiece of<br /> +the First Edition<br /> +of Boswell's Famous "Life"</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p> + +<p>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. +<i>The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell +Esquire</i> 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 <i>Boswell's Johnson</i>. Though +written over a hundred years ago, it still +stands unrivaled among the world's great +biographies.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 411px;"><a name="Boswell" id="Boswell"></a> +<img src="images/boswell.jpg" width="411" height="500" alt="Portrait of James Boswell +after a Painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds +Engraved by E. Finden" title="Portrait of James Boswell +after a Painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds +Engraved by E. Finden" /> +<span class="caption">Portrait of James Boswell<br /> +after a Painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds<br /> +Engraved by E. Finden</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>His first literary hit was made with a +poem, <i>London</i>, and this was followed by the +<i>Life of Richard Savage</i>, in which he told of +the miseries of the writer without regular +employment. Next followed his finest +poem, <i>The Vanity of Human Wishes</i>. Then +Johnson started a weekly paper, <i>The Rambler</i>, +in imitation of <i>The Spectator</i>, and ran +it regularly for about two years. For some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +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 +£300 a year, and after that he lived in +comparative comfort. The best literary +work of his later years was his <i>Lives of the +Poets</i>, which extended to ten volumes.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 338px;"><a name="Johnson_Life" id="Johnson_Life"></a> +<img src="images/johnson_life.jpg" width="338" height="500" alt="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" title="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" /> +<span class="caption">Facsimile of the<br /> +Title Page of the First Edition of Boswell's<br /> +"Life of Samuel Johnson"—This Has<br /> +Proved to be the Most Popular<br /> +Biography in the English<br /> +Language</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p> + +<p>The best idea of Dr. Johnson's verse +may be gained from <i>London</i> and <i>The Vanity +of Human Wishes</i>. 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. <i>The Lives of the Poets</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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 £10. 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +bit of Dr. Johnson's incisive sarcasm in +the famous letter to the selfish nobleman:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Of Boswell's <i>Life of Dr. Johnson</i> 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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Johnson_Painting" id="Johnson_Painting"></a> +<img src="images/johnson_painting.jpg" width="500" height="407" alt="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" title="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" /> +<span class="caption">Painting by Eyre Crowe<br /> +of Dr. Johnson, Boswell and<br /> +Goldsmith at the Mitre<br /> +Tavern, Fleet Street<br /> +the Scene of many Word<br /> +Combats between the Doughty<br /> +Doctor and His<br /> +Associates</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="txt200"><span class="smcap">Robinson<br /> +Crusoe and Gulliver's<br /> +Travels</span></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang txt120"><span class="smcap">Masterpieces of Defoe and Swift +Widely Read—Two Writers of Genius +Whose Stories Have Delighted +Readers for Hundreds of Years.</span></p></div> + + + +<p>Two famous books that seem to follow +naturally after <i>Pilgrim's Progress</i> are +Defoe's <i>Robinson Crusoe</i> and Swift's <i>Gulliver's +Travels</i>. 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 <i>Robinson Crusoe</i>. 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 <i>Robinson Crusoe</i> 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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 366px;"><a name="Defoe" id="Defoe"></a> +<img src="images/defoe.jpg" width="366" height="498" alt="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" title="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" /> +<span class="caption">Portrait of Daniel Defoe<br /> +from an Old Steel Engraving—Defoe's<br /> +Genius for Secrecy Effectually Destroyed<br /> +Most Material for His Biography<br /> +and even this Portrait is<br /> +not Authentic</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +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 <i>The Spectator</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>The English-reading public was captured +by <i>Robinson Crusoe</i>. 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 <i>Duncan +Campbell</i>, <i>Captain Singleton</i> and <i>Memoirs +of a Cavalier</i>. 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 <i>Memoirs</i> are noteworthy for +splendid descriptions of fights between +Roundheads and Cavaliers, and <i>Captain +Singleton</i> 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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 366px;"><a name="Crusoe" id="Crusoe"></a> +<img src="images/crusoe.jpg" width="366" height="450" alt="Illustration of "Robinson Crusoe" +by George Cruikshank which serves as a +Frontispiece to Major's Edition of +Defoe's Romance, 1831" title="Illustration of "Robinson Crusoe" +by George Cruikshank which serves as a +Frontispiece to Major's Edition of +Defoe's Romance, 1831" /> +<span class="caption">Illustration of "Robinson Crusoe"<br /> +by George Cruikshank which serves as a<br /> +Frontispiece to Major's Edition of<br /> +Defoe's Romance, 1831</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p> + +<p>Defoe's other works are <i>Moll Flanders</i>, +<i>Colonel Jack</i>, <i>Roxana</i>, and <i>Journal of the +Plague Year</i>. 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 <i>Diary</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 326px;"><a name="Gulliver_Portrait" id="Gulliver_Portrait"></a> +<img src="images/gulliver_portrait.jpg" width="326" height="500" alt="Frontispiece to the +First Edition of "Gulliver's Travels" +a Portrait Engraved in Copper of +Captain Lemuel Gulliver +of Redriff" title="Frontispiece to the +First Edition of "Gulliver's Travels" +a Portrait Engraved in Copper of +Captain Lemuel Gulliver +of Redriff" /> +<span class="caption">Frontispiece to the<br /> +First Edition of "Gulliver's Travels"<br /> +a Portrait Engraved in Copper of<br /> +Captain Lemuel Gulliver<br /> +of Redriff</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p> + +<p>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 <i>Robinson Crusoe</i>. +As Defoe is known mainly by his story of +the island castaway, so Swift is known by +his bitter satire, <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>There he was associated with Esther +Johnson, a poor relation of Temple's who +later became the Stella who inspired his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +journal. Swift, through the influence of +Temple, hoped to get political preferment, +but though he wrote many pamphlets and +a strong satire in verse, <i>The Tale of a Tub</i>, +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 275px;"><a name="Gulliver_Page" id="Gulliver_Page"></a> +<img src="images/gulliver_tpage.jpg" width="275" height="500" alt="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"" title="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"" /> +<span class="caption">Facsimile of the Title Page<br /> +of the First Edition of "Gulliver's Travels"<br /> +Issued in 1726, which Scored As Great<br /> +a Popular Success As Defoe's<br /> +"Robinson Crusoe"</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p> + +<p>In <i>Gulliver's Travels</i> 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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="txt200"><i>Bibliography</i></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang txt120"><i>Notes on the Historical and Best Reading +Editions of Great Authors.</i></p></div> + + +<p><i>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.</i></p> + +<p><i>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</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +<i>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.</i></p> + +<p><i>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.</i></p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p class="section txt150">THE BIBLE</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +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 coöperation 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Of famous manuscript Bibles may be named the +Codex Alexandrinus, presented by the Sultan of Turkey<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +to Charles II of England, and the Codex Sinaiticus, +discovered in a monastery on Mount Sinai by the great +Hebrew scholar, Tischendorf.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>One of the best Bibles for ordinary use is <i>The +Modern Reader's Bible</i>, 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.)</p> + +<p><i>The Soul of the Bible</i> (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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +is the best means of culture of spirit and mind that the +world affords.</p> + + +<p class="section txt150">SHAKESPEARE</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Four folio editions were brought out in all, the last +in 1685.</p> + +<p>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).</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The best biography of Shakespeare is by Sydney +Lee, in a single volume, <i>A Life of Shakespeare</i>. (New +York: The Macmillan Company.)</p> + +<p>Other interesting books that deal with the playwright +and his plays are <i>Shakespeare's London</i>, by H. T. +Stephenson; <i>The Development of Shakespeare as a +Dramatist</i>, by George Pierce Baker; <i>Shakespeare</i>, by +E. Dowden; <i>Shakespeare Manual</i>, by F. L. Fleay; +<i>The Text of Shakespeare</i>, by Thomas R. Lounsbury; +<i>Shakespearean Tragedy</i>, by A. C. Bradley, and <i>An Introduction +to Shakespeare</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>A valuable book for the reader who cannot grasp +readily the story of a Shakespeare play is <i>Stories of +Shakespeare's Comedies</i>, by H. A. Guerber. (New +York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1910.) The best +book for the plots is Charles and Mary Lamb's <i>Tales +from Shakespeare</i>.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Shakespeare-Bacon controversy was first touched +upon by J. C. Hart in <i>The Romance of Yachting</i>, +issued in New York in 1848. Seven years later W. +H. Smith came out with a work, <i>Was Bacon the +Author of Shakespeare's Plays?</i> In 1857 Delia Bacon +wrote the <i>Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded</i>. +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.</p> + + +<p class="section txt150">GREEK AND ROMAN CLASSICS</p> + +<p>The versions of Homer's <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i> are +numerous but most readers who do not know Greek +prefer the prose rendering of the <i>Iliad</i> by Lang, Leaf +and Myers and the prose version of the <i>Odyssey</i> 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.</p> + +<p>For supplementary reading on Homer these works +will be found valuable: Jebb, <i>Introduction to Homer</i> +(Glasgow, 1887); Matthew Arnold, <i>Lectures on +Translating Homer</i>; Andrew Lang, <i>Homer and the</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +<i>Epic</i> (London, 1893); Seymour, <i>Introduction to the +Language and Verse of Homer</i> (Boston, 1889); Professor +J. P. Mahaffy's books on ancient Greece and +Greek life will be found helpful.</p> + +<p>Virgil's <i>Æneid</i> 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.</p> + +<p>Jowett's translation is the standard English version +of Plato, while good sidelights on the author of the +<i>Republic</i> and <i>Phædo</i> may be gained from Emerson's +essay on Plato in <i>Representative Men</i> and from Walter +Pater's <i>Plato and Platonism</i>.</p> + +<p>Professor A. J. Church's <i>The Story of the Iliad</i> and +<i>The Story of the Æneid</i> while intended for the young +will appeal to many mature readers.</p> + +<p>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, <i>Odes and Epodes</i> (London, 1865); Lord +Lytton, <i>Odes and Epodes</i> (London, 1869), and Sargent, +<i>Odes</i> (Boston, 1893); supplementary matter may +be found in Sellar's <i>Horace and the Elegiac Poets</i> +(Oxford, 1892).</p> + +<p>Short sketches and critical estimates of all the great +Greek and Latin writers may be found in <i>The New +International Encyclopedia</i> (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.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="section txt150">THE ARABIAN NIGHTS</p> + +<p>The exact title is <i>The Book of the Thousand and +One Nights</i>. It contains two hundred and sixty-two +tales, although the original edition omits one of the +most famous, the story of <i>Aladdin and the Wonderful +Lamp</i>. 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 <i>The Arabian +Nights</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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, <i>The Scented Garden</i>, +but Lady Burton, who was made his executrix, +although offered £25,000 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.</p> + +<p>Another noteworthy unexpurgated translation was +by John Payne, prepared for the Villon Society, and +issued in 1882-1884.</p> + +<p>The best English translation is by E. W. Lane, an +English Orientalist, whose notes are valuable. The +editions of <i>The Arabian Nights</i> are endless, and many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> +famous artists have given the world their conception of +the principal characters in these Arabian wonder stories.</p> + + +<p class="section txt150">THE NIBELUNGENLIED</p> + +<p><i>The Nibelungenlied</i> 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 <i>Klage</i>, a poem describing the mourning at King +Etzel's Court over the famous heroes who fell to satisfy +the vengeance of Kriemhild.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>The Nibelungenlied</i> +was seriously studied. Partsch, a German +critic, developed the theory that <i>The Nibelungenlied</i> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +Morris' <i>Sigurd the Volsung</i> is derived from a prose +paraphrase of the Edda songs.</p> + +<p>Many English versions of <i>The Nibelungenlied</i> have +been made but most of them are harsh. Carlyle's summary +of the epic in his <i>Miscellanies</i> is the most satisfactory +for the general reader. A good prose version of +<i>The Nibelungenlied</i> 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.)</p> + +<p>William Morris has made fine renderings in verse of +portions of <i>The Nibelungenlied</i> but he has drawn much +of his material from the kindred Norse legends. Two +translations into English verse are those of W. N. Lettson, +<i>The Fall of the Nibelungen</i> (London, 1874), and +of Alice Harnton, <i>The Lay of the Nibelungs</i> (London, +1898).</p> + +<p>A complete bibliography of works in English dealing +with <i>The Nibelungenlied</i> may be found in F. E. Sandbach's +<i>The Nibelungenlied and Gudrun in England +and America</i> (London, 1904).</p> + +<p>Other books dealing with <i>The Nibelungenlied</i> are +F. H. Hedge, <i>Hours With the German Classics</i> (Boston, +1886); G. T. Dippold, <i>The Great Epics of +Mediæval Germany</i> (Boston, 1882); G. H. Genung, +<i>The Nibelungenlied</i> in Warner's <i>Library of the World's +Best Literature</i>, Volume xviii (New York, 1897).</p> + + +<p class="section txt150">THE CONFESSIONS OF +ST. AUGUSTINE</p> + +<p>The first translation of the <i>Confessions</i> to gain general +circulation was in Dr. Pusey's <i>Library of the +Fathers</i> (Oxford, 1839-1855). Pusey admits his +edition is merely a version of W. Watts' version, originally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +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 <i>Augustine's +Confessions</i> and those of Rousseau.</p> + +<p>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 <i>The +Catholic Encyclopedia</i> (Robert Appleton Company, +New York, 1907). It is written by Eugene Portalie, +S. J., Professor of Theology at the Catholic Institute +of Toulouse, France.</p> + + +<p class="section txt150">CERVANTES' "DON QUIXOTE"</p> + +<p><i>Don Quixote</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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 +<i>Don Quixote</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>A standard <i>Life of Cervantes</i> is that by T. Roscoe, +London, 1839. H. E. Watts has written a fine monograph<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +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 <i>Don Quixote</i>, the translation by Motteux. +This introduction makes thirty pages and gives enough +facts for the general reader, with a good estimate of +<i>Don Quixote</i> and Cervantes' other works.</p> + + +<p class="section txt150">THE IMITATION OF CHRIST</p> + +<p>The early editions of Thomas à 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 à Kempis in three volumes were issued by this +same editor in 1615.</p> + +<p>The first English version of the <i>Imitation</i> 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.</p> + +<p>Some of the best articles on Thomas à Kempis are +to be found in <i>The Catholic Encyclopedia</i> and <i>The +Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Thought</i>.</p> + +<p>There has been much controversy over the authorship +of <i>The Imitation of Christ</i>, but the weight of evidence +is conclusive that Thomas à Kempis was the +writer of this book, which has preserved his name for +five hundred years. The book was issued anonymously<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +and some manuscript copies of it bore the name of St. +Bernard and others that of John Gerson. As Thomas +à Kempis spent most of his life copying sacred books it +was assumed that he had merely copied the text of +another monk's work.</p> + +<p>A Spanish student in 1604 found a sentence from +the <i>Imitation</i> 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 <i>Imitation</i> the Superior of the Jesuit College +at Arona, Father Rossignoli, found an undated +copy of the <i>Imitation</i> 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 <i>Imitation</i> 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 <i>Imitation</i> 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 <i>Imitation</i>.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +Hilton, an English monk; John Gerson, Chancellor of +Paris; John Gerson, Abbot of Vercelli, and Thomas à +Kempis.</p> + +<p>What would seem to be conclusive evidence that +Thomas à Kempis was the author is the fact that the +<i>Imitation</i> was written for chanting. Carl Hirsche compared +the manuscript copy of the <i>Imitation</i> of 1441 +which he found in the Bourgogne Library in Brussels +with other writings of Thomas à Kempis, also marked +for chanting, and found great similarity between the +<i>Imitation</i> and the works admitted to have been written +by Thomas à Kempis.</p> + +<p>The <i>Imitation</i> 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 +à 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 <i>Imitation</i>, opened it +at random and always found something which settled +her doubts and gave her comfort.</p> + + +<p class="section txt150">THE RUBÁ'IYÁT</p> + +<p>Edward FitzGerald's version of the <i>Rubá'iyát</i> 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 <i>Rubá'iyát of Omar +Khayyám</i> (Boston, 1896) gives a fairly complete bibliography +of manuscripts, editions, translations and imitations +of the Quatrains.</p> + +<p>Five hundred quatrains from the original Persian, +translated metrically by E. H. Whinfield, were issued<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> +in London, 1883, while Payne made a poetical translation, +reproducing all the metrical eccentricities of the +original Persian, which he called "<i>The Quatrains of +Omar Khayyám</i>, 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 <i>The Rubá'iyát of Omar +Khayyám</i>: A Facsimile of the Manuscript in the Bodleian +Library, Translated and Edited (Boston, 1898).</p> + +<p>One of the best editions of the <i>Rubá'iyát</i> 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).</p> + +<p>Another excellent edition of FitzGerald's final version, +issued by Paul Elder & Company, is edited by +Arthur Guiterman and contains <i>The Literal Omar</i>, +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.</p> + + +<p class="section txt150">DANTE'S "DIVINE COMEDY"</p> + +<p>The best known English translation of the <i>Divine +Comedy</i> 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 <i>terza rima</i> of the +original.</p> + +<p>A mass of commentary on Dante has been issued of +which only a few noteworthy books can be mentioned +here. Among these are Botta, <i>Introduction to the Study +of Dante</i> (London, 1887); Maria Francesca Rossetti,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +<i>A Shadow of Dante</i> (London, 1884); Butler, +<i>Dante: His Times and His Work</i> (London, 1895); +Symonds, <i>Introduction to the Study of Dante</i> (Edinburgh, +1890); Lowell, <i>Among My Books</i>, one of the +finest essays on the great poet and his work (Boston, +1880); Macaulay, <i>Essays</i>, Vol. I; Carlyle in <i>Heroes +and Hero Worship</i>.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<p class="section txt150">MILTON'S "PARADISE LOST," +AND OTHER POEMS</p> + +<p>The first edition of Milton's <i>Paradise Lost</i>, 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 £10. <i>Paradise Regained</i> +was first printed with <i>Samson Agonistes</i> in 1671.</p> + +<p>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 <i>English +Men of Letters Series</i> (New York, 1880). Another +good short sketch is in Richard Garnett's volume in +<i>Great Writers' Series</i> (London, 1890).</p> + +<p>One of the best editions of Milton's <i>Prose Works</i> is +in the Bohn Library, five volumes, edited by St. John.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>The Poetical Works</i>, edited by Masson, appeared in +1890 in three volumes. Buching of Oxford issued in +1900 reprints of the first editions under the title, +<i>Poetical Works After the Original Texts</i>.</p> + +<p>Among famous essays on Milton may be named +those by Dr. Johnson, Macaulay, Lowell and Trent. +Dr. Hiram Corson's <i>Introduction to Milton's Works</i> +will be found valuable, as will also Osgood's <i>The Classical +Mythology of Milton's English Poems</i>. In Hale's +<i>Longer English Poems</i> there are chapters on Milton +which are full of good suggestions.</p> + + +<p class="section txt150">BUNYAN'S +"PILGRIM'S PROGRESS"</p> + +<p>The <i>Pilgrim's Progress</i>, 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 <i>Pilgrim's Progress</i> appeared in 1684.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Pilgrim's +Progress</i> is <i>The Holy War</i>, <i>The Holy City</i>, <i>Grace +Abounding in the Chief of Sinners</i>, <i>The Life and Death +of Mr. Badman</i>.</p> + +<p>The best short life of Bunyan is that by James +Anthony Froude in <i>English Men of Letters Series</i> +(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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="section txt150">BOSWELL'S JOHNSON</p> + +<p>The first edition of <i>Boswell's Johnson</i> 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 <i>Evelina</i>, 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 +<i>Essay on Boswell's Johnson</i> is one of the best pen +pictures of the old Doctor and his biographer that has +ever been written.</p> + +<p>Percy Fitzgerald's <i>Life of Boswell</i> (London, 1891) +is good and Rogers' <i>Boswelliana</i> gives many anecdotes +of the writer of the best biography in the language. +<i>Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Thrale</i>, 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).<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="section txt150">ROBINSON CRUSOE</p> + +<p>The first edition of <i>Robinson Crusoe</i> 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, <i>The +Original London Post</i> or <i>Heathcote's Intelligencer</i>. +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.</p> + +<p>In 1720 Defoe brought out <i>Serious Reflections During +the Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, with +His Vision of the Angelic World</i>. This was poorly +received, although it has since been included in many +of the editions of this story.</p> + +<p>Of the making of editions of <i>Robinson Crusoe</i> 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.</p> + +<p>A fine edition of <i>Robinson Crusoe</i> in two volumes +was issued by Houghton Mifflin Company of Boston +in 1908, with illustrations from designs by Thomas +Stothard.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Masterpieces of Defoe</i>, issued by the Macmillan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +Company in a series of prose masterpieces of great +authors.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"There are few books one can read through and through so,<br /></span> +<span class="i1h">With new delight, either on wet or dry day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0h">As that which chronicles the acts of Crusoe,<br /></span> +<span class="i1h">And the good faith and deeds of his man Friday."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="section txt150">GULLIVER'S TRAVELS</p> + +<p>Swift foretold very accurately the great vogue that +<i>Gulliver's Travels</i> would have. In writing to Arbuthnot +he said: "I will make over all my profits (in a +certain work) for the property of <i>Gulliver's Travels</i> +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +at first, but now it will go off but soberly, but I suppose +will not be soon worn out."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>English +Men of Letters Series</i>.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="txt200">Index</h2> + + + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Addison, Joseph</span>, suggestion of the <i>Spectator</i> +given by Defoe, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Agamemnon, The</span>, FitzGerald's version, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Æneid, The</span>, features of great Latin epic, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Æschylus</span>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Alcott, A. Bronson</span>, introduced Emerson to German +philosophy, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Analects of Confucius</span>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Antigone</span>, the greatest of Sophocles' tragedies, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Antony and Cleopatra</span>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Apollyon</span>, his famous fight with Christian, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Arabian Nights</span>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>-<a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Arnold, Matthew</span>, his imitation of Greek lyrics, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>; +<ul class="sub"><li>his fondness for <i>The Imitation of Christ</i>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Areopagitica, The</span>, one of Milton's finest prose +works, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li></ul> + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Baconian Theory</span>, its absurdity, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Balzac</span>, <i>Le Pere Goriot</i>, a study of a father's +unselfish sacrifices, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Bible, The</span>, <a href="#Page_xx">xx</a>: <a href="#Page_9">9</a>-<a href="#Page_13">13</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Comfort in time of sorrow, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> +<li> Culture from study of it, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li> +<li> Greatness compared with other books, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li> +<li> Men who formed their style on it, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li> +<li> <i>Soul of the Bible, The</i>, a fine condensation of the Scriptures, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li> +<li> Zophar's words to Job, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Boccaccio's Tales</span>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Bohn's Translations</span>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Booth, Edwin</span>, his magnificent interpretation of +Hamlet, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.<span class="pagenumidx"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Boswell, James</span>, his <i>Life of Dr. Johnson</i>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Brobdingnag</span>, the land of giants in Swift's <i>Gulliver's +Travels</i>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Brunhilde</span>, one of the heroines of <i>The Nibelungenlied</i>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Bryant, William Cullen</span>, his metrical version of the +<i>Iliad</i> and the <i>Odyssey</i>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Bunyan, John</span>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Biography, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>-<a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li> +<li> Comparison between Bunyan and Milton, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li> +<li> <i>Holy War, The</i>, a good allegory, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li> +<li> Life in Bedford jail, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li> +<li> Saturated with the Bible, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Burton, Sir Richard</span>, his unexpurgated edition of the +<i>Arabian Nights</i>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Byron, Lord</span>, epigram on Cervantes, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li></ul> + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Calderon</span>, FitzGerald's version of several plays of, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Captain Singleton</span>, one of Defoe's romances dealing with +African adventure, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Carlyle, Thomas</span>, Essay on the <i>Nibelungenlied</i>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Essay on <i>Boswell's Johnson</i>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> +<li> Tribute to Dante, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Cervantes</span>, his adventurous career, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>-<a href="#Page_60">60</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Life at Rome, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> +<li> Wounded at Lepanto, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> +<li> Wrote <i>Don Quixote</i> at age of fifty-eight, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Chesterfield, Lord</span>, Dr. Johnson dedicated his Dictionary to him, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Johnson's bitter satirical letter to him as patron, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Childe Harold</span>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Cicero</span>, eloquence in his letters, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Cleopatra</span>, pictured by Shakespeare as the greatest siren of history, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Colonel Jack</span>, an entertaining picaresque romance by Defoe, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Comedies of Shakespeare</span>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Comte, Auguste</span>, made the <i>Imitation</i> part of his Positivist +ritual, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.<span class="pagenumidx"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Confessions of St. Augustine, The</span>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>-<a href="#Page_55">55</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Influence on Churchmen, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> +<li> Reveals marvelous faith in God, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Corson, Professor Hiram</span>, a great interpreter of Shakespeare, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Cranch, Christopher P.</span>, author of one of the best metrical versions +of the <i>Æneid</i>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Culture</span>, not confined to college graduates, <a href="#Page_xix">xix</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> An old sea captain's self culture, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li></ul></li></ul> + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Dante</span>, biography, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> His <i>Divine Comedy</i> one of the world's great books, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li> +<li> Love of Beatrice his chief inspiration, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Defoe, Daniel</span>, biography, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> <i>Robinson Crusoe</i> his greatest work, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li> +<li> <i>Colonel Jack</i>, <i>Moll Flanders</i>, <i>Roxana</i>, <i>Captain Singleton</i>, +<i>Memoirs of a Cavalier</i>, <i>Duncan Campbell</i> and <i>Journal of the Plague Year</i>, +his other best known works, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> +<li> One of the greatest of pamphleteers, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> +<li> Secrecy about life puzzle to biographers, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> +<li> Style formed on study of the Bible, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">De Morgan, William</span>, took up authorship at sixty, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">De Quincey, Thomas</span>, his distinction between the literature +of power and the literature of knowledge, <a href="#Page_x">x</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> His style full of Biblical phrases, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Derby, Earl of</span>, blank verse translation of the <i>Iliad</i>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Dickens, Charles</span>, novelist who gained fame in youth, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Divine Comedy</span>, influence on great poets and prose writers, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Inspiration of Mazzini and New Italy, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li> +<li> Mirrors the Italy of Dante's day, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li> +<li> One of the greatest of the world's poems, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<span class="pagenumidx"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span></li> +<li> Tributes by Carlyle, Lowell and Longfellow, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Don John of Austria</span>, leader under whom Cervantes fought against +Moslems, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Don Quixote</span>, character of hero, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Greatest book in Spanish literature, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> +<li> Mirrors Spanish life and character, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li> +<li> Written in prison, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Dryden, John</span>, his verse, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Duncan Campbell</span>, a story of second sight, by Defoe, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Dumas, Alexandre</span>, the elder, his remarkable literary development, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li></ul> + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Eliot, Dr. Charles W.</span>, his "five-foot shelf of books," <a href="#Page_xix">xix</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Eliot, George</span>, her tribute to Thomas à Kempis, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Elizabethan Age</span>, its richness in great writers, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Emerson, Ralph Waldo</span>, Essays mosaic of quotations, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> How he wrote his essays, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> +<li> Influenced by Oriental poets, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li> +<li> Recommends translations of classic and modern foreign authors, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Epictetus</span>, the Greek stoic, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Empedocles on Etna</span>, one of Matthew Arnold's finest poems, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Euripides</span>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li></ul> + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Fitzgerald, Edward</span>, Biography, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Friend of Tennyson and Thackeray, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li> +<li> His version of the <i>Rubá'iyát</i> made Omar's work famous, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li> +<li> Other translations, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Five-foot Shelf of Books</span>, <a href="#Page_xix">xix</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Fox's Book of Martyrs</span>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li></ul> + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Galland, Antoine</span>, introduced the <i>Arabian Nights</i> to Europe, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Garrick, David</span>, the famous English actor who, as a youth, +tramped to London with Dr. Johnson, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.<span class="pagenumidx"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Gibbon, Edward</span>, in advance of his age, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> On love of reading, <a href="#Page_ix">ix</a>.</li> +<li> Member of Dr. Johnson's Club, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Goethe</span>, his <i>Faust</i> ranks with Shakespeare's best plays, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Comparison between Mephistopheles and Iago, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Goldsmith, Oliver</span> comment on Dr. Johnson's method in argument, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Gordon, General</span>, influence over barbarous races, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Had the <i>Imitation</i> in his pocket when he fell at Khartoum, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Grace Abounding</span>, one of Bunyan's minor works, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Grenfell, Dr. Wilfred T.</span>, medical missionary to Labrador and +one of the most stimulating of the writers of the day, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> <i>What the Bible Means to Me</i>; full of helpful suggestions, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Gulliver's Travels</span>, Swift's greatest work, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>-<a href="#Page_131">131</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the land of the Houyhnhnms, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li></ul></li></ul> + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Hamlet</span>, the finest creative work of Shakespeare, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Helen of Troy</span>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Holy War, The</span>, one of Bunyan's religious allegories, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Homer</span>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> <i>The Iliad</i> leads all classical works, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> +<li> Many translators of the <i>Iliad</i>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> +<li> Pictures of old Greek Life, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Horace</span>, no satisfactory translation of his odes, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Houyhnhnms, The</span>, Land in <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>, +in which the Horse is King and men are vile slaves called Yahoos, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li></ul> + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Iliad, The</span>, the greatest literary masterpiece of +antiquity, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.<span class="pagenumidx"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Il Penseroso</span>, one of Milton's finest lyrics, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Imitation of Christ, The</span>, by Thomas à Kempis, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>-<a href="#Page_71">71</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Appeal for the spiritual life, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> +<li> Best editions, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li> +<li> Famous writers bear testimony to its influence, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> +<li> Its inspiration drawn directly from the Bible, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> +<li> Some quotations, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Ivanhoe</span>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li></ul> + + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Jefferies, Richard</span>, a young English writer who reproduced the +very spirit of classical life, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> <i>The Story of My Heart</i>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Johnson, Dr. Samuel</span>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>-<a href="#Page_122">122</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Biography, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>-<a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li> +<li> His best poems, <i>London</i> and <i>The Vanity of Human Wishes</i>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li> +<li> His best prose, <i>The Lives of the Poets</i>, and <i>Life of Richard Savage</i>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li> +<li> His famous letter to Lord Chesterfield, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li> +<li> Rare qualities of old Doctor's character, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li> +<li> Boswell's Life of, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Johnson, Esther</span> (<span class="smcap">Stella</span>) one of the two +women Swift loved to their cost, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Jonson, Ben</span>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Journal of the Plague Year</span>, a work of fiction by Defoe which +surpasses any genuine picture of London's great pestilence, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Jowett, Dr. Benjamin</span>, an Oxford professor and the best Greek +scholar of his time who made the finest version of Plato's <i>Phædo</i>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Juan Fernandez Island</span>, scene of Robinson Crusoe's adventures, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Julius Cæsar</span>, one of Shakespeare's greatest historical tragedies, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li></ul> + + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Keats, John</span>; without knowing Greek or Latin, he reproduced +most perfectly the spirit of classical life in his <i>Ode to a Grecian Urn</i>, and other +poems, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.<span class="pagenumidx"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Kempis, Thomas à</span>, author of <i>The Imitation of Christ</i>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>-<a href="#Page_68">68</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Biography, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>-<a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">King Lear</span>, the tragedy of old age and children's ingratitude, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Kipling, Rudyard</span>, his great literary success at early age, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Koran, The</span>, its inferiority to the Bible, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Kriemhild</span>, the heroine in the <i>Nibelungenlied</i>, whose revenge +resulted in the slaughter of the Burgundian heroes, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li></ul> + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">L'Allegro</span>, one of Milton's finest lyrics, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lane, Edward W.</span>, who wrote the best translation of the +<i>Arabian Nights</i>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lang, Andrew</span>, joint author with Butcher of a prose translation +of the <i>Iliad</i> and the <i>Odyssey</i>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Laputa</span>, the floating island in <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Leo, Brother</span>, Professor of English Literature in St. Mary's College, +Oakland, Calif., the editor of a good cheap edition of <i>The Imitation of Christ</i>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lilliput</span>, a land in <i>Gulliver's Travels</i> inhabited by pygmies, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lockhart, John Gibson</span>, Scott's son-in-law and biographer, who edited +a good edition of <i>Don Quixote</i>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth</span>, translated the <i>Divine Comedy</i> by +working fifteen minutes every morning, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> His tribute to Dante, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lope de Vega</span>, the most prolific of Spanish playwrights, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lowell, James Russell</span>, attributed his love of learning to reading Dante, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Lycidas</span>, Milton's exquisite lament over the death of a +young friend, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.<span class="pagenumidx"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span></li></ul> + + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Macaulay, Thomas Babington</span>, his wide reading in India, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Essays rich in allusions to many authors, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li> +<li> Essay on Boswell's Johnson, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Macbeth</span>, Shakespeare's tragedy of guilty ambition, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Mantell, Robert</span>, one of the greatest living interpreters of +Shakespeare on the stage, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Manzoni</span>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Marcus Aurelius</span>, his <i>Meditations</i>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Simplicity of character when master of the Roman world, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Marlowe, Christopher</span>, a contemporary of Shakespeare, whose +plays are almost unreadable today, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Mazzini, Giuseppe</span>, the the Italian patriot who regarded Dante +as the prophet of the New Italy, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Medea</span>, one of the greatest of the tragedies of Euripides, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Meditations</span> of Marcus Aurelius, one of the famous Latin +classics that is very modern in feeling, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Memoirs of a Cavalier</span>, one of Defoe's graphic romances of the time of Cromwell, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Merchant of Venice</span>, one of the most popular of Shakespeare's plays, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Mill on the Floss</span>, one of George Eliot's best novels, in +which Maggie Tulliver feels the influence of Thomas à Kempis, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Milton, John</span>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>-<a href="#Page_103">103</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Biography, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>-<a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> +<li> <i>Paradise Lost</i>, dictated in blindness, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> +<li> Sonnet on his blindness, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Moll Flanders</span>, the romance of a London courtesan, by Defoe, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Morris, William</span>, his <i>Sigurd the Volsung</i>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li></ul> + + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Naishapur</span>, the home of Omar Khayyám, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.<span class="pagenumidx"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Nibelungenlied, The</span>, a German epic poem of the first half of +the Thirteenth Century, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Story of the murder of Siegfried and the revenge of Kriemhild told in +Wagner's operas, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Nizam ul Mulk</span>, Vizier of Persia and school friend of Omar +Khayyám, who gave the poet a pension, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li></ul> + + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Odyssey, The</span>, one of Homer's great epics, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Old Testament</span>, its splendid imagery, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Omar Khayyám</span>, author of <i>The Rubá'iyát</i>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>-<a href="#Page_77">77</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Biography, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>-<a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Othello</span>, Shakespeare's tragedy of jealousy, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li></ul> + + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Paradise Lost</span>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>-<a href="#Page_106">106</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Modeled on the classical epics, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li> +<li> Richness of imagery and allusions to classical mythology, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li> +<li> Blank verse of the poem unsurpassed in English literature, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li> +<li> Specimens of style, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Payne, John</span>, translator of the <i>Arabian Nights</i> for the Villon Society, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Pepys' Diary</span>, description of the great plague in London, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Phædo</span>, Plato's version of the <i>Dialogues of Socrates</i>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Pilgrim's Progress</span>, Bunyan's great romance, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>-<a href="#Page_113">113</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Evidences of close study of the Bible in this book, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.</li> +<li> Fight between Christian and Apollyon, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li> +<li> A literary masterpiece by a poor, self-educated English tinker, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Pigskin Library, The</span>, a collation of books carried by Colonel +Roosevelt on his African game-hunting trip, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Plato</span>, the <i>Dialogues of Socrates</i>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Jowett's translation of the <i>Phædo</i>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Pliny</span>, his letters bring the classical world very near to +us, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.<span class="pagenumidx"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Plutarch's Lives</span>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Pope, Alexander</span>, translation of the <i>Iliad</i>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Artificial verse of, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Prometheus, Bound</span>, a tragedy of Æschylus, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Pusey, Dr. E. B.</span>, leader of the Tractarian movement in +England, who translated the <i>Confessions of St. Augustine</i>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li></ul> + + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Rambler, The</span>, weekly journal written and published by Dr. +Johnson, which suggested the <i>Spectator</i> to Addison, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Reading Clubs</span>, suggestions for forming them, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Republic, The</span>, Plato's picture of an ideal commonwealth, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Reynolds, Sir Joshua</span>, famous artist and associate of Dr. Johnson, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Robinson Crusoe</span>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>-<a href="#Page_128">128</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> The world's greatest book of adventure for children, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li> +<li> Instant success of the book, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> +<li> Materials furnished by a castaway on Juan Fernandez Island, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li> +<li> Art shown in describing Crusoe's solitude and his moral and religious reflections, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Romeo and Juliet</span>, Shakespeare's great tragedy of unhappy love, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Roosevelt, Col.</span>, his Pigskin library, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> His best literary work done in <i>African Game Trails</i>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Roxana</span>, one of Defoe's romances of a woman of London's tenderloin, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Rubá'iyát, The</span>, Omar Khayyám's great poem, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>-<a href="#Page_81">81</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Its world-wide vogue due to FitzGerald's splendid free version, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> +<li> Its Oriental imagery, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> +<li> Omar's Epicureanism largely imaginary, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.</li> +<li> Specimen quatrains from FitzGerald's version, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.</li></ul><span class="pagenumidx"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Ruskin, John</span>, his splendid diction due to early Bible study, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li></ul> + + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Sancho Panza</span>, squire to Don Quixote, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">St. Augustine</span>, the most famous father of the Latin church of the +fourth century, author of the <i>Confessions</i>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Biography, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>-<a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li> +<li> Influence of the <i>Confessions</i>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li> +<li> His tribute to his mother, Monica, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Scott, Sir Walter</span>, among English authors next to Shakespeare in +creative power, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Selkirk, Alexander</span>, the English sailor whose adventures gave +Defoe the materials for <i>Robinson Crusoe</i>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Shakespeare</span>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>-<a href="#Page_28">28</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Ranks next to Bible, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</li> +<li> His plays very modern, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li> +<li> Robert Mantell in his finest roles, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li> +<li> Rhymes in the blank verse give clue to order of the plays, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li> +<li> Comedies the work of his early years, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</li> +<li> The period of great tragedies, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li> +<li> His last three plays, <i>The Tempest</i>, <i>Cymbeline</i>, and <i>The Winter's Tale</i>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li> +<li> Enormous creative activity, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li> +<li> <i>Hamlet</i> sums up human life, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li> +<li> <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li> +<li> <i>The Merchant of Venice</i>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li> +<li> <i>As You Like It</i>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li> +<li> <i>Macbeth</i>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> +<li> <i>Julius Cæsar</i>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> +<li> <i>Othello</i>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> +<li> <i>Antony and Cleopatra</i>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li> +<li> Best means of studying Shakespeare, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</li> +<li> Some of the best editions of Shakespeare, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Sheherezade</span>, the Queen in <i>The Arabian Nights</i> who saved her +life by relating the tales of <i>The Thousand and One Nights</i> to her husband, Sultan Schariar of India, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Siegfried</span>, one of the heroes of <i>The Nibelungenlied</i> who is +foully slain by Prince Hagen, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.<span class="pagenumidx"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Smollett, Tobias</span>, an English novelist who wrote <i>Humphrey Clinker</i> +and <i>Roderick Random</i>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Socrates</span>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Sophocles</span>, <i>Œdipus</i>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Soul of the Bible, The</span>, a condensed version of the Old and New Testaments +which will be found useful by Bible students, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Story of My Heart, The</span>, an eloquent book by Richard Jefferies in which +the spiritual aspirations of a self-educated young man are vividly described, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Strayed Reveler, A</span>, one of Matthew Arnold's finest lyrical poems, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Stanley, Henry M.</span>, his autobiography records the great work done by a +poor foundling whose spirit in boyhood was nearly crushed by cruelty, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Stella</span>, the pet name given by Dean Swift to Esther Johnson, a young woman +whom he immortalized by his journal, written for her amusement, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Swift, Jonathan</span>, Dean of St. Patrick's, one of the greatest of English +writers and author of <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li></ul> + + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Tale of a Tub, The</span>, a vitriolic satire in verse by Swift, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Temple, Sir William</span>, an English statesman and author and patron of Swift, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Tennant, Dorothy</span>, widow of Stanley, who edited his <i>Autobiography</i>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li></ul> + + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Uttoxeter</span>, a Staffordshire town where Dr. Johnson did penance +for harsh words spoken years before to his father, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li></ul> + + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Vanessa</span>, the name given by Swift to Esther Vanhomrigh, a brilliant +pupil who fell in love with him and was ruined, like "Stella," <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.<span class="pagenumidx"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Vedder, Elihu</span>, the American artist who illustrated the <i>Rubá'iyát</i>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Virgil</span>, difficulty in translating his work, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>. +<ul class="sub"><li> Story of the <i>Æneid</i>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li></ul></li></ul> + + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Wagner, Richard</span>, his great operas drawn from the principal +incidents of <i>The Nibelungenlied</i> and allied Norse epics, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li> + +<li><span class="smcap">Woodberry, George E.</span>, his opinion that Dante is untranslatable, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li></ul> + + +<ul> +<li><span class="smcap">Yahoo</span>, in <i>Gulliver's Travels</i> a race of slaves with +the form of men but with none their of virtues, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li></ul> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>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 TOMOYÉ 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</p></div> + + +<div class="tr"> + +<h3>TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES</h3> + +<p>Minor punctuation corrections have been made without comment.</p> + +<p>Corrected spelling on p. 46, "Sigura" to "Sigurd" (Sigurd the Volsung, +by William Morris).</p> + +<p>Added page number (82) to "Index" listing for "VEDDER, ELIHU" on p. 171.</p> + +<p>Word Variations:</p> + +<ul class="sub"> +<li> "Alexander" (1) and "Alexandre" (1) (---- Dumas)</li> +<li> "every-day" (2) and "everyday" (3)</li> +<li> "Scheherezade" (3) and "Sheherezade" (1)</li></ul> +</div> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +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-h.htm or 35113-h.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. 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