THE CLASSIC AND THE BEAUTIFUL

FROM THE

LITERATURE OF THREE THOUSAND YEARS.

PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT.

COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY CARSON & SIMPSON.

In this progressive period, when the modern plan of University Extension is beginning its great work of promoting the education and refinement of all who choose to embrace its advantages, we have prepared this collection of literature in harmony with and to aid in developing the admirable idea of extending the benefits of an education in Belles Lettres to the people as well as to the student. The work is intended to give to every reader of the family an opportunity of becoming familiar with the great writers of every age and every land, not confining this knowledge, as heretofore, to the favored son upon whom is conferred an expensive education.

In carrying out this enterprise the publishers have been so fortunate as to secure for the compilation of this work the services of that distinguished and cultured scholar, Professor Henry Coppée, who has devoted the greatest portion of his life to the study and teaching of literature. Dr. Coppée graduated at West Point, served with honor in the Mexican War, and afterward for years filled the chair of Belles Lettres at the University of Pennsylvania, and now occupies the same position at the Lehigh University. Of Professor Coppée as an author little need be said, as his works are widely and favorably known many of them are of an educational character, and some of them are used as text-books.

The design of the work is to embrace the whole field of literature, ancient and modern, giving choice selections from eminent Historians, Poets, Philosophers, Sages, Scientists, Travelers. Statesmen, Dramatists and Authors of all ages, and also from the celebrated writers of story and song.

The authors of our country and the best writers of England, Scotland and Ireland will be largely represented. Much space will also be devoted to translations from the French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and other modern tongues, thus affording facilities for becoming acquainted with the literature of Europe and the best results of culture and investigation in those fields.

The classics will also be largely represented-Homer, Hesiod, Virgil, Plato, Juvenal, Seneca and many others-giving the most popular renderings.

Oriental literature will occupy a place in the present work. From the Chinese classics selections are given from Mih Teih, who flourished about 400 B. C., and who advocated as a cure for all human ills universal mutual love; Yen Hwuy (521 B. c.), who wished to aid some prince to establish a reign of universal peace; Mencius (371 B. c.) who,

maintained that man's nature was evil, but that he had only to learn and his nature would become good; and from the philosopher Seun (270 B. C.), a powerful reasoner, the John Calvin of those days, who took issue with Mencius and contended that man's nature was only evil. The student of literature, when comparing the theories of the worthies of those ancient days with the theories of the statesmen, philanthropists and philosophers of our own time, will find that as men differed then as to the best mode of curing or mitigating human ills, so men differ now. From the Chinese classics we have also the wisdom of their great teacher, of whom the Chinese say, "O Confucius, Confucius! before him there was none such, and after him there will come none like unto him."

India, the land of story and fable, rich in its ancient literature, presents to our readers choice selections from its sacred books, the Vedas, and its great poem of ages, the Mahabharata.

Asiatic literature is also represented by the famous writers of Palestine, the Koran of Mohammed and the wise maxims of that very ancient, world-renowned sage of Persia, Zoroaster.

Our columns are enriched from Africa by the authors of Egypt, the ancient storehouse of primitive literature, the once proud possessor of that lost treasury of knowledge, the Alexandrian Library. Cyrene, also of the Dark Continent, bequeaths to us the writings of Callimachus, and from her famous city of Carthage, once the rival of proud Rome, she gives us the eloquent address of Hannibal and the dramatic writings of Afer.

Australia and New Zealand present their valuable contributions from the writings of such authors as Charles Harper, the forefather of Australian poetry, Adam Lindsay Gordon, Mrs. W. J. Anderson, Garnet Walch and Mary Colborne Veel.

Moorish literature contributes the fiery, eloquent address of that hero, patriot and able general, Musa ben Abel Gazan, who defended Granada to the last against the army of Ferdinand, and then sacrificed his life in combat rather than submit to the conqueror; we have also from the same literature the tender, poetic lament of Sultana Morayma for her brave father, Ali Atar, who was killed, and her husband, Sultan Boabdil, who was taken prisoner, at the battle of Lucena, which was fought on the 21st of April, 1483, and in which the army of the Moors was almost annihilated. Cidi Caleb, a solitary horsemen, brought the sad news of defeat to Granada. The song of the royal minstrels, sung to comfort the Sultana, is also given.

Mexico before the advent of the white man presents us with some fine specimens of the literature of a partially civilized people. Selections will be found from the beautiful poems of Nezahualcoyoti, the poet-king of Tezcuco, whose capital has been called "The Athens of the Western World." Our columns will also contain selections from the same rich literature, gathered by that wonderful antiquarian linguist and historian, Bernardino de Sahagun.

While the work abounds with choice gems from the authors of ancient days, and while it also shows authorship of every century from twelve hundred years before Christ to our own times, and has choice selections from countries the literature of which is almost unknown to the general reader and is even but little known to many students, yet the editor has devoted the largest portion of the work to the productions of the distinguished

writers of civilized lands and of modern days. He has also introduced many pieces especially adapted to private and public readings.

The following ancient authors are represented in the work. The date before the author's name is the year in which he was born or flourished:

BEFORE CHRIST.

ZOROASTER, THE PERSIAN SAGE. Very ancient. Time he lived unknown. Aristotle, who was born 384 B. C., places him 6000 years before Plato, who lived 429 B. C. His disciples claim for him the invention of the wheel.

The following writers lived and wrote between the beginning of the first century and the close of the thirteenth century:

The above lists of writers and orators, who, with others also, are represented in the work, show a chain of authorship commencing in remote antiquity and extending down to the close of the thirteenth century. Literature began in very ancient times with occasional

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