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The work, we believe, will be not only instructive, but also interesting to the general reader. The field of literature represented is so large and so various that there will be selections in it suited to almost every taste. One author belongs to distant lands or ancient days; another represents the Middle Ages; while yet another, of our own country or of Europe, has reached distinction in our own days. The subjects treated and the styles of authorship also differ. From one writer we have an essay; from another a scientific or an historical article; while another is represented by a poem or a story,—thus yielding that variety which gives both pleasure and instruction.

In order to aid the student and the careful reader in the study of literature, we have thoroughly indexed the work. There is an index of contents for each volume, and at the end of the last volume an index of authors, of forty-one pages, double column, giving the places where the writers or orators were born, and the dates of their birth and death; also the titles of the selections taken from each one.

This index of itself furnishes a fund of most valuable information. More than fifteen hundred authors and orators are represented in the work, which will contain, when completed, over three thousand royal octavo pages.

To those who may desire to acquire a library this collection will be found very valuable, as through it they may become acquainted with numerous authors, and thus be enabled to select judiciously the writings of such as may suit their own taste and that of their family. To persons also who have not had an opportunity of becoming conversant with literature the work will be invaluable, as it will enable them, when in society, to converse intelligently on authors and authorship.

The following continents countries islands, ancient cities and ancient places are represented in this work:

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

IN presenting this work, we desire to return our thankful acknowledgments to all the authors and publishers who have so kindly permitted the use of selections from their works and publications. In no case has our request been met with refusal.

We are indebted to Messrs. Putnam & Co. of New York for "Stratford-on-Avon," from the Sketch-Book of Washington Irving; to George Bancroft, Esq., and Messrs. Little, Brown & Co. for "Lexington and Concord," from Bancroft's History of the United States, and to Mr. William Everett and the same publishers for Edward Everett's Dudley Observatory speech on the "Uses of Astronomy;" to Messrs. G. W. Carleton & Co. for the translation of "The Convict and the Good Bishop" in their English version of Hugo's Les Misérables.

To Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. of Boston for the following pieces: "How the Old Horse Won the Bet" and "The Tread-Mill Song," by Dr. O. W. Holmes; "The Day is Done" and "Hiawatha's Wooing," by H. W. Longfellow; "An Order for a Picture," "The Bridal-Veil," "Pictures of Memory," and "Coming Home," by Alice and Phoebe Carey; "Her Letter," "His Answer to 'Her Letter,'" and "The Society upon the Stanislaus," by Bret Harte; "Jim Bludso" and "Little Breeches," by John Hay; "Lake Saratoga,” by John G. Saxe; "Eternal Goodness" and "Barbara Frietchie," by J. G. Whittier; "The Silurian Beach,' by Professor Louis Agassiz; "Repression," from Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Little Foxes; "Baby Bell," by T. B. Aldrich; "The Vision of Sir Launfal" and "Longing," by James Russell Lowell; "Storm-Song," by Bayard Taylor.

To Messrs. Harper & Brothers for "Betsey and I are Out," "How Betsey and I Made Up," and "Gone with a Handsomer Man," from Farm Ballads; also "The First Settler's Story," by Will Carleton; a selection from Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, by Lew Wallace; "Through the Dark Continent," by Henry M. Stanley; translation of "Story of a Gun," from '93, by Victor Hugo; and for "What was It?" We also have to thank the executors of the late John Lathrop Motley and the same publishers for "The Fire-Ships," from The History of the United Netherlands.

We have availed ourselves of the courtesy of Mrs. Henry Armitt Brown by publishing "The Congress of 1774," an oration pronounced by her late distinguished husband in Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia, on the one hundreth anniversary of the first meeting of the First Continental Congress.

We feel ourselves under obligation, also, to the Baltimore Publishing Company for the following selections from the poems of Father Ryan: "Out of the Depths," "Rest," "Song of the Mystic," "Sword of Robert Lee" and "The Conquered Banner;" to the J. B. Lippincott Company for "Sheridan's Ride," by Thomas Buchanan Read; "Mexican Mythology," from Prescott's Conquest of Mexico, "The Battle of Nancy," from John Foster Kirk's Charles the Bold, and also for the poems "Outgrown" and "Margery Gray," by Miss Julia C. R. Dorr; to Messrs. T. B. Peterson & Brother for "Farmer Brown," from Beautiful Snow, and Other Poems, and "The Battle of the Store," from The Outcast, and Other Poems-both by J. W. Watson; to Mr. Benson J. Lossing and his publisher, Henry Johnson, for "The Battle of New Orleans;" to Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons for "The Pearl of the Philippians" and "The Stork and the Ruby," from the poems of Richard Henry Stoddard; to Mr. Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) for "Baden-Baden and "The Centre of the Earth and the Tomb of Adam;" to Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Co. for " Ismael Pacha," from A Confederate Soldier in Egypt; to Mrs. E. A. Allen (Elizabeth Akers) for "Rock Me to Sleep," "Loved too Late," "Skeletons" and "The Shadow;" to Messrs. D. Appleton & Co. for "The Church of St. Isaac's," from Loubat's Narrative of the Mission to Russia of the Hon. G. A. Fox; to Professor H. H. Boyesen and the Century Company for "Briar Rose," from St. Nicholas; to Mr. Charles E. Warburton of Philadelphia for his translation of "The Suttee," by Jules Verne; to Messrs. James R. Osgood & Co. and B. A. Hinsdale for the address made by the late President James A. Garfield at the Morse memorial celebration; to Mrs. U. S. Grant and her publishers, Charles L. Webster & Co., for "Appomattox CourtHouse," from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant; and to the Hon. George H. Boker for selections from his poetical works.

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