N this progressive period, when University Extension is beginning its great work of promoting the education and refinement of all who choose to embrace its advan tages, we have prepared this collection of literature, independent of that movement but in harmony with its plan, 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, from which he was called to the same position at the Lehigh. 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 pcems 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 espet cially 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. 2357 YAOU, THE SAGE. 1600 MOSES, THE LAWGIVER. 1150 to 1200 ORPHEUS. 1033 SOLOMON. 1015 LOKMAN THE SAGE. 900 HOMER. 850 HESIOD. 740 ISAIAH, THE PROPHET. 685 TYRTEUS. 665 PERIANDER. 650 PITTACUS. 640 THALES. 638 SOLON. 611 ALCEUS. 600 ERINNA. 600 SAPPHO. 600 MUSEUS. 600 CLEOBULUS. 600 ESOP. 570 BIAS. 563 ANACREON. 556 SIMONIDES. 556 CHILO or CHILON. 551 CONFUCIUS. 525 ESCHYLUS. 522 PINDAR. 521 YEN HWUY. 495 TZETZE. 484 HERODOTUS. 480 EURIPIDES. 471 THUCYDIDES. 470 KING ARCHIDAMUS. 444 ARISTOPHANES. 429 PLATO. 400 YANG CHOO. 400 MIH TEIH. 385 DEMOSTHENES. 371 MENCIUS. 342 MENANDER. 300 CLEANTHES. 280 BION. 272 THEOCRITUS. 270 SEUN (Philosopher). 256 CALLIMACHUS. 250 M. JUNIANUS JUSTINUS. 235 APOLLONIUS RHODIUS. 204 POLYBIUS. 200 MOSCHUS. 195 PUBLIUS TERENTIUS Afer. 137 NICANDER. 108 LUCIUS SERGIUS CATILINE. 106 MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 100 JULIUS CÆSAR. 96 MELEAGER. 95 TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS. 85 CAIUS CRISPUS SALLUST. 69 VIRGIL. 64 HORACE. 59 TITUS LIVIUS. 54 ALBIUS TIBULLUS. 52 SEXTUS AURELIUS PROPERTIUS. 50 DIODORUS SICULUS. 50 MARCUS MANILIUS. 50 CALIDASA or KALIDASA. 43 OVID. 35 CAIUS PEDO ALBINOVANUS. 24 PUBLIUS CORNELIUS SEVERUS. 19 C. VALLEUS PATERCULus. 7 LUCIUS ANNÆUS SENECA. 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 writers belonging to different parts of the world, giving to the men of those days a light of knowledge whose faint rays scarcely penetrated that dark night of ignorance the canopy of which enveloped our race. As time moved on writers increased in number, until, between the sixth century B. C. and the fifth century A. D., there flourished a galaxy of authors and orators who for deep thought and beautiful expression have rarely been equaled in the history of literature. These great lights of learning gradually disappeared, leaving, from about the sixth until the close of the thirteenth century of our era, a dearth of letters. During this time the tide of human thought appeared to be rolling backward to that night of ages from which it sprang only now and then some writer, like a star in a cloudy sky, loomed forth to shed a ray of knowledge upon a period of pitchy darkness. The close of the thirteenth century, however, gave one great name to literature-that of the poet Dante. With the dawn of the fourteenth century thought commenced again to assert itself, and a new life of letters began which has steadily grown from that time to the present day. The Editor has given the selections without comment, leaving it to his readers to consider speculative points for themselves. The thought, however, will occur to the reflecting mind, "Will there come another blight on knowledge, or will literature and science continue on their grand march of progress until ignorance and its offspring, superstition, shall be driven from the dark places of the world?" The following writers and orators are a few of the many hundreds represented in our work who flourished between the fourteenth century and the present time: 1304 FRANCESCO PETRARCH. 1500 BERNARDINO DE SAHAGUN. 1547 MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAA- 1559 GEORGE CHAPMAN. 1586 FRANCIS BEAUMONT. 1601 DON PEDRO DE LA BARCA. 1612 SAMUEL BUTLER. 1618 ABRAHAM COWLEY. 1631 JOHN DRYDEN. 1632 JOHN LOCKE. 1642 SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 1780 PIERRE JEAN DE BÉRANGER. 1795 THOMAS CARLYLE. 1796 WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT. 1800 THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY. 1800 HEINRICH HEINE. 1802 VICTOR HUGO. 1804 BARONESS DUDEVANT. 1805 EDWARD LYTTON BULWER. 1807 HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. 1807 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. 1814 JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY. 1817 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 1819 JOHN RUSKIN. 1820 HERBERT SPENCER. 1820 JOHN TYNDALL. 1823 FRIEDRICH MAX MULLER. 1834 C. H. SPURGEON. |