Library Of The World\'s Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol. 2 written by Charles Dudley Warner

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LIBRARY OF THE

WORLD'S BEST LITERATURE

ANCIENT AND MODERN

CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER

EDITOR

HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE

LUCIA GILBERT RUNKLE

GEORGE HENRY WARNER

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

Connoisseur Edition

VOL. II.

1896

THE ADVISORY COUNCIL

CRAWFORD H. TOY, A.M., LL.D.,
Professor of Hebrew, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Cambridge, Mass.

THOMAS R. LOUNSBURY, LL.D., L.H.D.,
Professor of English in the Sheffield Scientific School of
YALE UNIVERSITY, New Haven, Conn.

WILLIAM M. SLOANE, PH.D., L.H.D.,
Professor of History and Political Science,
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, Princeton, N.J.

BRANDER MATTHEWS, A.M., LL.B.,
Professor of Literature, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, New York City.

JAMES B. ANGELL, LL.D.,
President of the UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, Ann Arbor, Mich.

WILLARD FISKE, A.M., PH.D.,
Late Professor of the Germanic and Scandinavian Languages
and Literatures, CORNELL UNIVERSITY, Ithaca, N.Y.

EDWARD S. HOLDEN, A.M., LL.D.,
Director of the Lick Observatory, and Astronomer,
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Berkeley, Cal.

ALCEE FORTIER, LIT.D.,
Professor of the Romance Languages,
TULANE UNIVERSITY, New Orleans, La.

WILLIAM P. TRENT, M.A.,
Dean of the Department of Arts and Sciences, and Professor of
English and History,
UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH, Sewanee, Tenn.

PAUL SHOREY, PH.D.,
Professor of Greek and Latin Literature,
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, Chicago, Ill.

WILLIAM T. HARRIS, LL.D.,
United States Commissioner of Education,
BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D.C.

MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN, A.M., LL.D.,
Professor of Literature in the
CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, Washington, D.C.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

VOL. II.

LIVED
HENRI FREDERIC AMIEL--_Continued_: 1821-1881
Self-interest Woman's ideal the Community's Fate
Wagner's Music French Self-Consciousness
Secret of Remaining Young Frivolous Art
Results of Equality Critical Ideals
View-Points of History The Best Art
Introspection and Schopenhauer The True Critic
Music and the Imagination Spring--Universal Religion
Love and the Sexes Introspective Meditations
Fundamentals of Religion Destiny (just before death)
Dangers from Decay of Earnestness

ANACREON B.C. 562?-477
Drinking The Grasshopper
Age The Swallow
The Epicure The Poet's Choice
Gold Drinking
A Lover's Sigh

HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN (by Benjamin W. Wells) 1805-1875
The Steadfast Tin Soldier What the Moon Saw
The Teapot The Lovers
The Ugly Duckling The Snow Queen
The Nightingale
The Market Place and the Andersen Jubilee at Odense
('The Story of My Life')
'Miserere' in the Sixtine Chapel ('The Improvisatore')

ANEURIN Sixth Century
The Slaying of Owain
The Fate of Hoel, Son of the Great Cian
The Giant Gwrveling Falls at Last

ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE (by Robert Sharp)
From 'Beowulf' The Fortunes of Men
Deor's Lament From 'Judith'
From 'The Wanderer' The Fight at Maldon
The Seafarer Caedmon's Inspiration
From the 'Chronicle'

GABRIELE D'ANNUNZIO 1864-
The Drowned Boy ('The Triumph of Death')
To an Impromptu of Chopin (same)
India

ANTAR (by Edward S. Holden) About 550-615
The Valor of Antar

LUCIUS APULEIUS Second Century
The Tale of Aristomenes, the Commercial Traveler ('The
Metamorphoses')
The Awakening of Cupid (same)

THOMAS AQUINAS (by Edwin A. Pace) 1226-1274
On the Value of Our Concepts of the Deity ('Summa
Theologica')
How Can the Absolute Be a Cause? ('Quaestiones Disputatae')
On the Production of Living Things (same)

THE ARABIAN NIGHTS (by Richard Gottheil)
From 'The Story of the City of Brass' (Lane's Translation)
From 'The History of King Omar Ben Ennuman, and His
Sons Sherkan and Zoulmekan' (Payne's Translation)
From 'Sindbad the Seaman and Sindbad the Landsman'
(Burton's Translation)
Conclusion of 'The Thousand Nights and a Night' (Burton's
Translation)

ARABIC LITERATURE (by Richard Gottheil)
Imr-al-Kais: Description of a Mountain Storm
Zuheir: Lament for the Destruction of his Former Home
Tarafah ibn al-'Abd: Rebuke to a Mischief-Maker
Labid: Lament for the Afflictions of his Tribe
Antar: A Fair Lady
Duraid, son of as-Simmah: The Death of 'Abdallah
Ash-Shanfara of Azd: A Picture of Womanhood
'Umar ibn Rabi'a: Zeynab at the Ka'bah
'Umar ibn Rabi'a: The Unveiled Maid
Al-Nabighah: Eulogy of the Men of Ghassan
Nusaib: The Slave-Mother Sold
Al-Find: Vengeance
Ibrahim, Son of Kunaif: Patience
Abu Sakhr: A Lost Love
Abu l'Ata of Sind: An Address to the Beloved
Ja'far ibn 'Ulbah: A Foray
Katari ibn al-Fuja'ah: Fatality
Al-Fadi ibn al-Abbas: Implacability
Hittan ibn al-Mu'alla: Parental Affection
Sa'd, son of Malik: A Tribesman's Valor
From Sale's Koran:--Chapter xxxv.: "The Creator";
Chapter lv.: "The Merciful"; Chapter lxxxiv.: "The
Rending in Sunder"
Al-Hariri: His Prayer
Al-Hariri: The Words of Hareth ibn Hammam
The Caliph Omar Bin Abd Al-Aziz and the Poets (From
'Supplemental Nights': Burton's Translation)

DOMINIQUE FRANCOIS ARAGO (by Edward S. Holden) 1786-1853
Laplace

JOHN ARBUTHNOT 1667-1735
The True Characters of John Bull, Nic. Frog, and Hocus
('The History of John Bull')
Reconciliation of John and his Sister Peg (same)
Of the Rudiments of Martin's Learning ('Memoirs of
Martinus Scriblerus')

THE ARGONAUTIC LEGEND
The Victory of Orpheus ('The Life and Death of Jason')

LUDOVICO ARIOSTO (by L. Oscar Kuhns) 1474-1533
The Friendship of Medoro and Cloridane ('Orlando Furioso')
The Saving of Medoro (same)
The Madness of Orlando (same)

ARISTOPHANES (by Paul Shorey) B.C. 448-390?
Origin of the Peloponnesian War ('The Acharnians')
The Poet's Apology (same)
Appeal of the Chorus ('The Knights')
Cloud Chorus ('The Clouds')
A Rainy Day on the Farm ('The Peace')
The Harvest (same)
Grand Chorus of Birds ('The Birds')
Call to the Nightingale (same)
The Building of Cloud-Cuckoo-Town (same)
Chorus of Women ('Thesmophoriazusae')
Chorus of Mystae in Hades ('The Frogs')
A Parody of Euripides' Lyric Verse ('The Frogs')
The Prologues of Euripides (same)

ARISTOTLE (by Thomas Davidson) B.C. 384-322
Nature of the Soul ('On the Soul')
On the Difference between History and Poetry ('Poetics')
On Philosophy (Cicero's 'Nature of the Gods')
On Essences ('Metaphysics')
On Community of Studies ('Politics')
Hymn to Virtue

JON ARNASON 1819-1888
From 'Icelandic Legends':
The Merman
The Fisherman of Goetur
The Magic Scythe
The Man-Servant and the Water-Elves
The Crossways

ERNST MORITZ ARNDT 1769-1860
What is the German's Fatherland?
The Song of the Field-Marshal
Patriotic Song

EDWIN ARNOLD 1832-
Youth of Buddha ('The Light of Asia')
The Pure Sacrifice of Buddha (same)
Faithfulness of Yudhisthira ('The Great Journey')
He and She
After Death ('Pearls of the Faith')
Solomon and the Ant (same)
The Afternoon (same)
The Trumpet (same)
Envoi to 'The Light of Asia'
Grishma; or the Season of Heat (Translated from Kalidasa)

MATTHEW ARNOLD (by George Edward Wood-berry) 1822-1888
Intelligence and Genius ('Essays in Criticism')
Sweetness and Light ('Culture and Anarchy')
Oxford ('Essays in Criticism')
To A Friend
Youth and Calm
Isolation--To Marguerite
Stanzas in Memory of the Author of 'Obermann' (1849)
Memorial Verses (1850)
The Sick King in Bokhara
Dover Beach
Self-Dependence
Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse
A Summer Night
The Better Part
The Last Word

THE ARTHURIAN LEGENDS (by Richard Jones)
From Geoffrey of Monmouth's 'Historia Britonum'
The Holy Grail (Malory's 'Morte d'Arthur')

PETER CHRISTEN ASBJOeRNSEN 1812-1885
Gudbrand of the Mountain-Side
The Widow's Son

ROGER ASCHAM 1515-1568
On Gentleness in Education ('The Schoolmaster')
On Study and Exercise ('Toxophilus')

ATHENAEUS Third Century B.C.
Why the Nile Overflows ('Deipnosophistae')
How to Preserve the Health (same)
An Account of Some Great Eaters (same)
The Love of Animals for Man (same)

PER DANIEL AMADEUS ATTERBOM 1790-1855
The Genius of the North
The Lily of the Valley
Svanhvit's Colloquy ('The Islands of the Blest')
The Mermaid

AUCASSIN AND NICOLETTE (by Frederick Morris
Warren) Twelfth Century
'Tis of Aucassin and Nicolette

JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 1780-1851
A Dangerous Adventure ('The American Ornithological
Biography')

BERTHOLD AUERBACH 1812-1882
The First Mass ('Ivo the Gentleman')
The Peasant-Nurse and the Prince ('On the Heights')

FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME II.

* * * * *

PAGE
The Gutenberg Bible (Colored Plate) Frontispiece
Lyly's "Euphues" (Fac-simile) 485
Hans Christian Andersen (Portrait) 500
"Haroun al Raschid" (Photogravure) 622
Dominique Francois Arago (Portrait) 704
Ludovico Ariosto (Portrait) 742
Aristotle (Portrait) 788
Matthew Arnold (Portrait) 844
"Lancelot Bids Adieu to Elaine" (Photogravure) 890
John James Audubon (Portrait) 956

VIGNETTE PORTRAITS

Anacreon Aristophenes
Lucius Apuleius Ernst Moritz Arndt
Thomas Aquinas Roger Ascham
John Arbuthnot Berthold Auerbach

_EUPHUES._.

Reduced facsimile of title-page of the "Euphues" of John Lyly.

The Colophon reads:

Imprinted at London by Thomas East, for Gabriel Cawood dwelling
in Panics Church yard. 1581.

This is a good example of the quaint title-pages of the books of the
early printers;
showing the old-fashioned border, the true "old-style" type, the
ancient form of the S, the V, and the U, and the now obsolete
spelling of several words.

_EVPHVES._

THE ANATOMY
OF WIT.

Verie pleasaunt for all
Gentlemen to read, and
most necessarie to remember.

wherein are contained the
delightes that Wit followeth in his youth
by the pleasantnesse of love, & the happinesse
he reapeth in age, by
the perfectnesse of
Wisedome.

By John Lyly Master
of Art.

Corrected and augmented.

Imprinted at London
for Gabriel Cawood dwelling
in Paules. Church-yard.

(Continued from Volume I)

to the storms of air and sea; and while the soul of Mozart seems to
dwell on the ethereal peaks of Olympus, that of Beethoven climbs
shuddering the storm-beaten sides of a Sinai. Blessed be they both! Each
represents a moment of the ideal life, each does us good. Our love is
due to both.

Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only
begins for man with self-surrender.

* * * * *

MAY 27TH, 1857.--Wagner's is a powerful mind endowed with strong
poetical sensitiveness. His work is even more poetical than musical. The
suppression of the lyrical element, and therefore of melody, is with him
a systematic _parti pris._ No more duos or trios; monologue and the aria
are alike done away with. There remains only declamation, the
recitative, and the choruses. In order to avoid the conventional in
singing, Wagner falls into another convention,--that of not singing at
all. He subordinates the voice to articulate speech, and for fear lest
the muse should take flight he clips her wings; so that his works are
rather symphonic dramas than operas. The voice is brought down to the
rank of an instrument, put on a level with the violins, the hautboys,
and the drums, and treated instrumentally. Man is deposed from his
superior position, and the centre of gravity of the work passes into the
baton of the conductor. It is music depersonalized,--neo-Hegelian
music,--music multiple instead of individual. If this is so, it is
indeed the music of the future,--the music of the socialist democracy
replacing the art which is aristocratic, heroic, or subjective.

* * * * *

DECEMBER 4TH, 1863.--The whole secret of remaining young in spite of
years, and even of gray hairs, is to cherish enthusiasm in one's self,
by poetry, by contemplation, by charity,--that is, in fewer words, by
the maintenance of harmony in the soul.

* * * * *

APRIL 12TH, 1858.--The era of equality means the triumph of mediocrity.
It is disappointing, but inevitable; for it is one of time's
revenges.... Art no doubt will lose, but justice will gain. Is not
universal leveling down the law of nature?... The world is striving with
all its force for the destruction of what it has itself brought forth!

* * * * *

MARCH 1ST, 1869.--From the point of view of the ideal, humanity is
_triste_ and ugly. But if we compare it with its probable origins, we
see that the human race has not altogether wasted its time. Hence there
are three possible views of history: the view of the pessimist, who
starts from the ideal; the view of the optimist, who compares the past
with the present; and the view of the hero-worshiper, who sees that all
progress whatever has cost oceans of blood and tears.

* * * * *

AUGUST 31ST, 1869.--I have finished Schopenhauer. My mind has been a
tumult of opposing systems,--Stoicism, Quietism, Buddhism, Christianity.
Shall I never be at peace with myself? If impersonality is a good, why
am I not consistent in the pursuit of it? and if it is a temptation, why
return to it, after having judged and conquered it?

Is happiness anything more than a conventional fiction? The deepest
reason for my state of doubt is that the supreme end and aim of life
seems to me a mere lure and deception. The individual is an eternal
dupe, who never obtains what he seeks, and who is forever deceived by
hope. My instinct is in harmony with the pessimism of Buddha and of
Schopenhauer. It is a doubt which never leaves me, even in my moments of
religious fervor. Nature is indeed for me a Maia; and I look at her, as
it were, with the eyes of an artist. My intelligence remains skeptical.
What, then, do I believe in? I do not know. And what is it I hope for?
It would be difficult to say. Folly! I believe in goodness, and I hope
that good will prevail. Deep within this ironical and disappointed being
of mine there is a child hidden--a frank, sad, simple creature, who
believes in the ideal, in love, in holiness, and all heavenly
superstitions. A whole millennium of idyls sleeps in my heart; I am a
pseudo-skeptic, a pseudo-scoffer.

"Borne dans sa nature, infini dans ses voeux,
L'homme est un dieu tombe qui se souvient des cieux."

* * * * *

MARCH 17TH, 1870.--This morning the music of a brass band which had
stopped under my windows moved me almost to tears. It exercised an
indefinable, nostalgic power over me; it set me dreaming of another
world, of infinite passion and supreme happiness. Such impressions are
the echoes of Paradise in the soul; memories of ideal spheres whose sad
sweetness ravishes and intoxicates the heart. O Plato! O Pythagoras!
ages ago you heard these harmonies, surprised these moments of inward
ecstasy,--knew these divine transports! If music thus carries us to
heaven, it is because music is harmony, harmony is perfection,
perfection is our dream, and our dream is heaven.

* * * * *

APRIL 1ST, 1870.--I am inclined to believe that for a woman love is the
supreme authority,--that which judges the rest and decides what is good
or evil. For a man, love is subordinate to right. It is a great passion,
but it is not the source of order, the synonym of reason, the criterion
of excellence. It would seem, then, that a woman places her ideal in the
perfection of love, and a man in the perfection of justice.

* * * * *

JUNE 5TH, 1870.--The efficacy of religion lies precisely in that which
is not rational, philosophic, nor eternal; its efficacy lies in the
unforeseen, the miraculous, the extraordinary. Thus religion attracts
more devotion in proportion as it demands more faith,--that is to say,
as it becomes more incredible to the profane mind. The philosopher
aspires to explain away all mysteries, to dissolve them into light. It
is mystery, on the other hand, which the religious instinct demands and
pursues: it is mystery which constitutes the essence of worship, the
power of proselytism. When the cross became the "foolishness" of the
cross, it took possession of the masses. And in our own day, those who
wish to get rid of the supernatural, to enlighten religion, to economize
faith, find themselves deserted, like poets who should declaim against
poetry, or women who should decry love. Faith consists in the acceptance
of the incomprehensible, and even in the pursuit of the impossible, and
is self-intoxicated with its own sacrifices, its own repeated
extravagances.

It is the forgetfulness of this psychological law which stultifies the
so-called liberal Christianity. It is the realization of it which
constitutes the strength of Catholicism.

Apparently, no positive religion can survive the supernatural element
which is the reason for its existence. Natural religion seems to be the
tomb of all historic cults. All concrete religions die eventually in the
pure air of philosophy. So long then as the life of nations is in need
of religion as a motive and sanction of morality, as food for faith,
hope, and charity, so long will the masses turn away from pure reason
and naked truth, so long will they adore mystery, so long--and rightly
so--will they rest in faith, the only region where the ideal presents
itself to them in an attractive form.

* * * * *

OCTOBER 26TH, 1870.--If ignorance and passion are the foes of popular
morality, it must be confessed that moral indifference is the malady of
the cultivated classes. The modern separation of enlightenment and
virtue, of thought and conscience, of the intellectual aristocracy from
the honest and vulgar crowd, is the greatest danger that can threaten
liberty. When any society produces an increasing number of literary
exquisites, of satirists, skeptics, and _beaux esprits_, some chemical
disorganization of fabric may be inferred. Take, for example, the
century of Augustus and that of Louis XV. Our cynics and railers are
mere egotists, who stand aloof from the common duty, and in their
indolent remoteness are of no service to society against any ill which
may attack it. Their cultivation consists in having got rid of feeling.
And thus they fall farther and farther away from true humanity, and
approach nearer to the demoniacal nature. What was it that
Mephistopheles lacked? Not intelligence, certainly, but goodness.

* * * * *

DECEMBER 11TH, 1875.--The ideal which the wife and mother makes for
herself, the manner in which she understands duty and life, contain the
fate of the community. Her faith becomes the star of the conjugal ship,
and her love the animating principle that fashions the future of all
belonging to her. Woman is the salvation or destruction of the family.
She carries its destinies in the folds of her mantle.

* * * * *

JANUARY 22D, 1875.--The thirst for truth is not a French passion. In
everything appearance is preferred to reality, the outside to the
inside, the fashion to the material, that which shines to that which
profits, opinion to conscience. That is to say, the Frenchman's centre
of gravity is always outside him,--he is always thinking of others,
playing to the gallery. To him individuals are so many zeros: the unit
which turns them into a number must be added from outside; it may be
royalty, the writer of the day, the favorite newspaper, or any other
temporary master of fashion.--All this is probably the result of an
exaggerated sociability, which weakens the soul's forces of resistance,
destroys its capacity for investigation and personal conviction, and
kills in it the worship of the ideal.

* * * * *

DECEMBER 9TH, 1877.--The modern haunters of Parnassus carve urns of
agate and of onyx; but inside the urns what is there?--Ashes. Their work
lacks feeling, seriousness, sincerity, and pathos--in a word, soul and
moral life. I cannot bring myself to sympathize with such a way of
understanding poetry. The talent shown is astonishing, but stuff and
matter are wanting. It is an effort of the imagination to stand
alone--substitute for everything else. We find metaphors, rhymes, music,
color, but not man, not humanity. Poetry of this factitious kind may
beguile one at twenty, but what can one make of it at fifty? It reminds
me of Pergamos, of Alexandria, of all the epochs of decadence when
beauty of form hid poverty of thought and exhaustion of feeling. I
strongly share the repugnance which this poetical school arouses in
simple people. It is as though it only cared to please the world-worn,
the over-subtle, the corrupted, while it ignores all normal healthy
life, virtuous habits, pure affections, steady labor, honesty, and duty.
It is an affectation, and because it is an affectation the school is
struck with sterility. The reader desires in the poem something better
than a juggler in rhyme, or a conjurer in verse; he looks 'to find in
him a painter of life, a being who thinks, loves, and has a conscience,
who feels passion and repentance.

The true critic strives for a clear vision of things as they are--for
justice and fairness; his effort is to get free from himself, so that he
may in no way disfigure that which he wishes to understand or reproduce.
His superiority to the common herd lies in this effort, even when its
success is only partial. He distrusts his own senses, he sifts his own
impressions, by returning upon them from different sides and at
different times, by comparing, moderating, shading, distinguishing, and
so endeavoring to approach more and more nearly to the formula which
represents the maximum of truth.

The art which is grand and yet simple is that which presupposes the
greatest elevation both in artist and in public.

* * * * *

MAY 19TH, 1878.--Criticism is above all a gift, an intuition, a matter
of tact and _flair_; it cannot be taught or demonstrated,--it is an art.
Critical genius means an aptitude for discerning truth under appearances
or in disguises which conceal it; for discovering it in spite of the
errors of testimony, the frauds of tradition, the dust of time, the loss
or alteration of texts. It is the sagacity of the hunter whom nothing
deceives for long, and whom no ruse can throw off the trail. It is the
talent of the _Juge d'Instruction_ who knows how to interrogate
circumstances, and to extract an unknown secret from a thousand
falsehoods. The true critic can understand everything, but he will be
the dupe of nothing, and to no convention will he sacrifice his duty,
which is to find out and proclaim truth. Competent learning, general
cultivation, absolute probity, accuracy of general view, human sympathy,
and technical capacity,--how many things are necessary to the critic,
without reckoning grace, delicacy, _savoir vivre_, and the gift of happy
phrasemaking!

* * * * *

MAY 22D, 1879 (Ascension Day).--Wonderful and delicious weather. Soft,
caressing sunlight,--the air a limpid blue,--twitterings of birds; even
the distant voices of the city have something young and springlike in
them. It is indeed a new birth. The ascension of the Savior of men is
symbolized by the expansion, this heavenward yearning of nature.... I
feel myself born again; all the windows of the soul are clear. Forms,
lines, tints, reflections, sounds, contrasts, and harmonies, the general
play and interchange of things,--it is all enchanting!