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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. V.

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. V

LIVED PAGE
OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK 1815- 1929

BY MUNROE SMITH

Letters--To Fran von Arnim
To His Wife: Aug. 7, 1851; June 6, 1859; June
8, 1859; June 28, 1859; July 26, 1859
To Oscar von Arnim
To His Wife: Aug. 4, 1862; July 9, 1866; Sept. 3,
1870; June 23, 1852
Personal Characteristics of the Members of the Frankfort Diet
From a Speech on the Military Bill

BJOeRNSTJERNE BJOeRNSON 1832- 1959

BY WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE

Over the Lofty Mountains ('Arne')
The Cloister in the South ('Arnljot Gelline')
The Plea of King Magnus ('Sigurd Slembe')
Sin and Death (same)
The Princess
Sigurd Slembe's Return
How the Mountain Was Clad ('Arne')
The Father

WILLIAM BLACK 1841- 1983

The End of Macleod of Dare
Sheila in London ('A Princess of Thule')

RICHARD DODDRIDGE BLACKMORE 1825- 2011

A Desperate Venture ('Lorna Doone')
A Wedding and a Revenge (same)
Landing the Trout ('Alice Lorraine')
A Dane in the Dike ('Mary Anerley')

WILLIAM BLAKE 1757-1827 2041

Song The Piper and the Child
Song Holy Thursday
The Two Songs Cradle Song
Night The Little Black Boy
The Tiger

CHARLES BLANC 1813-1882 2051

Rembrandt ('The Dutch School of Painters')
Albert Duerer's 'Melancholia' (same)
Ingres ('Life of Ingres')
Calamatta's Studio ('Contemporary Artists')
Blanc's Debut as Art Critic (same)
Delacroix's 'Bark of Dante' (same)
Genesis of the 'Grammar'
Moral Influence of Art ('Grammar of Painting and Engraving')
Poussin's 'Shepherds of Arcadia' (same)
Landscape (same)
Style (same)
Law of Proportion in Architecture (same)

STEEN STEENSEN BLICHER 1782-1848 2064

A Picture
The Knitting-Room
The Hosier

MATHILDE BLIND 1847-1896 2075

From 'Love in Exile' The Mystic's Vision
Seeking From 'Tarantella'
Songs of Summer O Moon, Large Golden Summer Moon
A Parable
Love's Somnambulist Green Leaves and Sere

GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO 1313-1375 2089

BY W.J. STILLMAN

Frederick of the Alberighi and His Falcon
The Jew Converted to Christianity by Going to Rome
The Story of Saladin and the Jew Usurer
The Story of Griselda

FRIEDRICH MARTIN VON BODENSTEDT 1819-1892 2116

Two
Wine
Song
Unchanging
The Poetry of Mirza-Schaffy ('Thousand and One Days in the East')
Mirza-Schaffy (same)
The School of Wisdom (same)
An Excursion into Armenia (same)
Mirza-Jussuf
Wisdom and Knowledge

JOHANN JAKOB BODMER 1698-1783 2128

Kinship of the Arts ('Rubens')
Poetry and Painting ('Holbein')
Tribute to Tobacco ('Duerer')

BOETIUS 475-525 2133

Of the Greatest Good ('Consolations of Philosophy')

NICHOLAS BOILEAU-DESPREAUX 1636-1711 2141

Advice to Authors ('The Art of Poetry')
The Pastoral, the Elegy, the Ode, and the Epigram (same)
To Moliere ('The Satires')

GASTON BOISSIER 1823-2152 2152

Madame de Sevigne as a Letter-Writer ('Life of Madame
de Sevigne')
French Society in the Seventeenth Century (same)
How Horace Lived at his Country-House ('The Country
of Horace and Virgil')

GEORGE H. BOKER 1823-1890 2163

The Black Regiment
The Sword-Bearer
Sonnets

SAINT BONAVENTURA 1221-1274 2169

BY THOMAS DAVIDSON

On the Beholding of God in His Footsteps in This Sensible World

GEORGE BORROW 1803-1881 2175

BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE

At the Horse-Fair ('Lavengro')
A Meeting ('The Bible in Spain')

JUAN BOSCAN 1493-?1540 2203

On the Death of Garcilaso
A Picture of Domestic Happiness ('Epistle to Mendoza')

JACQUES BENIGNE BOSSUET 1627-1704 2209

BY ADOLPHE COHN

From the Sermon upon 'The Unity of the Church'
Opening of the Funeral Oration on Henrietta of France
From the 'Discourse upon Universal History'
Public Spirit in Rome

JAMES BOSWELL 1740-1795 2227

BY CHARLES F. JOHNSON

An Account of Corsica
A Tour to Corsica
The Life of Samuel Johnson

PAUL BOURGET 1852- 2252

The American Family ('Outre-Mer')
The Aristocratic Vision of M. Renan ('Study of M. Renan')

SIR JOHN BOWRING 1792-1872 2263

The Cross of Christ
Watchman! What of the Night?
Hymn
From Luis de Gongora: Not All Nightingales
From John Kollar: Sonnet
From Bogdanovich (Old Russian): Song
From Bobrov: The Golden Palace
From Dmitriev: The Dove and The Stranger
From Sarbiewski: Sapphics to A Rose

HJALMAR HJORTH BOYESEN 1848-1895 2272

A Norwegian Dance ('Gunnar')

MARY ELIZABETH BRADDON 1837- 2279

Advent of the Hirelings ('The Christmas Hirelings')
"How Bright She Was--" etc. ('Mohawks')

GEORG BRANDES 1842- 2299

BY WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE

Bjoernson ('Eminent Authors of the Nineteenth Century')
The Historical Movement in Modern Literature ('Main
Currents in the Literature of the Nineteenth Century')

SEBASTIAN BRANDT 1458-1521 2311

The Universal Shyp
Of Hym That Togyder Wyll Serve Two Maysters
Of To[o] Moche Spekynge or Bablynge

FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME V

* * * * *

PAGE
Saint Dunstan (Colored Plate) Frontispiece
Bismarck (Portrait) . . . . . . . 1930
"The Surrender at Sedan" (Photogravure) . . 1944
Richard Doddridge Blackmore (Portrait) . . 2012
"Rembrandt and His Wife" (Photogravure) . . 2055
Giovanni Boccaccio (Portrait) . . . . 2090
"The Decameron" (Photogravure) . . . . 2108
"Fatima" (Photogravure) . . . . . . 2120
"Domestic Happiness" (Photogravure) . . . 2206

VIGNETTE PORTRAITS

Bjoernstjerne Bjoernson
William Black
William Blake
Mathilde Blind
Friedrich M. von Bodenstedt
Johann Jakob Bodmer
Boetius
Nicholas Boileau-Despreaux
Gaston Boissier
George H. Boker
George Borrow
Jacques Benigne Bossuet
James Boswell
Paul Bourget
Sir John Bowring
Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen
Georg Brandes
Sebastian Brandt

OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK

(1815-)

BY MUNROE SMITH

Otto Edward Leopold, fourth child of Charles and Wilhelmina von
Bismarck, was born at Schoenhausen in Prussia, April 1, 1815. The family
was one of the oldest in the "Old Mark" (now a part of the province of
Saxony), and not a few of its members had held important military or
diplomatic positions under the Prussian crown. The young Otto passed his
school years in Berlin, and pursued university studies in law (1832-5)
at Goettingen and at Berlin. At Goettingen he was rarely seen at lectures,
but was a prominent figure in the social life of the student body: the
old university town is full of traditions of his prowess in duels and
drinking bouts, and of his difficulties with the authorities. In 1835 he
passed the State examination in law, and was occupied for three years,
first in the judicial and then in the administrative service of the
State, at Berlin, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Potsdam. In 1838 he left the
governmental service and studied agriculture at the Eldena Academy. From
his twenty-fourth to his thirty-sixth year (1839-51) his life was that
of a country squire. He took charge at first of property held by his
father in Pomerania; upon his father's death in 1845 he assumed the
management of the family estate of Schoenhausen. Here he held the local
offices of captain of dikes and of deputy in the provincial Diet. The
latter position proved a stepping-stone into Prussian and German
politics; for when Frederick William IV. summoned the "United Diet" of
the kingdom (1847), Bismarck was sent to Berlin as an alternate delegate
from his province.

The next three years were full of events. The revolution of 1848 forced
all the German sovereigns who had thus far retained absolute power,
among them the King of Prussia, to grant representative constitutions to
their people. The same year witnessed the initiation of a great popular
movement for the unification of Germany. A national Parliament was
assembled at Frankfort, and in 1849 it offered to the King of Prussia
the German imperial crown; but the constitution it had drafted was so
democratic, and the opposition of the German princes so great, that
Frederick William felt obliged to refuse the offer. An attempt was then
made, at a Parliament held in Erfurt, to establish a "narrower Germany"
under Prussian leadership; but this movement also came to nothing. The
Austrian government, paralyzed for a time by revolts in its own
territories, had re-established its power and threatened Prussia with
war. Russia supported Austria, and Prussia submitted at Olmuetz (1850).
In these stirring years, Bismarck--first as a member of the United Diet
and then as a representative in the new Prussian Chamber of
Deputies--made himself prominent by hostility to the constitutional
movement and championship of royal prerogative. He defended the King's
refusal of the imperial crown, because "all the real gold in it would be
gotten by melting up the Prussian crown"; and he compared the pact which
the King, by accepting the Frankfort constitution, would make with the
democracy, to the pact between the huntsman and the devil in the
'Freischuetz': sooner or later, he declared, the people would come to the
Emperor, and pointing to the Imperial arms, would say, "Do you fancy
this eagle was given you for nothing?" He sat in the Erfurt Parliament,
but had no faith in its success. He opposed the constitution which it
adopted, although this was far more conservative than that drafted at
Frankfort, because he deemed it still too revolutionary. During the
Austro-Prussian disputes of 1850 he expressed himself, like the rest of
the Prussian Conservatives, in favor of reconciliation with Austria, and
he even defended the convention of Olmuetz.

After Olmuetz, the German Federal Diet, which had disappeared in 1848,
was reconstituted at Frankfort, and to Frankfort Bismarck was sent, in
1857, as representative of Prussia. This position, which he held for
more than seven years, was essentially diplomatic, since the Federal
Diet was merely a permanent congress of German ambassadors; and
Bismarck, who had enjoyed no diplomatic training, owed his appointment
partly to the fact that his record made him _persona grata_ to the
"presidential power," Austria. He soon forfeited the favor of that State
by the steadfastness with which he resisted its pretensions to superior
authority, and the energy with which he defended the constitutional
parity of Prussia and the smaller States; but he won the confidence of
the home government, and was consulted by the King and his ministers
with increasing frequency on the most important questions of European
diplomacy. He strove to inspire them with greater jealousy of Austria.
He favored closer relations with Napoleon III., as a make-weight against
the Austrian influence, and was charged by some of his opponents with an
undue leaning toward France; but as he explained in a letter to a
friend, if he had sold himself, it was "to a Teutonic and not to a
Gallic devil."

[Illustration: BISMARCK]

In the winter of 1858-9, as the Franco-Austrian war drew nearer,
Bismarck's anti-Austrian attitude became so pronounced that his
government, by no means ready to break with Austria, but rather
disposed to support that power against France, felt it necessary to put
him, as he himself expressed it, "on ice on the Neva." From 1859 to 1862
he held the position of Prussian ambassador at St. Petersburg. In 1862
he was appointed ambassador at Paris. In the autumn of the same year he
became Minister-President of Prussia.

The new Prussian King, William I., had become involved in a controversy
with the Prussian Chamber of Deputies over the reorganization of the
army; his previous ministers were unwilling to press the reform against
a hostile majority; and Bismarck, who was ready to assume the
responsibility, was charged with the premiership of the new cabinet.
"Under some circumstances," he said later, "death upon the scaffold is
as glorious as upon the battlefield." From 1862 to 1866 he governed
Prussia without the support of the lower chamber and without a regular
budget. He informed a committee of the Deputies that the questions of
the time were not to be settled by-debates, but by "blood and iron."

In the diplomatic field it was his effort to secure a position of
advantage for the struggle with Austria for the control of Germany,--a
struggle which, six years before, he had declared to be inevitable.
During his stay in St. Petersburg he had strengthened the friendly
feeling already subsisting between Prussia and Russia; and in 1863 he
gave the Russian government useful support in crushing a Polish
insurrection. To a remonstrance from the English ambassador, somewhat
arrogantly delivered in the name of Europe, Bismarck responded, "Who is
Europe?" While in Paris he had convinced himself that no serious
interference was to be apprehended from Napoleon. That monarch overrated
Austria; regarded Bismarck's plans, which appear to have been explained
with extraordinary frankness, as chimerical; and pronounced Bismarck
"not a serious person." Bismarck, on the other hand, privately expressed
the opinion that Napoleon was "a great unrecognized incapacity." When,
in 1863, the death of Frederick VII. of Denmark without direct heirs
raised again the ancient Schleswig-Holstein problem, Bismarck saw that
the opportunity had come for the solution of the German question.

The events of the next seven years are familiar history. In 1864 Prussia
and Austria made war on Denmark, and obtained a joint sovereignty over
the duchies of Holstein and Schleswig. In 1866, with Italy as her ally,
Prussia drove Austria out of the German Confederation; annexed
Schleswig, Holstein, Hanover, Electoral Hesse, and Frankfort; and
brought all the German States north of the Main, except Luxemburg, into
the North German Confederation, of which the King of Prussia was
President and Bismarck Chancellor. When war was declared by France in
1870, the South German States also placed their forces at the King of
Prussia's disposal; and before the war was over they joined the newly
established German Empire, which thus included all the territories of
the old Confederation except German Austria and Luxemburg. The old
Confederation was a mere league of sovereign States; the new Empire was
a nation. To this Empire, at the close of the war, the French Republic
paid an indemnity of five milliards of francs, and ceded Alsace
and Lorraine.

In giving the German people political unity Bismarck realized their
strongest and deepest desire; and the feeling entertained toward him
underwent a sudden revulsion. From 1862 to 1866 he had been the best
hated man in Germany. The partial union of 1867--when, as he expressed
it, Germany was "put in the saddle"--made him a national hero. The
reconciliation with the people was the more complete because, at
Bismarck's suggestion, a German Parliament was created, elected by
universal suffrage, and because the Prussian ministers (to the great
indignation of their conservative supporters) asked the Prussian
Deputies to grant them indemnity for their unconstitutional conduct of
the government during the preceding four years. For the next ten years
Bismarck had behind him, in Prussian and in German affairs, a
substantial nationalist majority. At times, indeed, he had to restrain
their zeal. In 1867, for instance, when they desired to take Baden alone
into the new union,--the rest of South Germany being averse to
entrance,--Bismarck was obliged to tell them that it would be a poor
policy "to skim off the cream and let the rest of the milk turn sour."

Bismarck remained Chancellor of the Empire as well as Minister-President
of Prussia until 1890, when William II. demanded his resignation. During
these years the military strength of the Empire was greatly increased;
its finances were placed upon an independent footing; its authority was
extended in legislative matters, and its administrative system was
developed and consolidated. Conflicts with the Roman Catholic hierarchy
(1873-87), and with the Social Democracy (1878-90) resulted
indecisively; though Bismarck's desire to alleviate the misery which in
his opinion caused the socialistic movement gave rise to a series of
remarkable laws for the insurance of the laboring classes against
accident, disease, and old age. With a return to the protective system,
which Bismarck advocated for fiscal reasons, he combined the attempt to
enlarge Germany's foreign market by the establishment of imperial
colonies in Africa and in the Pacific Ocean. In other respects his
foreign policy, after 1870, was controlled by the desire to preserve
peace. "Germany," he said, "belongs to the satisfied nations." When the
Russian friendship cooled, he secured an alliance with Austria (1879),
which Italy also joined (1882); and the "triple alliance" thus formed
continued to dominate European politics for many years after Bismarck's
withdrawal from office.

Of Bismarck's State papers, the greater portion are still buried in the
Prussian archives. The most important series that has been published
consists of his dispatches from Frankfort (Poschinger, Preussen im
Bundestag, 1851-8, 4 vols.). These are marked by clearness of statement,
force of argument, and felicity of illustration. The style, although
less direct and simple than that of his unofficial writings, is still
excellent. A large part of the interest attaching to these early papers
lies in their acute characterization of the diplomatists with whom he
had to deal. His analysis of their motives reveals from the outset that
thorough insight into human nature which was to count for so much in his
subsequent diplomatic triumphs. Of his later notes and dispatches, such
as have seen the light may be found in Hahn's documentary biography
('Fuerst Bismarck,' 5 vols.). His reports and memorials on economic and
fiscal questions have been collected by Poschinger in 'Bismarck als
Volkswirth.'

Of Bismarck's parliamentary speeches there exists a full collection
(reproduced without revision from the stenographic reports) in fifteen
volumes. Bismarck was not an orator in the ordinary acceptation of the
word. His mode of address was conversational; his delivery was
monotonous and halting. He often hesitated, searching for a word; but
when it came, it usually seemed the only word that could have expressed
his meaning, and the hesitation that preceded it gave it a singular
emphasis. It seemed to be his aim to convince his hearers, not to win
them; his appeal was regularly to their intelligence, not to their
emotions. When the energy and warmth of his own feelings had carried him
into something like a flight of oratory, there was apt to follow, at the
next moment, some plain matter-of-fact statement that brought the
discussion back at once to its ordinary level. Such an anti-climax was
often very effective: the obvious effort of the speaker to keep his
emotions under restraint vouched for the sincerity of the preceding
outburst. It should be added that he appreciated as few Germans do the
rhetorical value of understatement.

He was undoubtedly at his literary best in conversation and in his
letters. We have several volumes of Bismarck anecdotes, Bismarck
table-talk, etc. The best known are those of Busch, which have been
translated into English--and in spite of the fact that his sayings come
to us at second hand and colored by the personality of the transmitter,
we recognize the qualities which, by the universal testimony of those
who knew him, made him one of the most fascinating of talkers. These
qualities, however, come out most clearly in a little volume of letters
('Bismarck briefe'), chiefly addressed to his wife. (These letters have
been excellently translated into English by F. Maxse.) They are
characterized throughout by vivid and graphic descriptions, a subtle
sense of humor, and real wit; and they have in the highest degree--far
more than his State papers or speeches--the literary quality, and that
indescribable something which we call style.

Bismarck furnishes, once for all, the answer to the old French question,
whether a German can possibly have _esprit_--witness his response to the
German prince who desired his advice regarding the offer of the crown of
one of the Balkan States:--"Accept, by all means: it will be a charming
recollection for you." He possessed also to a high degree the power of
summing up a situation or characterizing a movement in a single phrase;
and his sayings have enriched the German language with more quotations
than the spoken words of any German since Luther.

Of the numerous German biographies, Harm's gives the greatest amount of
documentary material; Hesekiel's (which has been translated into
English) is the most popular. The best French biography is by Simon; the
only important English work is that by Lowe. For bibliography, see
Schulze and Roller, (Bismarck-Literatur) (1895), which contains about
600 titles. The Frankfort dispatches and the speeches have been
translated into French, but not into English.

[Illustration: signature of Munroe Smith]

TO FRAU VON ARNIM

SCHOeNHAUSEN, August 7th, 1850.

The fact is, this journey, and I see it more clearly the nearer it
approaches, gives me a right of reversion on the new lunatic asylum, or
at least a seat for life in the Second Chamber. I can already see myself
on the platform of the Genthiner station; then both of us packed in the
carriage, surrounded with all sorts of child's necessaries--an
embarrassing company; Johanna ashamed to suckle the baby, which
accordingly roars itself blue; then the passports, the inn; then at
Stettin railway station with both bellowing monkeys; then waiting an
hour at Angermuende for the horses; and how are we to get from
Kroechlendorf to Kuelz? It would be perfectly awful if we had to remain
for the night at Stettin. I did that last year with Marie and her
squallings. I was in such a state of despair yesterday over all these
visions that I was positively determined to give the whole thing up, and
at last went to bed with the resolve at least to go straight through,
without stopping anywhere; but what will one not commit for the sake of
domestic peace? The young cousins, male and female, must become
acquainted, and who knows when Johanna will see you again? She pounced
upon me last night with the boy in her arms, and with all those wiles
which formerly lost us Paradise; of course she succeeded in wringing my
consent that everything should remain as before. I feel, however, that I
am as one to whom fearful injustice is done, and I am certain that I
shall have to travel next year with three cradles, wet-nurses,
long-clothes, and counterpanes. I am now awake by six o'clock, and
already in a gentle simmer of anger; I cannot get to sleep, owing to all
the visions of traveling which my imagination paints in the darkest
colors, even up to the "picnics" on the sandhills of Stolpmuende. And
then if one were only paid for it! But to travel away the last remnants
of a once handsome fortune with sucking babies!--I am very unhappy!

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