Library of the Worlds Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Volume 1 | Page 2

the Nibelungen Lied, the Holy
Grail, Provençal Poetry, the Chansons and Romances, and the Gesta
Romanorum, receive a similar treatment. Single poems upon which the
authors' title to fame mainly rests, familiar and dear hymns, and
occasional and modern verse of value, are also grouped together under
an appropriate heading, with reference in the Index whenever the poet
is known.
It will thus be evident to the reader that the Library is fairly
comprehensive and representative, and that it has an educational value,
while offering constant and varied entertainment. This comprehensive
feature, which gives the Work distinction, is, however, supplemented
by another of scarcely less importance; namely, the critical interpretive
and biographical comments upon the authors and their writings and
their place in literature, not by one mind, or by a small editorial staff,
but by a great number of writers and scholars, specialists and literary
critics, who are able to speak from knowledge and with authority. Thus
the Library becomes in a way representative of the scholarship and
wide judgment of our own time. But the essays have another value.
They give information for the guidance of the reader. If he becomes
interested in any selections here given, and would like a fuller
knowledge of the author's works, he can turn to the essay and find brief
observations and characterizations which will assist him in making his
choice of books from a library.
The selections are made for household and general reading; in the
belief that the best literature contains enough that is pure and elevating
and at the same time readable, to satisfy any taste that should be
encouraged. Of course selection implies choice and exclusion. It is
hoped that what is given will be generally approved; yet it may well

happen that some readers will miss the names of authors whom they
desire to read. But this Work, like every other, has its necessary limits;
and in a general compilation the classic writings, and those productions
that the world has set its seal on as among the best, must predominate
over contemporary literature that is still on its trial. It should be said,
however, that many writers of present note and popularity are omitted
simply for lack of space. The editors are compelled to keep constantly
in view the wider field. The general purpose is to give only literature;
and where authors are cited who are generally known as philosophers,
theologians, publicists, or scientists, it is because they have distinct
literary quality, or because their influence upon literature itself has been
so profound that the progress of the race could not be accounted for
without them.
These volumes contain not only or mainly the literature of the past, but
they aim to give, within the limits imposed by such a view, an idea of
contemporary achievement and tendencies in all civilized countries. In
this view of the modern world the literary product of America and
Great Britain occupies the largest space.
It should be said that the plan of this Work could not have been carried
out without the assistance of specialists in many departments of
learning, and of writers of skill and insight, both in this country and in
Europe. This assistance has been most cordially given, with a full
recognition of the value of the enterprise and of the aid that the Library
may give in encouraging and broadening literary tastes. Perhaps no
better service could be rendered the American public at this period than
the offer of an opportunity for a comprehensive study of the older and
the greater literatures of other nations. By this comparison it can gain a
just view of its own literature, and of its possible mission in the world
of letters.
Chas. Dudley Warner

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.
ALCÉE 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