The Best of the Worlds Classics, Restricted to Prose. Volume I - Greece | Page 7

class they seem to be like the young man in Du Maurier's picture, who, being asked if he had read Thackeray, replies, "No. I nevah read novels; I write them."
In this age of quickening movement and restless haste it is, above all things, important to struggle against the well-nigh universal inclination to abandon all efforts for form and style. They are the great preservers of what is best in literature, the salt which ought never to lose its savor. Those who use English in public speech and public writing have a serious responsibility too generally forgotten and disregarded. I would fain call attention to it altho no single man can hope to effect much by any plea he can make in behalf of the use of good English, whether written or spoken. Yet no one, I think, can read the great masterpieces of English prose and not have both lesson and responsibility brought home to him. He would be insensible, indeed, if he did not feel after such reading that he was a sharer in a noble heritage which it behooved him to guard and cherish. If this series serves no other purpose, it will exhibit to those who read it some of the splendors and the beauties of English prose. It will at least open the gates of literature and perhaps lead its readers to authors they have not known before, or recall the words of writers who have entered into their lives and thoughts and thus make them more mindful of the ineffable value to them and their children of the great language which is at once their birthright and their inheritance.
HENRY CABOT LODGE.
Washington, D. C., July 15, 1909.

CONTENTS
VOL. I--GREECE
INTRODUCTION. By Henry Cabot Lodge.
HERODOTUS--(Born probably in 484 B.C., died probably in 424.)
I Solon's Words of Wisdom to Croesus. (From Book I of the "History." Translated by Rawlinson)
II Babylon and Its Capture by Cyrus. (From Book I of the "History." Translated by Taylor)
III The Pyramid of Cheops. (From Book II of the "History." Translated by Rawlinson)
IV The Story of Periander's Son. (From Book III of the "History." Translated by Rawlinson)
THUCYDIDES--(Born about 471 B.C., died about 401.)
I The Athenians and Spartans Contrasted. (From Book I of the "Peloponnesian War." Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
II The Plague at Athens. (From Book II of the "Peloponnesian War." Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
III The Sailing of the Athenian Fleet for Sicily. (From Book VI of the "Peloponnesian War." Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
IV Completion of the Athenian Defeat at Syracuse. (From Book VII of the "Peloponnesian War." Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
XENOPHON--(Born about 430 B.C., died about 357.)
I The Character of Cyrus the Younger. (From the "Anabasis." Translated by J. S. Watson)
II The Greek Army in the Snows of Armenia. (From the "Anabasis." Translated by Watson)
III The Battle of Leuctra. (From Book VI of the "Hellenica." Translated by Watson)
IV Of the Army of the Spartans. (From the treatise on "The Government of Laced?mon." Translated by Watson)
V How to Choose and Manage Saddle Horses. (From the treatise on "Horsemanship." Translated by Watson)
PLATO--(Born about 427 B.C., died in 347.)
I The Image of the Cave. (From the "Republic." Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
II Good and Evil. (From the "Protagoras." Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
III Socrates in Praise of Love. (From the "Symposium." Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
IV The Praise of Socrates by Alcibiades. (From the "Symposium." Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
V The Refusal of Socrates to Escape from Prison. (From the "Crito." Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
VI The Death of Socrates. (From the "Ph?do." Translated by Benjamin Jowett)
ARISTOTLE--(Born in 384 B.C., died in 322.)
I What Things are Pleasant. (From Book I of the "Rhetoric." Translated by Buckley)
II The Life Most Desirable. (From Book VII of the "Politics." Translated by Walford)
III Ideal Husbands and Wives. (From Book I of the "Economics." Translated by Walford)
IV Happiness as an End of Human Action. (From Book X of the "Nicomachean Ethics." Translated by Browne)
POLYBIUS--(Born in 204 B.C., died about 125.)
I The Battle of Cann?. (From Book IV of the "Histories." Translated by Shuckburgh)
II Hannibal's Advance on Rome. (From Book IX of the "Histories." Translated by Shuckburgh)
III The Defense of Syracuse by Archimedes. (From Book VIII of the "Histories." Translated by Shuckburgh)
PLUTARCH--(Born about 46 A.D., died in 125.)
I Demosthenes and Cicero Compared. (From the "Lives." Translated by Sir Thomas North)
II The Assassination of C?sar. (From the "Lives." Translated by North)
III Cleopatra's Barge. (From the "Life of Mark Antony." Translated by North)
IV The Death of Antony and Cleopatra. (From the "Life of Mark Antony." Translated by North)
EPICTETUS--(Born about the middle of the first century.)
I Of Freedom. (From the "Discourses." Translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson)
II Of Friendship. (From the "Discourses." Translated by Higginson)
III The Philosopher and the Crowd. (From the "Discourses." Translated by Higginson)
LUCIAN--(Born about 120 A.D., died about 200.)
I A Descent to the Unknown. (From "Menippus." Translated by H. W. and