THE BEST
of the
WORLD'S CLASSICS
RESTRICTED TO PROSE
HENRY CABOT LODGE
Editor-in-Chief
FRANCIS W. HALSEY
Associate Editor
With an Introduction, Biographical and Explanatory Notes, etc.
IN TEN VOLUMES
Vol. III
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND--I
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
NEW YORK AND LONDON
COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
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The Best of the World's Classics
VOL. III
GREAT BRITAIN AND
IRELAND--I
1281-1745
* * * * *
CONTENTS
VOL. III--GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND--I
RICHARD DE BURY--(Born in 1281, died in 1345.)
In Praise of Books. (From the "Philobiblon")
SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE--(Reputed author.)
I The Route from England to Constantinople. (From the "Travels")
II At the Court of the Great Chan. (From the "Travels")
JOHN WYCLIF--(Born about 1324, died in 1384.)
The Baptism of Christ. (Being a translation from the Gospel of Mark)
GEOFFREY CHAUCER--(Born about 1340, died in 1400.)
Of Acquiring and Using Riches. (One of the prose "Canterbury Tales")
WILLIAM CAXTON--(Born about 1422, died in 1491.)
Of True Nobility and Chivalry. (From the "Game and Playe of Chesse." Translated by Caxton from the French original)
SIR THOMAS MALORY--(Born about 1430, died after 1470.)
Of the Finding of a Sword for Arthur. (From the "Morte d'Arthur")
SIR THOMAS MORE--(Born in 1478, died in 1535.)
Life in Utopia. (From the "Utopia")
JOHN KNOX--(Born in 1505, died in 1572.)
An Interview with Mary Queen of Scots. (From the "History of the Reformation in Scotland")
ROGER ASCHAM--(Born in 1515, died in 1568.)
Of Gentle Methods in Teaching. (From the "Schoolmaster")
JOHN FOXE--(Born in 1516, died in 1587.)
The Death of Anne Boleyn. (From the "Book of Martyrs")
SIR WALTER RALEIGH--(Born in 1552, died in 1618.)
The Mutability of Human Affairs. (From the Preface to the "History of the World")
FRANCIS BACON--(Born in 1561, died in 1626.)
I Of Travel. (From the "Essays")
II Of Riches. (From the "Essays")
III Of Youth and Age. (From the "Essays")
IV Of Revenge. (From the "Essays")
V Of Marriage and Single Life. (From the "Essays")
VI Of Envy. (From the "Essays")
VII Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature. (From the "Essays")
VIII Of Studies. (From the "Essays")
IX Of Regiment of Health. (From the "Essays")
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE--(Born in 1564, died in 1616.)
I Brutus to His Countrymen. (From "Julius Caesar")
II Shylock in Defense of His Race. (From the "Merchant of Venice")
III Hamlet to the Players. (From "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark")
BEN JONSON--(Born in 1573, died in 1637.)
Shakespeare and Other Wits. (From "Timber; or, Discoveries Made Upon Men and Matter")
IZAAK WALTON--(Born in 1593, died in 1683.)
I The Antiquity of Angling. (From Part I, Chapter IV, of "The Compleat Angler")
II Of the Trout. (From Part I, Chapter IV, of "The Compleat Angler")
III The Death of George Herbert. (From the "Lives")
JAMES HOWELL--(Born in 1595, died in 1666.)
I The Bucentaur Ceremony in Venice. (From the "Familiar Letters")
II The City of Rome in 1621. (From the "Familiar Letters")
SIR THOMAS BROWNE--(Born in 1605, died in 1682.)
I Of Charity in Judgments. (From the "Religio Medici")
II Nothing Strictly Immortal. (From Chapter V of "Urn Burial")
JOHN MILTON--(Born in 1608, died in 1674.)
I Of His Own Literary Ambition. (From "The Reason of Church Government")
II A Complete Education Defined. (From the "Tractate on Education")
III On Reading in His Youth. (From the "Apology for Smectymnus")
IV In Defense of Books. (From the "Areopagitica")
V A Noble and Puissant Nation. (From the "Areopagitica")
VI Of Fugitive and Cloistered Virtue. (From the "Areopagitica")
LORD CLARENDON--(Born in 1608, died in 1674.)
Of Charles I. (From the "History of the Rebellion")
THOMAS FULLER--(Born in 1608, died in 1661.)
Qualities of the Good Schoolmaster. (From "The Holy and Profane State")
JEREMY TAYLOR--(Baptized in 1613, died in 1667.)
The Benefits of Adversity. (From the "Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying")
ABRAHAM COWLEY--(Born in 1618, died in 1667.)
I Of Obscurity. (From the "Essays")
II Of Procrastination. (From the "Essays")
GEORGE FOX--(Born in 1624, died in 1691.)
An Interview with Oliver Cromwell. (From the "Journal")
JOHN BUNYAN--(Baptized in 1628, died in 1668.)
I A Dream of the Celestial City. (From "The Pilgrim's Progress")
II The Death of Valiant-for-truth and of Stand-fast. (From "The Pilgrim's Progress")
III Ancient Vanity Fair. (From "The Pilgrim's Progress")
JOHN DRYDEN--(Born in 1631, died in 1700.)
Of Elizabethan Dramatists. (From the "Essay on Dramatic Poetry")
SAMUEL PEPYS--(Born in 1633, died in 1703.)
I Of Various Doings of Mr. and Mrs. Pepys. (From the "Diary")
II England Without Cromwell. (From the "Diary")
GILBERT BURNET--(Born in 1643, died in 1715.)
Charles II. (From the "History of Our Own Times")
DANIEL DEFOE--(Born in 1661, died in 1731.)
I The Shipwreck of Crusoe. (From "The Life and Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe")
II The Rescue of Man Friday. (From "The Life and Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe")
III In the Time of the Great Plague. (From the "History of the Great Plague")
JONATHAN SWIFT--(Born in 1667, died in 1745.)
I On Pretense in Philosophers. (From "Gulliver's Travels")
II On the Hospitality of the Vulgar. (From No. 1 of The Tatler)
III The Art of Lying in Politics. (From The Examiner)
IV A Meditation upon a Broomstick
V Gulliver Among the Giants. (From "Gulliver's Travels")
JOSEPH ADDISON--(Born in 1672, died in 1719.)
I In Westminster Abbey. (From No. 26 of The Spectator)
II Will Honeycomb and His Marriage. (From Nos. 105 and 530 of The Spectator)
III Pride of Birth. (From No. 137 of The Guardian)
IV Sir Roger and His Home. (From Nos. 2 and 106 of The Spectator)
* * * * *
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND--I
1281-1745
RICHARD DE BURY
Born in 1281, died in 1345; the son of Sir Richard Aungerville, his own name being taken from his birthplace, Bury St. Edmonds; educated at Oxford, and became a Benedictine monk; tutor to Edward III; dean of Wells Cathedral in 1333; bishop of Durham the same year; high chancellor of England in 1334; founded a library at Oxford; his "Philobiblon" first printed at Cologne in 1473.
IN PRAISE OF BOOKS[1]
The desirable treasure of wisdom and knowledge, which all men covet from the impulse of nature, infinitely surpasses all the riches of the world; in comparison with which, precious stones are vile, silver is clay, and purified gold grains of sand; in the splendor of which, the sun and moon grow dim to the sight; in the admirable sweetness of which, honey and manna are bitter to the taste. The value of wisdom decreaseth not with time; it hath an ever-flourishing virtue that cleanseth its possession from every venom. O celestial gift of divine liberality, descending from the Father of light to raise up the rational soul even to heaven; thou art the celestial alimony of intellect, of which whosoever eateth shall yet hunger, and whoso drinketh shall yet thirst; a harmony rejoicing the soul of the sorrowful, and never in any way discomposing the hearer. Thou art the moderator and the rule of morals, operating according to which none err. By thee kings reign, and lawgivers decree justly. Through thee, rusticity of nature being cast off, wits and tongues being polished, and the thorns of vice utterly eradicated, the summit of honor is reached and they become fathers of their country and companions of princes, who, without thee, might have forged their lances into spades and plowshares, or perhaps have fed swine with the prodigal son.
Where, then, most potent, most longed-for treasure, art thou concealed? and where shall the thirsty soul find thee? Undoubtedly, indeed, thou hast placed thy desirable tabernacle in books, where the Most High, the Light of light, the Book of Life, hath established thee. There then all who ask receive, all who seek find thee, to those who knock thou openest quickly. In books Cherubim expand their wings, that the soul of the student may ascend and look around from pole to pole, from the rising to the setting sun, from the north and from the south. In them the Most High, Incomprehensible God himself is contained and worshiped. In them the nature of celestial, terrestrial, and infernal beings is laid open. In them the laws by which every polity is governed are decreed, the offices of the celestial hierarchy are distinguished, and tyrannies of such demons are described as the ideas of Plato never surpassed, and the chair of Crito never sustained.
In books we find the dead as it were living: in books we foresee things to come; in books warlike affairs are methodized; the rights of peace proceed from books. All things are corrupted and decay with time. Satan never ceases to devour those whom he generates, insomuch that the glory of the world would be lost in oblivion, if God had not provided mortals with a remedy in books. Alexander, the ruler of the world; Julius[2] the invader of the world and the city, the first who in unity of person assumed the empire in arms and arts; the faithful Fabricius,[3] the rigid Cato, would at this day have been without a memorial if the aid of books had failed them. Towers are razed to the earth, cities overthrown, triumphal arches moldered to dust; nor can the king or pope be found, upon whom the privilege of a lasting name can be conferred more easily than by books. A book made renders succession to the author; for as long as the book exists, the author, remaining immortal, can not perish; as Ptolemy witnesseth; in the prolog of his Almagest,[4] he (he says) is not dead, who gave life to science.