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)

I