The Project Gutenberg EBook of Darius the Great, by Jacob Abbott

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Title: Darius the Great
Makers of History

Author: Jacob Abbott

Release Date: January 13, 2009 [EBook #27802]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Makers of History

Darius the Great

BY

JACOB ABBOTT

WITH ENGRAVINGS

NEW YORK AND LONDON

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS

1904

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand
eight hundred and fifty, by

HARPER & BROTHERS,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District
of New York.

Copyright, 1878, by JACOB ABBOTT.

[Illustration: DARIUS CROSSING THE BOSPORUS.]

PREFACE.

In describing the character and the action of the personages whose
histories form the subjects of this series, the writer makes no
attempt to darken the colors in which he depicts their deeds of
violence and wrong, or to increase, by indignant denunciations, the
obloquy which heroes and conquerors have so often brought upon
themselves, in the estimation of mankind, by their ambition, their
tyranny, or their desperate and reckless crimes. In fact, it seems
desirable to diminish, rather than to increase, the spirit of
censoriousness which often leads men so harshly to condemn the errors
and sins of others, committed in circumstances of temptation to which
they themselves were never exposed. Besides, to denounce or vituperate
guilt, in a narrative of the transactions in which it was displayed,
has little influence in awakening a healthy sensitiveness in the
conscience of the reader. We observe, accordingly, that in the
narratives of the sacred Scriptures, such denunciations are seldom
found. The story of Absalom's undutifulness and rebellion, of David's
adultery and murder, of Herod's tyranny, and all other narratives of
crime, are related in a calm, simple, impartial, and forbearing
spirit, which leads us