The plan of this Work is simple, and yet it is novel. In its distinctive features it differs from any compilation that has yet been made. Its main purpose is to present to American households a mass of good reading. Contents: Abelard and Heloise 1079-1142 (Thomas Davidson) Letter of Heloise to Abelard, Abelard's Answer to Heloise, Vesper Hymn of Abelard Edmund About 1828-1885 The Capture, Hadgi-Stavros, The Victim, The Man Without a Country Acadian, Babylonion, and Assyrian Literature (Crawford H. Toy) Theogony, Revolt of Tiamat, Descent to the Underworld, The Flood, The Eagle and the Snake, The Flight of Etana, The God Zu, Adapa and the Southwind, Penitential Psalms, Inscription of Sennacherib, Invocation to the Goddess Beltis, Oracles of Ishtar of Arbela, An Erechite's Lament Abigail Adams (Lucia Gilbert Runkle) 1744-1818 Letters-to her Husband: May 24, 1775; June 15, 1775; June 18, 1775; November 27, 1775; April 20, 1777; June 8, 1779 To her Sister: September 5, 1784; May 10, 1785; July 24, 1784; June 24, 1785 To her Niece Henry Adams 1838 Auspices of the War of 1812, What the War of 1812 Demonstrated, Battle Between the Constitution and the Guerriere John Adams 1735-1826 At the French Court ('Diary'), Character of Franklin (Letter to the Boston Patriot) John Quincy Adams 1767-1848 Letter to His Father, at the Age of Ten, From the Memoirs, at the Age of Eighteen, From the Memoirs, Jan. 14, 1831; June 7, 1833; Sept. 9, 1833, The Mission of America (Fourth of July Oration, 1821), The Right of Petition (Speech in Congress), Nullification (Fourth of July Oration, 1831) Sarah Flower Adams 1805-1848 He Sendeth Sun, He Sendeth Shower, Nearer, My God, to Thee Joseph Addison (Hamilton Wright Mabie) 1672-1720 Sir Roger de Coverley at the Play, Visit to Sir Roger de Coverley, Vanity of Human Life, Essay on Fans, Hymn 'The Spacious Firmament' Aelianus Claudius - Second Century Of Certain Notable Men that made themselves Playfellowes with Children, Of a Certaine Sicilian whose Eyesight was Woonderful Sharpe and Quick, The Law of the Lacedaemonians against Covetousness, That Sleep is the Brother of Death and of Gorgias drawing to his End, Of the Voluntary and Willing Death of Calanus, Of Delicate Dinners, Sumptuous Suppers, and Prodigall Banqueting, Of Bestowing Time, and how Walking Up and Downe was not Allowable among the Lacedaemonians, How Socrates Suppressed the Pryde and Hautiness of Alcibiades, Of Certain Wastgoodes and Spendthriftes Aeschines B.C. 389-314 A Defense and An Attack ('Oration against Ctesiphon') Aeschylus (John Williams White) B.C. 525-456 Complaint of Prometheus ('Prometheus'), Prayer to Artemis ('The Suppliants'), Defiancé of Eteocles ('The Seven Against Thebes'), Vision of Cassandra ('Agamemnon'), Lament the of the Old Nurse ('The Libation Pourers'), Decree of Athena ('The Eumenides) Aesop (Harry Thurston Peck) - Seventh Century B.C. The Fox and the Lion, The Ass in the Lion's Skin, The Ass Eating Thistles, The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, The Countryman and the Snake, The Belly and the Members, The Satyr and the Traveler, The Lion and the other Beasts, The Ass and the Little Dog, The Country Mouse and the City Mouse, The Dog and the Wolf Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz - 1807-1873 The Silurian Beach ('Geological Sketches'), Voices ('Methods of Study in Natural History'), Formation of Coral Reefs (same) Agathias A.D. 536-581 Apostrophe to Plutarch Grace Aguilar -1816-1847 Greatness of Friendship ('Women's Friendship'), Order of Knighthood ('The Days of Bruce'), Culprit and Judge ('Home Influence') William Harrison Ainsworth 1805-1882 - Students of Paris ('Crichton') Mark Akenside -1721-1770 From the Epistle to Curio, Aspirations After the Infinite ('Pleasures of the Imagination'), On a Sermon against Glory Pedro Antonio de Alarcon - 1833-1891 A Woman Viewed from Without ('The Three-Cornered Hat'), How the Orphan Manuel gained his Sobrique ('The Child of the Ball') Alcaeus - Sixth Century B.C. The Palace, A Banquet Song, An Invitation, The Storm, The Poor Fisherman, The State, Poverty Baltazar de Alcazar - 1530?-1606 Sleep, The Jovial Supper Alciphron (Harry Thurston Peck) - Second Century From a Mercenary Girl - Petala to Simalion, Pleasures of Athens - Euthydicus to Epiphanio, From and Anxious Mother-Phyllis to Thrasonides, From a Curious Youth - Philocomus to Thestylus, From a Professional Diner-Out - Capnosphrantes to Aristomachus, Unlucky Luck - Chytrolictes to Patellocharon Alcman - Seventh Century Poem on Night Louisa May Alcott - 1832-1888 The Night Ward ('Hospital Sketches'), Amy's Valley of Humiliation ('Little Women'), Thoreau's Flute (Atlantic Monthly), Song from the Suds ('Little Women') Alcuin (William H. Carpenter) - 735?-804 On the Saints of the Church at York ('Alcuin and the Rise of the Christian Schools'), Disputation between Pepin, the Most Noble and Royal Youth, and Albinus the Scholastic, A Letter from Alcuin to Charlemagne Henry M. Alden - 1836- A Dedication to My Beloved Wife ('A Study of Death'), The Dove and the Serpent (same), The Parable of the Prodigal (same) Thomas Bailey Aldrich -1837- Destiny, Identity, Prescience, Alec Yeaton's Son, Memory, Tennyson (1890), Sweetheart, Sigh No More, Broken Music, Elmwood, Sea Longings, A Shadow of the Night, Outward Bound, Reminiscence, Perre Antoine's Date-Palm, Miss Mehetabel's Son Aleardo Aleardi - 1812-1878 Cowards ('The Primal Histories'), The Harvesters ('Monte Circello'), The Death of A Year ('An Hour of My Youth') Jean Le Rond D'Alembert 1717-1783 Montesquieu ('Eulogy in the Encyclopedie') Vittorio Alfieri (L. Oscar Kuhns) - 1749-1803 Scenes from 'Agamemnon' Alfonso the Wise 1221-1284 What Meaneth a Tyrant, and How he Useth His Power ('Las Siete Partidas'), On the Turks, and Why they are So Called ('La Gran Conquista de Ultramar'), To the Month of Mary ('Cantigas') Alfred the Great 849-901 King Alfred on King-Craft, Alfred's Preface to the Version of Pope Gregory's 'Pastoral Care,' From Boethius, Blossom Gatherings from Saint Augustine Charles Grant Allen 1848- The Coloration of Flowers ('The Colors of Flowers'), Among the Heather ('The Evolutionist at Large'), The Heron's Haunt ('Vignettes From Nature') James Lane Allen - 1850- A Courtship ('A Summer in Arcady'), Old King Solomon's Coronation ('Flute and Violin') William Allingham 1828-1889 The Ruined Chapel, The Winter Pear, O Spirit of the Summer-time, The Bubble, St. Margaret's Eve, The Fairies, Robin Redbreast, An Evening, Daffodil, Lovely Mary Donnelly Karl Jonas Ludwig Almquist 1793-1866 Characteristics of Cattle, A New Undine (from 'The Book of the Rose'), God's War Johanna Ambrosius 1854- A Peasant's Thoughts, Struggle and Peace, DoThou Love, Too! Invitation Edmondo de Amicis -1846- The Light ('Constantinople'), Resemblances (same), Birds (same), Cordova ('Spain'), The Land of Pluck ('Holland and Its People'), The Dutch Masters ('Holland and Its People') Henri Frederic Amiel (Richard Burton) 1821-1881 Extracts from Amiel's Journal: Christ's Real Message, Duty, Joubert, Greeks vs. Moderns, Nature, and Teutonic and Scandinavian Poetry, Training of Children, Mozart and Beethoven