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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1903, by

HIALMER D. GOULD

and

E. L. HESSENMUELLER,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

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Transfer to be 9-19.89

INSCRIPTION.

Will those who long for the refining companionship of the world's best specimens of humanity, kindly accept this tribute as a special letter of introduction to the hundreds of authors herein quoted.

Every author desires to be known and appreciated, or he would not be an author. Take his thoughts as an index of his manhood, and be assured that your pleasure in his acquaintance, thus formed, is only equaled by his delight to instruct and interest you.

May your joyous friendship continue forever.

"A great writer is the friend and benefactor of his readers."-Macaulay.

66

Next to doing things that deserve to be written, nothing gets a man more credit, or gives him more pleasure, than to write things that deserve to be read."-Chesterfield.

FOREWORD.

READER, did you ever visit an art gallery and study the people who are studying the pictures? If so, you must have noticed how differently the different observers are affected by the same views, and how indifferent many are to the scenes of beauty around them. But let the most unappreciative spectator be joined by an artist friend who will analyze and explain the principles of art exemplified on the canvas, and immediately the dullest spectator is all attention, the stupid gaze is replaced by a look of intense interest, and the whole countenance becomes radiant with the expression of enjoyment received through the understanding.

From one canvas the artist explains different methods of grouping and effects of position; from another, perhaps, the principles of perspective are most clearly elucidated; a third furnishes finer illustration of color treatment, as complementary tints are introduced by a master hand, and contrast and definition are in proper balance. And so by noting a background here and a foreground there, high lights in one view and mezzotints in another, a few illustrations serve as a key to unlock the treasures of the whole studio, and our supposed spectator becomes thereafter an appreciative attendant at every art exhibition within reach. Verily, there is no entertainment that entertains like instruction that really does instruct.

Now, literature is the art gallery of thought,161 and language is the medium of expressing it. Ideas are the same in art or literature, but in one case they are painted in colors, while in the other case they are portrayed in words. The best thoughts of the best thinkers, as recorded in ancient and modern literature, are open to our inspection in all the libraries of the land. The problem before us is how to make the masses appreciate more fully the mental pictures which con

stitute the literature they read. Words have so many shades of meaning that all the tones and tints ever transferred to canvas are far less difficult of comprehension than are the powers of expression inherent in a good vocabulary. Not only does word after word require careful scrutiny, and the full sentence demand an effort of the understanding, but as we proceed with our mental digestion of one proposition after another, we find our judgment appealed to in one case, our sensibilities in another; our will is sought to be influenced, sometimes through the undertanding, sometimes through the emotions; our intellect assents or dissents, our feelings accept or reject, our conscience approves or disapproves, and thus the whole mind is brought into action in the weighing of evidence and the detection of fallacies, with the result that the heart responds like a harp of a thousand strings, evoking the divinest harmonies or the most terrible discords according to the nature of the thoughts submitted for our consideration.

It is the purpose of the authors of this volume to place upon the following pages for the reader's consideration the best thoughts of the best thinkers on many very different subjects, and by occasional suggestions and comments so gradually to instil the principles of rhetoric, logic, mental philosophy, moral philosophy, etc., without any formal use of the technical terms of any science, as to lead almost insensibly to a full comprehension of the essential elements of high grade literature. The facts and information herein presented are, we trust, worthy of the most careful perusal for their own sake; but taken as exemplary samples, they collectively furnish the key to a better understanding of all literature, both as to thought and the expression of thought.

The best thinkers do not always express themselves in the best language, and therefore the best thoughts of the best thinkers are not always masterpieces of eloquence. Usually a fair degree of ability of expression goes with any marked degree of thought power, but then, there are some splendid rhetorical expressions that contain only a small amount of mental food. Our aim is to reach both, but preferably the ability to apprehend the thought and test the validity of the

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