TheEditor's IntroductionTo theHarvard Classics
¶T Y PURPOSE in selecting The Harvard Classics was to \ \ / I provide the literary materials from which a careful and _L T -A. persistent reader might gain a fair view of the progress of man observing, recording, inventing, and imagining from the earliest historical times to the close of the nineteenth century. Within the limits of fifty volumes, containing about 22,000 pages, I was to provide the means of obtaining such a knowledge of ancient and modern literature as seems essential to the twentieth century idea of a cultivated man. The best acquisition of a cultivated man is a liberal frame of mind or way of thinking; but there must be added to that possession acquaintance with the prodigious store of recorded discoveries, experiences, and reflections which humanity in its intermittent and irregular progress from barbarism to civilization has acquired and laid up. From that store I proposed to make such a selection as any intellectually ambitious American family might use to advantage, even if their early opportunities of education had been scanty. The purpose of The Harvard Classics is, therefore, one very different from that of the many collections in which the editor's aim has been to select the hundred or the fifty best books in the world; it is nothing less than the purpose to present so ample and characteristic a record of the stream of the world's thought that the observant reader's mind shall be enriched, refined, and fertilized by it.
¶With such objects in view it was essential that the whole series should be in the English language; and this limitation to English necessitated the free use of translations, in spite of the fact that it is impossible to reproduce perfectly in a translation the style [4]and flavor of the original. The reader of this collection must not imagine that he can find in an English translation of Homer, Dante, Cervantes, or Goethe, all the beauty and charm of the original. Nevertheless, translations can yield much genuine cultivation to the student who attends to the substance of the author's thought, although he knows all the time that he is missing some of the elegance and beauty of the original form. Since it is impossible to give in translation the rhythm and sweetness of poetry—and particularly of lyric poetry—far the larger part of the poetry in The Harvard Classics will be found to be poetry which was written in English.
¶While with very few exceptions every piece of writing included in the series is complete in itself—that is, is a whole book, narrative, document, essay, or poem—there are many volumes which are made up of numerous short, though complete, works. Thus, three volumes contain an anthology of English poetry comprising specimens of the work of over two hundred writers. There is also a volume of memorable prefaces, and another of important American historical documents. Five volumes are made up of essays, representing several centuries and several nationalities. The principal subjects embraced in the series are history, biography, philosophy, religion, voyages and travels, natural science, government and politics, education, criticism, the drama, epic and lyric poetry, and prose fiction —in short, all the main subdivisions of literature. The principal literatures represented in the collection are those of Greece, Rome, France, Italy, Spain, England, Scotland, Germany, and the United States; but important contributions have been drawn also from Chinese, Hindu, Hebrew, Arabian, Scandinavian, and Irish sources. Since the series is intended primarily for American readers, it contains a somewhat disproportionate amount of English and American literature, and of documents and discussions relating to American history and to the development of American social and political ideas.
¶Chronologically considered, the series begins with portions of the sacred books of the oldest religions, proceeds with specimens of the literature of Greece and Rome, then makes selections from the literature of the Middle Ages in the Orient, Italy, France, Scandinavia, Ireland, England, Germany, and the Latin Church, includes a considerable representation of the literature of the Renaissance in [5]Italy, France, Germany, England, Scotland, and Spain, and, arriving at modern times, comprehends selections derived from Italy, three centuries of France, two centuries of Germany, three centuries of England, and something more than a century of the United States.
¶Nothing has been included in the series which does not possess good literary form; but the collection illustrates the variations of literary form and taste from century to century, the wide separation in time of the recurrent climaxes in the various forms of literary expression in both prose and verse, and the immense widening of the range and scope of both letters and science during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.
¶At the very outset of the work unexpected difficulties arose, some of which, although almost mechanical, proved to be insurmountable. Many famous books were too long to be included in the set, that is, they would have taken a disproportionate number of the fifty volumes. Thus, the English Bible could not be included as a whole, because it was too long; and for the same reason only selections from Shakespeare, and the first part of "Don Quixote," could be included. Many famous and desirable books on history had to be excluded because of their length. The works of living authors were in general excluded, because the verdict of the educated world has not yet been pronounced upon them.
¶Finally, the whole of nineteenth century fiction, with two exceptions, was excluded; partly because of its great bulk, and partly because it is easily accessible. It proved to be possible, however, to represent by selections complete in themselves the English Bible, Shakespeare, and some other works of the highest order. Some authors whose greatest works were too long to be included in the series could be represented by one or more of their shorter works. It was hard to make up an adequate representation of the scientific thought of the nineteenth century, because much of the most productive scientific thought has not yet been given a literary form. The discoverers' original papers on chemistry, physics, geology, and biology have usually been presented to some scientific society, and have naturally been expressed in technical language, or have been filled with details indispensable from the scientific point of view but not instructive for the public in general.
p. 6¶Although a good part of the reading provided in The Harvard Classics may fairly be called interesting, there are also volumes or portions of volumes which make hard reading, even for a practised student. In the literature of other days some of the topics treated are unfamiliar, and, moreover, the state of mind of the authors is apt to be strange to the present generation. The sentiments and opinions these authors express are frequently not acceptable to present-day readers, who have to be often saying to themselves: "This is not true, or not correct, or not in accordance with our beliefs." It is, however, precisely this encounter with the mental states of other generations which enlarges the outlook and sympathies of the cultivated man, and persuades him of the upward tendency of the human race. The Harvard Classics, as a whole, require close attention and a resolute spirit on the part of the reader. Nevertheless large parts of the collection were undoubtedly composed just to give delight, or to show people how to win rational pleasures. Thus, the real values of almost all the tales, dramas, fiction, and poetry in the series are esthetic, not didactic, values. The interested reader ought to gain from them enjoyment and new power to enjoy.
¶There is no mode of using The Harvard Classics which can be recommended as the best for all readers. Every student who proposes to master the series must choose his own way through it. Some readers may be inclined to follow the chronological order; but shall they begin with the oldest book and read down through the centuries, or begin with the youngest and read backward? Another method would be to read by subjects, and under each subject chronologically. A good field for this method is the collection of voyages and travels. There is also merit in the chronological order in reading the documents taken from the sacred books of the world. Still another method is that of comparison or of contrast. The collection gives many opportunities of comparing the views of contemporaneous writers on the same subject, and also of contrasting the prevailing opinions in different nations or different social states at the same epoch. In government and politics, for example, the collection supplies much material for comparing the opinions of writers nearly contemporary but of different nationality, and for contrasting the different social states at the same epoch in nations not far [7]apart geographically, but distinct as regards their history, traditions, and habits.
¶Another way of dealing with the collection would be to read first an essay or a group of essays on related subjects, and then to search through the collection to discover all the material it contains within the field of that essay or group of essays. The essays in the collection are numerous, and deal with a great variety of topics both old and new. Whoever should follow the various leadings of the essays in the collection would ultimately cover far the greater part of the fifty volumes.
¶The biographies, letters, and prefaces contained in the collection will also afford much good guidance to other material. The student who likes the comparative method will naturally read consecutively all the dramas the collection contains; and it will not make much difference at which chronological end he begins, for some persons find the climax of drama in Shakespeare, but others in the Greek tragedies.
¶The anthology of English poetry is one of the most important parts of the collection, in respect to its function of providing reading competent to impart liberal culture to a devoted reader; but those volumes should not be read in course, but rather by authors, and a little at a time. The poems of John Milton and Robert Burns are given in full; because the works of these two very unlike poets contain social, religious, and governmental teachings of vital concern for modern democracies. Milton was the great poet of civil and religious liberty, Puritanism, and the English Commonwealth, and Burns was the great poet of democracy. The two together cover the fundamental principles of free government, education, and democratic social structure, and will serve as guides to much good reading on those subjects provided in the collection. The poetry contained in The Harvard Classics from Homer to Tennyson will by itself give any appreciative reader a vivid conception of the permanent, elemental sentiments and passions of mankind, and of the gradually developed ethical means of purifying those sentiments and controlling those passions.
¶In order to make the best use of The Harvard Classics it will be desirable for the young reader to reread those volumes or [8]passages which he finds most interesting, and to commit to memory many of the pieces of poetry which stir or uplift him. It is a source of exquisite and enduring delight to have one's mind stored with many melodious expressions of high thoughts and beautiful imagery.
¶I hope that many readers who are obliged to give eight or ten hours a day to the labors through which they earn their livelihood will use The Harvard Classics, and particularly young men and women whose early education was cut short, and who must therefore reach the standing of a cultivated man or woman through the pleasurable devotion of a few minutes a day through many years to the reading of good literature.
¶The main function of the collection should be to develop and foster in many thousands of people a taste for serious reading of the highest quality, outside of The Harvard Classics as well as within them.
¶It remains to describe the manner in which The Harvard Classics have been made up. I had more than once stated in public that in my opinion a five-foot shelf would hold books enough to give in the course of years a good substitute for a liberal education in youth to any one who would read them with devotion, even if he could spare but fifteen minutes a day for reading. Rather more than a year ago the firm of P. F. Collier & Son proposed that I undertake to make a selection of fifty volumes, containing from four hundred to four hundred and fifty pages each, which would approximately fill my five-foot shelf, and be well adapted to accomplish the educational object I had in mind.
¶I was invited to take the entire responsibility of making the selection, and was to be provided with a competent assistant of my own choice. In February, 1909, I accepted the proposal of the publishers, and secured the services of Dr. William A. Neilson, Professor of English in Harvard University, as my assistant. I decided what should be included, and what should be excluded. Professor Neilson wrote all the introductions and notes, made the choice among different editions of the same work, and offered many suggestions concerning available material. It also fell to him to make all the computations needed to decide the question whether a work desired was too long to be included. The most arduous part of his work was [9]the final making up of the composite volumes from available material which had commended itself to us both.
¶It would have been impossible to perform the task satisfactorily if the treasures of the general library and of the department libraries of Harvard University had not been at our disposal. The range of the topics in the series was so wide, and the number of languages in which the desired books were originally written so great, that the advice of specialists, each in some portion of the field, had frequently to be sought. We obtained much valuable advice of this sort from scholarly friends and neighbors.
¶We are under obligations to the following Harvard professors and instructors, whose advice we obtained on questions connected with their several specialties:
¶Crawford Howell Toy, Hancock Professor of Hebrew; George Herbert Palmer, Alford Professor of Natural Religion; William James, Professor of Philosophy; William Morris Davis, Sturgis-Hooper Professor of Geology; Ephraim Emerton, Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History; Charles Rockwell Lanman, Wales Professor of Sanscrit; Edward Laurens Mark, Hersey Professor of Anatomy; George Foot Moore, Frothingham Professor of the History of Religion; Edward Stevens Sheldon, Professor of Romance, Philology; Horatio Stevens White, Professor of German; Josiah Royce, Professor of the History of Philosophy; Harold Clarence Ernst, Professor of Bacteriology; Herbert Weir Smyth, Eliot Professor of Greek Literature; Frank William Taussig, Henry Lee Professor of Economics; Albert Bushnell Hart, Professor of History; Morris Hicky Morgan, Professor of Classical Philology; Theobald Smith, George Fabyan Professor of Comparative Pathology; Albert Andrew Howard, Pope Professor of Latin; George Lyman Kittredge, Professor of English; Samuel Williston, Weld Professor of Law; Charles Hall Grandgent, Professor of Romance Languages; Hugo Munsterberg, Professor of Psychology; Leo Wiener, Assistant Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures; Heinrich Conrad Bierwirth, Assistant Professor of German; Theodore William Richards, Professor of Chemistry; George Pierce Baker, Professor of English; James Haughton Woods, Assistant Professor of [10]Philosophy; Irving Babbitt, Assistant Professor of French; Charles Jesse Bullock, Professor of Economics; Edwin Francis Gay, Professor of Economics; Charles Burton Gulick, Professor of Greek; William Zebina Ripley, Professor of Political Economy; Thomas Nixon Carver, David A. Wells Professor of Political Economy; William Guild Howard, Assistant Professor of German; Fred Norris Robinson, Professor of English; Charles H. C. Wright, Assistant Professor of French; William Rosenzweig Arnold, Andover Professor of the Hebrew Language and Literature; John Albrecht Walz, Professor of the German Language and Literature; Jeremiah D. M. Ford, Smith Professor of the French and Spanish Languages; Edward Kennard Rand, Professor of Latin; Oliver M. W. Sprague, Assistant Professor of Banking and Finance; Jay Backus Wood-worth, Assistant Professor of Geology; George Henry Chase, Assistant Professor of Classical Archaeology; William Scott Ferguson, Assistant Professor of History; Roger Bigelow Merriman, Assistant Professor of History; Ralph Barton Perry, Assistant Professor of Philosophy; Louis Allard, Instructor in French; Harold de Wolf Fuller, Instructor in Comparative Literature; Lawrence Joseph Henderson, Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry; F. W. C. Hersey, Instructor in English; F. W. C. Lieder, Instructor in German; C. R. Post, Instructor in Romance Languages; R. W. Pettengill, Instructor in German; H. W. L. Dana, Assistant in English.
¶Many other scholars answered specific questions which we laid before them, among whom should be mentioned:
¶Jefferson Butler Fletcher, Professor of Comparative Literature, Columbia University; A. A. Young, Professor of Economics, Leland Stanford Jr. University; G. R. Noyes, Assistant Professor of Slavic, University of California; Lucien Foulet, Professor of French, University of California; Francis B. Gummere, Professor of English, Haverford College; Curtis Hidden Page, Professor of English Literature, Northwestern University; William Draper Lewis, Dean of the Law Department, University of Pennsylvania; James Ford Rhodes, LL.D. (Harvard), Historian; Henry Pickering Walcott, Chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Health; William Belmont Parker, New York; John A. Lester, Ph.D., the Hill School, Pennsylvania; Alfred Dwight Sheffield, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
p. 11¶The staff of the Harvard Library have also given valuable assistance.
¶In illustrating the volumes with portraits and facsimiles the publishers are under great obligations to the following owners of valuable prints, manuscripts, and autograph letters, who kindly permitted the publishers to use precious objects from their collections:
¶J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq.; R. H. Dana, Esq.; Wymberley Jones De Renne, Esq.; Harvard University Library; New York Public Library; Boston Public Library; Library of Congress; Library of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University.
¶The elaborate alphabetical index is intended to give any person who knows the art of using indexes or concordances, or will acquire it in this instance, immediate access to any author or any subject mentioned in the entire collection, and indeed to any passage in the fifty volumes to which the inquirer has a good clue. This full index should make The Harvard Classics convenient books of reference. March 10, /9/0
The Editor'sSecond Introduction
¶IN seven years The Harvard Classics have demonstrated their fitness for the special work they were intended to do. They were to provide from famous literature, ancient and modern, an ample record of "the stream of the world's thought"; so that a careful reader of the collection might in the course of years attain the standing of a cultivated man or woman, making up through this long course of reading any deficiencies which might have existed in the early education of the reader. I hoped, too, that in spite of the serious character of the entire collection, an interested and patient reader would gain from the collection much enjoyment and a new power to enjoy.
¶The experience of seven years has proved that the sale of The Harvard Classics has been large and, on the whole, increasing in amount.
¶Most owners of the set select occasional reading matter from it; but some have read the fifty volumes through, and a few have read the entire set through twice. I have been surprised to see how often I turn to the collection to enjoy pieces of permanent literature, in contrast with the mass of ephemeral reading matter which I am obliged to go through. Many people might use it in this way to advantage. It has also turned out that the collection, through its excellent index, has value as a book of reference for the general reader, and can be especially helpful to teachers, journalists, and authors.
¶In the original fifty volumes, for reasons which have turned out not to be of permanent effect, fiction in the modern sense was only slightly represented. To-day a supplement of twenty volumes of modern fiction—The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction—provides an ample representation of that new force in the world which the modern historical romance, the novel, and the short story exert. With this supplement The Harvard Classics may fairly be said to provide a permanent record in high literary form of the powers and achievements of "man thinking" down to the end of the nineteenth century, sufficiently comprehensive to illustrate well the chief powers and achievements of the race.
¶The last half of the nineteenth century and the opening of the [14]twentieth show a strong tendency to discard the study of the Greek and Latin languages as an indispensable part of American secondary and higher education. This study is to be replaced in part by the study of modern languages, which have many uses in the literary, scientific, and business life of to-day. It is the confident belief of the educational reformers that young people brought up in this new way need not lose the substantial values of ancient thought; because they can get them through translations. The Harvard Classics contain six and a half volumes of choice material for this purpose. The collection contains also three volumes and two half volumes of famous writings belonging to the Middle Ages, writings, which can only be made known to the present generations through translations. The reader who makes himself familiar with these ten volumes and a half, with the Confessions of St. Augustine, and with the two volumes of Sacred Writings, may feel sure that he has followed the course of the best thinking of mankind down to the Italian Renaissance.
¶From these volumes, the thorough reader may learn valuable lessons in comparative literature. He can see how various the contributions of the different languages and epochs have been; and he will inevitably come to the conclusion that striking national differences in this respect ought in the interest of mankind to be perpetuated and developed, and not obliterated, averaged, or harrowed down. The comparative method has in the study of literature a value similar to that it has recently exhibited in the study of art, government, science, and religion.
¶One may hope that the collection will endure for some decades to come, not only as a monument or milestone, but also as an active force toward the sound mental equipment of American reading people, both the young and the mature.
¶February I, igiy