CHAPTER VII.
Courses of Reading in History.
History, at least in its state of ideal perfection, is a compound of poetry and philosophy.—Macaulay.
Let us search more and more into the Past; let all men explore it as the true fountain of knowledge, by whose light alone, consciously or unconsciously employed, can the Present and the Future be interpreted or guessed at.—Carlyle.
History is a voice forever sounding across the centuries the laws of right and wrong. Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall; but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.... Justice and truth alone endure and live. Injustice and falsehood may be long-lived, but doomsday comes at last to them in French revolutions and other terrible ways. That is one lesson of history. Another is, that we should draw no horoscopes; that we should expect little, for what we expect will not come to pass.—Froude.
The student is to read history actively and not passively; to esteem his own life the text, and books the commentary. Thus compelled, the Muse of history will utter oracles, as never to those who do not respect themselves. I have no expectation that any man will read history aright who thinks that what was done in a remote age, by men whose names have resounded far, has any deeper sense than what he is doing to-day.... The instinct of the mind, the purpose of nature, betrays itself in the use we make of the signal narrations of history.—Emerson.
venture to propose the following courses of reading in history. Properly modified with reference to individual needs and capabilities, these lists will prove to be safe helps and guides to younger as well as older readers, to classes in high schools and colleges as well as private students and specialists. To read all the works here mentioned, as carefully and critically as the nature of their contents demands, would require no inconsiderable portion of one’s reading lifetime. Such a thing is not expected. The wise teacher or the judicious scholar will select from the list that which is most proper for him, and which best meets his wants, or aids him most in the pursuit of his native aim.
The titles, so far as possible, are given in chronological order. Those printed in italics are of books indispensable for purposes of reference; those printed in small capitals are of works especially adapted to younger readers.
I. GREEK HISTORY.
Dictionaries.
No reader can well do without a good classical dictionary. The following are recommended as the best—
Anthon: Classical Dictionary.
Smith: Student’s Classical Dictionary.
—— Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.
Ginn & Heath’s Classical Atlas.
Kiepert’s Schulatlas.
General Histories.
Cox: General History of Greece.
Smith: Smaller History of Greece.
Felton: Ancient and Modern Greece.
Yonge: Young Folks’ History of Greece.
Grote: History of Greece (12 vols.).
Curtius: History of Greece (5 vols.); translated from the German, by A. W. Ward.
J. A. St. John: Ancient Greece.
Mythology.
Dwight: Grecian and Roman Mythology.
Murray: Manual of Mythology.
Keightley: Classical Mythology.
Gladstone: Juventus Mundi.
Ruskin: The Queen of the Air.
Cox: Tales of Ancient Greece.
Kingsley: The Greek Heroes.
Hawthorne: The Wonder Book.
—— Tanglewood Tales.
Miscellaneous.
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. Chapman’s translation is the best. Of the later versions, that of Lord Derby is preferable.
Church: Stories from Homer.
Butcher and Lang’s prose translation of the Odyssey.
Collins: The Iliad and the Odyssey (two volumes of “Ancient Classics for English Readers”).
Gladstone: Homer.
De Quincey: Homer and the Homeridæ (essay in “Literary Criticism”).
Fénelon: Telemachus (translated by Hawkesworth).
Benjamin: Troy.
Goethe: Iphigenia in Tauris (drama, Swanwick’s translation).
The student of this period is referred also to Dr. Schliemann’s works: Ilios, Troja, and Mykenai.
Church: Stories from Herodotus.
Swayne: Herodotus (Ancient Classics).
Brugsch Bey: History of Egypt.
Freeman: Historical Essays (2d series).
Ebers: Uarda (romance, descriptive of Egyptian life and manners fourteen centuries before Christ).
—— The Daughter of an Egyptian King (five centuries before Christ).
Smith: Student’s History of the East.
Cox: The Greeks and the Persians.
Abbott: The History of Darius the Great.
—— The History of Xerxes the Great.
Sankey: The Spartan Supremacy.
Bulwer: Pausanias the Spartan (romance, 475 B.C.).
Glover: Leonidas (epic poem).
Croly: The Death of Leonidas (poem).
Robert Browning: Pheidippides (poem in “Dramatic Idyls”).
Lloyd: The Age of Pericles (fifth century before Christ).
Cox: The Athenian Empire.
Landor: Pericles and Aspasia (in “Imaginary Conversations”).
Mrs. L. M. Child: Philothea (romance of the time of Pericles).
Curteis: The Macedonian Empire.
Abbott: The History of Alexander the Great.
Butcher: Demosthenes (Classical Writers).
Greenough: Apelles and his Contemporaries (a romance of the time of Alexander).
Dryden: Alexander’s Feast (poem).
Bickersteth: Caubul (poem).
Literature.
Mahaffy: History of Greek Literature.
Schlegel: History of Dramatic Literature (first fourteen chapters).
Church: Stories from the Greek Tragedians.
Copleston: Æschylus (Ancient Classics).
Mrs. Browning: Prometheus Bound (an English version of the great tragedy).
Bishop Milman: Agamemnon.
Collins: Sophocles (Ancient Classics).
De Quincey: The Antigone of Sophocles (essay in “Literary Criticism”).
Donne: Euripides (Ancient Classics).
Froude: Sea Studies (essay in “Short Studies on Great Subjects”). Collins: Aristophanes (Ancient Classics).
Mitchell: The Clouds of Aristophanes.
De Quincey: Theory of Greek Tragedy (essay in “Literary Criticism”).
Brodribb: Demosthenes (Ancient Classics).
Collins: Plato (Ancient Classics).
Jowett: The Dialogues of Plato (4 vols.).
The Phædo of Plato (Wisdom Series).
Plato: The Apology of Socrates.
A Day in Athens with Socrates.
Plutarch: On the Dæmon of Socrates (essay in the “Morals”).
Grant: Xenophon (Ancient Classics).
Collins: Thucydides (Ancient Classics).
Life and Manners.
For a study of social life and manners in Greece, read or refer to the following—
Becker: Charicles (romance, with copious notes and excursuses).
Mahaffy: Social Life in Greece.
—— Old Greek Life.
Guhl and Koner: Life of the Greeks and Romans.
Special Reference.
Draper: History of the Intellectual Development of Europe (vol. i.).
Clough: Plutarch’s Lives.
Kaufman: The Young Folks’ Plutarch.
White: Plutarch for Boys and Girls.
It is good exercise, good medicine, the reading of Plutarch’s books,—good for to-day as it was in times preceding ours, salutary for all times.—A. Bronson Alcott.
II. ROMAN HISTORY.
For purposes of reference the following books, already mentioned in the course of Greek History, are indispensable—
Anthon: Classical Dictionary.
Smith: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.
Ginn & Heath: Classical Atlas.
Murray: Manual of Mythology.
General Histories.
Smith: Smaller History of Rome.
Merivale: Students’ History of Rome.
Yonge: Young Folks’ History of Rome.
Creighton: History of Rome.
For the period preceding the Empire—
Mommsen: History of Rome (4 vols.).
Abbott: The History of Romulus.
Church: Stories from Virgil.
—— Stories from Livy.
Macaulay: Horatius (poem in “Lays of Ancient Rome”).
Arnold: History of Rome.
Ihne: Early Rome.
Shakspeare: The Tragedy of Coriolanus (490 B.C.).
Macaulay: Virginia (poem in “Lays of Ancient Rome,” 459 B.C.).
Abbott: The History of Hannibal.
Smith: Rome and Carthage.
Dale: Regulus before the Senate (poem, 256 B.C.).
Beesly: The Gracchi, Marius, and Sulla.
Mrs. Mitchell: Spartacus to the Gladiators (poem, 73 B.C.).
For the period of the Cæsars and the early Empire—
Merivale: History of the Romans (4 vols.).
—— The Roman Triumvirates.
Abbott: The History of Julius Cæsar.
Addison: The Tragedy of Cato (drama).
Froude: Cæsar; a Sketch.
Trollope: Life of Cicero.
Ben Jonson: Catiline (drama).
Beaumont and Fletcher: The False One (drama).
Abbott: The History of Cleopatra.
Shakspeare: The Tragedy of Julius Cæsar.
—— Antony and Cleopatra.
Capes: The Early Empire.
De Quincey: The Cæsars.
Ben Jonson: The Poetaster (drama, time of Augustus).
Wallace: Ben Hur (romance, time of Tiberius).
Longfellow: The Divine Tragedy (poem).
Ben Jonson: Sejanus, his Fall (drama, time of Tiberius).
Becker: Gallus (romance, with notes, time of Tiberius).
Schele De Vere: The Great Empress (romance, time of Nero).
Abbott: The History of Nero.
W. W. Story: Nero (drama).
Hoffman: The Greek Maid at the Court of Nero (romance).
Farrar: Seekers after God (Seneca, Epictetus).
Wiseman: The Church of the Catacombs (romance, time of the Persecutions).
Mrs. Charles: The Victory of the Vanquished (romance).
Church and Brodribb: Pliny’s Letters (Ancient Classics).
Bulwer: The Last Days of Pompeii (romance, time of Vespasian).
Massinger: The Roman Actor (drama, time of Domitian).
—— The Virgin Martyr (drama).
Dickinson: The Seed of the Church.
De Mille: Helena’s Household.
Lockhart: Valerius.
The last three works are romances, depicting life and manners in the time of Trajan.
For the period of the later Empire and the decline of the Roman power—
Curteis: History of the Roman Empire (395-800).
Gibbon: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Ebers: The Emperor (romance, time of Hadrian).
Capes: The Age of the Antonines.
Watson: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
Hodgkin: Italy and her Invaders.
William Ware: Zenobia (romance, A.D. 266).
—— Aurelian (romance, A.D. 275).
Ebers: Homo Sum (romance, A.D. 330).
Kouns: Arius the Libyan (romance, A.D. 336).
Aubrey De Vere: Julian the Apostate (drama, A.D. 363).
Beaumont and Fletcher: Valentinian (drama, A.D. 375).
Edward Everett: Alaric the Visigoth; and Mrs. Hemans: Alaric in Italy (poems, A.D. 410).
Kingsley: Hypatia (romance, A.D. 415).
Mrs. Charles: Conquering and to Conquer (romance, A.D. 418).
Mrs. Charles: Maid and Cleon (romance of Alexandria, A.D. 425).
Kingsley: Roman and Teuton.
Church: The Beginning of the Middle Ages.
Literature.
Simcox: History of Roman Literature.
Schlegel: History of Dramatic Literature.
Collins: Livy (Ancient Classics).
Mallock: Lucretius (Ancient Classics).
Trollope: Cæsar (Ancient Classics).
Collins: Cicero (Ancient Classics).
Morris: The Æneid of Virgil.
Collins: Virgil, Ovid, Lucian (three volumes of Ancient Classics).
Epictetus: Selections from Epictetus.
Jackson: Apostolic Fathers (Early Christian Literature Primers).
Special Reference.
Clough: Plutarch’s Lives.
White: Plutarch for Boys and Girls.
Kaufman: The Young Folks’ Plutarch.
Coulange: The Ancient City.
Draper: History of the Intellectual Development of Europe.
Lecky: History of European Morals.
Milman: History of Christianity.
Stanley: History of the Eastern Church.
Fisher: Beginnings of Christianity.
Döllinger: The First Age of Christianity.
Montalembert: The Monks of the West.
Reber: History of Ancient Art.
Hadley: Lectures on Roman Law.
Maine: Ancient Law.
III. MEDIÆVAL AND MODERN HISTORY.
This course has been prepared with special reference to English history. The right-hand column, headed Collateral Reading, will assist students desiring to extend their reading so as to embrace the history of Continental Europe. The figures affixed to some of the titles indicate, as nearly as is thought necessary, the time covered or treated of by the work mentioned. Historical romances and other prose works of fiction are designated thus (*); dramas thus (†; other poems thus (‡).
IV. AMERICAN HISTORY.
General Histories.
Bancroft: History of the United States (12 vols., from the discovery of America to the adoption of the Constitution).
Hildreth: History of the United States (6 vols., from the discovery of America to 1820).
Bryant and Gay: History of the United States (from the discovery to 1880).
Ridpath: History of the United States.
Higginson: Young People’s History of the United States.
Aboriginal America.
Baldwin: Ancient America.
Donnelly: Atlantis.
Foster: Prehistoric Races of the United States.
Short: North Americans of Antiquity.
Ellis: The Red Man and the White Man.
H. H. Bancroft: Native Races of the Pacific States.
Bourke: The Snake Dance of the Moquis of Arizona.
The Period of the Discovery.
Irving: Columbus and his Companions.
Abbott: Christopher Columbus.
—— Discovery of America.
Towle: Vasco da Gama.
Helps: The Spanish Conquest of America (4 vols.).
Prescott: The Conquest of Mexico (3 vols.).
Abbott: Hernando Cortez.
Helps: Hernando Cortez.
Eggleston: Montezuma.
Wallace: *The Fair God, or the Last of the ’Tzins.
Prescott: The Conquest of Peru (2 vols.).
Towle: Pizarro.
—— Magellan.
Irving: The Conquest of Florida by De Soto.
Abbott: De Soto.
Simms: *Vasconselos (1538).
Towle: Drake, the Sea-King of Devon.
—— Sir Walter Ralegh.
Hale: Stories of Discovery.
Simms: *The Lily and the Totem (the story of the Huguenots at St. Augustine).
The Colonial Period.
Coffin: Old Times in the Colonies.
Simms: Life of John Smith.
Kingston: *The Settlers (1607).
Eggleston: Pocahontas.
Abbott: The Northern Colonies.
—— Miles Standish.
Longfellow: ‡The Courtship of Miles Standish.
Mrs. Child: *The First Settlers of New England.
——- *Hobomok.
Cheney: *A Peep at the Pilgrims.
Clay: Annals of the Swedes on the Delaware.
Banvard: Pioneers of the New World.
J. G. Holland: *The Bay Path (1638).
Paulding: *Koningsmarke (a tale of the Swedes on the Delaware).
Arthur: Cabinet History of New York.
Abbott: Peter Stuyvesant.
Irving: *Knickerbocker’s History of New York.
Abbott: King Philip.
Markham: King Philip’s War.
Cooper: *The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish (1675).
Palfrey: History of New England (4 vols.).
Hawthorne: *The Scarlet Letter.
Spofford: New England Legends.
Longfellow: ‡New England Tragedies.
Whittier: ‡Ballads of New England.
Hale: Stories of Adventure.
Abbott: Captain Kidd.
Banvard: Southern Explorers.
Abbott: The Southern Colonies.
Arthur: Cabinet History of Virginia.
Simms: *The Cassique of Kiawah (a story of the early settlement of South Carolina, 1684).
De Vere: Romance of American History.
Abbott: Chevalier de la Salle.
Parkman: Discovery of the Great West.
—— The Jesuits in North America.
Sparks: Life of Father Marquette.
Shea: Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi.
Parkman: Frontenac, and New France under Louis XIV.
Simms: *The Yemassee (1715).
Longfellow: ‡Evangeline.
Ladd: The Old French War.
Parkman: Wolfe and Montcalm.
—— The Conspiracy of Pontiac.
Paulding: *The Dutchman’s Fireside.
Cooper: *The Pathfinder.
—— *The Last of the Mohicans.
Kennedy: *Swallow Barn.
Mrs. Stowe: *The Minister’s Wooing.
Thackeray: *The Virginians.
The Period of the Revolution.
Abbott: The War of the Revolution.
—— George Washington.
Irving: Life of George Washington (5 vols.).
Headley: Washington and his Generals.
Longfellow: ‡Paul Revere’s Ride.
Lowell: ‡Grandmother’s Story of the Battle of Bunker Hill.
Coffin: The Boys of ’76.
Cooper: *The Spy.
—— *The Pilot.
Neal: *Seventy-Six.
Greene: Life of Nathanael Greene.
Abbott: Life of Benjamin Franklin.
Parton: Life of Benjamin Franklin.
Sparks: The Works of Benjamin Franklin.
—— Treason of Benedict Arnold.
Arnold: Life of Benedict Arnold.
Campbell: ‡Gertrude of Wyoming.
Mrs. Child: *The Rebels.
Paulding: *The Old Continentals.
—— *The Bulls and the Jonathans.
Simms: *Eutaw.
Kennedy: *Horse-Shoe Robinson.
Grace Greenwood: *The Forest Tragedy.
Lossing: Field Book of the Revolution.
Carrington: Battles of the Revolution.
Wirt: The Life of Patrick Henry.
Dwight: Lives of the Signers.
Magoon: Orators of the American Revolution.
Greene: Historical View of the American Revolution.
From the Close of the Revolution.
McMaster: History of the People of the United States from the Revolution to the Civil War.
Frothingham: Rise of the Republic in the United States.
Curtis: History of the Constitution.
Von Holst: Constitutional History of the United States.
Nordhoff: Politics for Young Americans.
Coffin: Building of the Nation.
Lodge: Life of Alexander Hamilton.
Parton: Life of John Adams.
—— Life of Jefferson.
Abbott: Life of Daniel Boone.
John Esten Cooke: *Leatherstocking and Silk (1800).
Cable: *The Grandissimes.
Cooper: *The Prairie.
Simms: *Beauchampe, or the Kentucky Tragedy.
Parton: Life of Aaron Burr.
Hale: *Philip Nolan’s Friends.
—— *The Man without a Country.
Pioneer Life in the West.
Lewis and Clarke’s Journey across the Rocky Mountains.
Irving: Astoria.
—— Adventures of Captain Bonneville.
Eggleston: Brant and Red Jacket.
Johnson: The War of 1812.
Lossing: Field Book of the War of 1812.
Iron: *The Double Hero.
Gleig: *The Subaltern.
Cooper: History of the American Navy.
Rives: Life of James Madison.
Gilman: Life of James Monroe.
Morse: Life of J. Q. Adams.
Parton: Life of Andrew Jackson.
Curtis: Life of Daniel Webster.
Whipple: Webster’s Best Speeches.
Schmucker: Life and Times of Henry Clay.
Ripley: The War with Mexico.
Kendall: The Santa Fé Expedition.
Wilson: History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America.
King: The Great South.
Olmsted: The Sea-Board Slave States.
Mrs. Stowe: *Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Hildreth: *The White Slave.
Whittier: ‡Voices of Freedom.
Greeley: The American Conflict.
Lossing: The Civil War in the United States.
Draper: History of the American Civil War.
Stephens: Constitutional History of the War between the States (Southern view).
Harper’s Pictorial History of the Great Rebellion.
Young Folks’ History of the Rebellion.
Coffin: The Boys of ’61.
—— *Winning His Way.
Hale: Stories of War.
Richardson: Field, Dungeon, and Escape.
Swinton: Twelve Decisive Battles of the War.
Cooke: Life of General Lee.
Whittier: ‡In War Time.
Lester: Our First Hundred Years.
Lossing: The American Centenary.
Tourgee: *A Fool’s Errand.
—— *Bricks without Straw.
Headley: Heroes of the Rebellion (6 vols.).
