Illustrations
| Facing Page | |
| Title Page of the Celebrated First Folio Edition of Shakespeare | [Title] |
| A Page from the Gutenberg Bible (Mayence, 1455) | [4] |
| A Page from the Coverdale Bible, being the First Complete English Bible | [14] |
| Chandos' Portrait of Shakespeare | [16] |
| Shakespeare's Birthplace at Stratford-on-Avon before the Restoration | [22] |
| The Anne Hathaway Cottage | [22] |
| Bust of Homer in the Museum of Naples | [32] |
| Portrait of Virgil, taken from a Bust by L. P. Boitard | [34] |
| Plato, after an Antique Bust | [36] |
| Edmund Dulac's Conception of Queen Scheherezade, who told the "Arabian Nights" Tales | [40] |
| The Jinnee and the Merchant—A Vignette Woodcut by William Harvey | [42] |
| Portrait of St. Augustine by the Famous Florentine Painter, Sandro Botticelli | [50] |
| A Page from St. Augustine's "La Cite de Dieu" | [54] |
| Portrait of Cervantes, from an Old Steel Engraving | [58] |
| Don Quixote Discoursing to Sancho Panza | [62] |
| Thomas à Kempis, the Frontispiece of an Edition of "The Imitation of Christ" | [64] |
| The Best-Known Portrait of Edward FitzGerald, Immortalized by his Version of the "Rubá'iyát" | [74] |
| A Page from an Ancient Persian Manuscript Copy of the "Rubá'iyát" with Miniatures in Color | [78] |
| One of the Gilbert James Illustrations of the "Rubá'iyát" | [80] |
| Portrait of Dante, by Giotto di Bondone | [84] |
| Page from "Dante's Inferno," printed by Nicolo Lorenzo near the Close of the Fifteenth Century | [88] |
| Portrait of Milton, after the Original Crayon Drawing from Life by William Faithorne, at Bayfordbury, Herts | [100] |
| Milton Dictating to his Daughters—After an Engraving by W. C. Edwards, from the Famous Painting by Romney | [104] |
| Portrait of John Bunyan, after the Oil Painting by Sadler | [108] |
| Facsimile of the Title Page of the First Edition of "The Pilgrim's Progress" | [112] |
| Portrait of Dr. Johnson, from the Original Picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds, owned by Boswell | [116] |
| Portrait of James Boswell, after a Painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds—Engraved by E. Finden | [118] |
| Facsimile of the Title Page of the First Edition of Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson" | [120] |
| Painting by Eyre Crowe of Dr. Johnson, Boswell and Goldsmith at the Mitre Tavern, Fleet Street | [122] |
| Portrait of Daniel Defoe, from an Old Steel Engraving | [124] |
| Illustration of "Robinson Crusoe" by George Cruikshank | [126] |
| Frontispiece to the First Edition of "Gulliver's Travels"—A Portrait Engraved in Copper of Captain Lemuel Gulliver of Redriff | [128] |
| Facsimile of the Title Page of the First Edition of "Gulliver's Travels," issued in 1726 | [130] |
Introduction
These short essays on the best old books in the world were inspired by the sudden death of an only son, without whom I had not thought life worth living. To tide me over the first weeks of bitter grief I plunged into this work of reviewing the great books from the Bible to the works of the eighteenth century writers. The suggestion came from many readers who were impressed by the fact that in the darkest hour of sorrow my only comfort came from the habit of reading, which Gibbon declared he "would not exchange for the wealth of the Indies." If these essays induce any one to cultivate the reading habit, which has been so great a solace to me in time of trouble, then I shall feel fully repaid.
This book is not intended for those who have had literary training in high school or university. It was planned to meet the wants of that great American public which yearns for knowledge and culture, but does not know how to set about acquiring it. For this reason I have discussed the great books of the world from De Quincey's standpoint of the literature of power, as distinguished from the literature of knowledge. By the literature of power the author of the Confessions of an English Opium Eater meant books filled with that emotional quality which lifts the reader out of this prosaic world into that spiritual life, whose dwellers are forever young.
No book has lived beyond the age of its author unless it were full of this spiritual force which endures through the centuries. The words of the Biblical writers, of Thomas à Kempis, Milton, Bunyan, Dante and others who are discussed in this book, are charged with a spiritual potency that moves the reader of today as they have moved countless generations in the past. Could one wish for a more splendid immortality than this, to serve as the stimulus to ambitious youth long after one's body has moldered in the dust?