FOR THE MILLION: BEING AN EPITOME, IN ENGLISH, OF THE WORKS OF THE PRINCIPAL GREEK AND LATIN AUTHORS. 'Semper honos, nomenque horum, laudesque manebunt.' BY HENRY GREY, LATE SECRETARY TO THE STOCKWELL PROPRIETARY GRAMMAR SCHOOL, SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. BIBLIOTHECA GRIFFITH & FARRAN, SUCCESSORS TO NEWBERY AND HARRIS, WEST CORNER, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD, LONDON. E. P. DUTTON & CO., New York. MDCCCLXXXI. 260. f. 109. PREFACE. VERY one who agrees with the inscription in our National Gallery, which declares that 'The works of those who have stood the test of ages have a claim to that respect and veneration to which no modern can pretend,' will admit that it is equally applicable to the Ancient Classic Authors, whose writings contain the springs of thought from whence have emanated the intellectual development and mental culture of all succeeding generations. But the creations of the pen are not so universally intelligible as those of the chisel and brush; for, while the most unlearned can comprehend and appreciate the productions of the Sculptors and Painters of all ages and countries, very few, even of those who have received a liberal education, are able to read the works of the celebrated Greek and Latin authors in their original language with facility or enjoyment, or to understand the constant allusions in current literature to their poetical conceptions and practical teachings. Many scholarly Translations of them, however, have been published, and the object of this Epitome is to afford such a glimpse of their contents as will stimulate the desire of all classes of readers for a better acquaintance with the earliest and grandest literary efforts of the human brain, which, like those in the sister arts, have never been surpassed, and, after a lapse of nearly three thousand years, still entrance the imagination with their inimitable charms of freshness and originality. LONDON, 1st January 1881. H. G. |