The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. VIII (of X) - Continental Europe II.

Henry Cabot Lodge, Francis W. (Francis Whiting) Halsey

Informations

• Publié par: tapeb
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 10
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. VIII (of X) - Continental Europe II., by Various This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. VIII (of X) - Continental Europe II. Author: Various Editor: Henry Cabot Lodge Francis W. Halsey Release Date: June 10, 2008 [EBook #25751] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORLD'S CLASSICS *** Produced by Joseph R. Hauser, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net TAINE, DANTE, GOETHE, CERVANTES THE BEST of the WORLD'S CLASSICS RESTRICTED TO PROSE HENRY CABOT LODGE Editor-in-Chief FRANCIS W. HALSEY Associate Editor With an Introduction, Biographical and Explanatory Notes, etc. IN TEN VOLUMES Vol. VIII CONTINENTAL EUROPE—II FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY NEW YORK AND LONDON COPYRIGHT , 1909, BY FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY The Best of the World's Classics VOL. VIII CONTINENTAL EUROPE—II CONTENTS VOL. VIII—CONTINENTAL EUROPE—II Page FRANCE—CONTINUED 1805-1909 ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE—(Born in 1805, died in 1859.) The Tyranny of the American Majority. (From Chapter XV of "Democracy in America." Translated by Henry Reeve) 3 ALFRED DE MUSSET—(Born in 1810, died in 1857.) Titian's Son After a Night at Play. (From "Titian's Son." Translated by Erie Arthur Bell) THEOPHILE GAUTIER—(Born in 1811, died in 1872.) Pharaoh's Entry into Thebes. (From the "Romance of a Mummy." Translated by M. Young) GUSTAVE FLAUBERT—(Born in 1821, died in 1880.) Yonville and Its People. (From Part II of "Madame Bovary." Translated by Eleanor MarxAveling) JOSEPH ERNEST R ENAN—(Born in 1823, died in 1892.) An Empire in Robust Youth. (From the "History of the Origins of Christianity.") H IPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE—(Born in 1828, died in 1893.) I Thackeray as a Satirist. (From Book V, Chapter II, of the "History of English Literature." Translated by H. van Laun) II When the King Got up for the Day. (From "The Ancient Régime." Translated by John Durand) EMILE ZOLA —(Born in 1840, died in 1902.) Glimpses of Napoleon III in Time of War. (From "La Débâcle." Translated by E. P. Robins) ALPHONSE D AUDET—(Born in 1840, died in 1897.) I A Great Man's Widow. (From "Artists' Wives." Translated by Laura Ensor) II My First Dress Coat. (From "Thirty Years of Paris." Translated by Laura Ensor) GUY DE MAUPASSANT —(Born in 1850, died in 1893.) Madame Jeanne's Last Days. (From the last chapter of "A Life." Translated by Eric Arthur Bell) 69 55 61 38 43 30 22 14 8 48 GERMANY 1483-1859 MARTIN LUTHER—(Born in 1483, died in 1546.) Some of His Table Talk and Sayings. (From the "Table Talk.") GOTTHOLD E. LESSING —(Born in 1729, died in 1781.) I Poetry and Painting Compared. (From the preface to the "Laocoön." Translated by E. C. Beasley and Helen Zimmern) II Of Suffering Held in Restraint. (From Chapter I of the "Laocoön." Translated by Beasley and Zimmern) JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE—(Born in 1749, died in 1832.) I On First Reading Shakespeare. (From "Wilhelm Meister." Translated by Thomas Carlyle) II The Coronation of Joseph II. (From Book XII of the "Autobiography." Translated by John Oxenford) FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLER—(Born in 1759, died in 1808.) I The Battle of Lutzen. (From the "History of the Thirty Years' War." Translated by A. J. W. Morrison) II Philip II and the Netherlands. (From the introduction to the "History of the Revolt of the 107 99 95 86 79 89 (From the introduction to the "History of the Revolt of the Netherlands." Translated by Morrison) WILHELM VON SCHLEGEL—(Born in 1767, died in 1845.) Shakespeare's "Macbeth." (From the "Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature." Translated by John Black, revised by A. J. W. Morrison) ALEXANDER VON H UMBOLDT—(Born in 1769, died in 1859.) An Essay on Man. (From his "General Review of Natural Phenomena." in Volume I of "Cosmos." Translated by E. C. Otto and W. S. Dallas) H EINRICH H EINE—(Born in 1799, died in 1856.) Reminiscences of Napoleon. (From Chapters VII, VIII and IX of "Travel Pictures." Translated by Francis Storr) 117 124 130 139 ITALY 1254-1803 MARCO POLO —(Born in 1254, died in 1324.) A Description of Japan. (From the "Travels.") D ANTE ALIGHIERI—(Born in 1265, died in 1321.) I That Long Descent Makes No Man Noble. (From Book IV, Chapter XIV of "The Banquet." Translated by Katharine Hillard) II Of Beatrice and Her Death. (From "The New Life." Translated by Charles Eliot Norton) FRANCESCO PETRARCH—(Born in 1304, died in 1374.) Of Good and Evil Fortune. (From the "Treatise on the Remedies of Good and Bad Fortune.") GIOVANNI BOCCACIO —(Born probably in 1313, died in 1375.) The Patient Griselda. (From the "Decameron.") N ICCOLO MACHIAVELLI—(Born in 1469, died in 1527.) Ought Princes to Keep Their Promises? (From Chapter XVIII of "The Prince.") BENVENUTO C ELLINI—(Born in 1500, died in 1571.) The Casting of His "Perseus and Medusa." (From the "Autobiography." Translated by William Roscoe) GIORGIO VASARI—(Born in 1511, died in 1574.) Of Raphael and His Early Death. (From "The Lives of the Most Famous Painters, Sculptors and Architects." Translated by Mrs. Jonathan Foster) C ASANOVA DE SEINGALT —(Born in 1725, died probably in 1803.) His Interview with Frederick the Great. (From the "Memoirs.") 200 192 182 178 147 152 157 162 167 OTHER COUNTRIES 1465-1909 D ESIDERIUS ERASMUS—(Born in 1465, died in 1536.) Specimens of His Wit and Wisdom. (From various books) MIGUEL DE C ERVANTES—(Born in 1547, died in 1616.) I The Beginnings of Don Quixote's Career. (From "Don Quixote." Translated by John Jarvis) 218 209 II Of How Don Quixote Died. (From "Don Quixote." Translated by John Jarvis) H ANS C HRISTIAN ANDERSEN—(Born in 1805, died in 1875.) The Emperor's New Clothes. (From the "Tales.") IVAN SERGEYEVITCH TURGENEFF—(Born in 1818, died in 1883.) Bazarov's Death. (From "Fathers and Children." Translated by Constance Garnett) H ENRIK IBSEN —(Born in 1828, died in 1906.) The Thought Child. (From "The Pretenders." Translated by William Archer) C OUNT LEO TOLSTOY —(Born in 1828.) Shakespeare Not a Great Genius. (From "A Critical Essay on Shakespeare." Translated by V. Tchertkoff and I. F. M.) 224 231 239 245 252 FRANCE (Continued) 1805-1909 ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE Born in Paris in 1805, died in 1859; studied law, taking his degree in 1826; traveled in Italy and Sicily; in 1831 visited the United States under a commission to study the penitentiary system; returning published a book on the subject which was crowned by the French Academy; from private notes taken in America then wrote his masterpiece, "Democracy in America," which secured his election to the Academy in 1841; spent some years in public life and then retired in order to travel and write. [3] THE TYRANNY OF THE AMERICAN MAJORITY[1] I hold it to be an impious and execrable maxim that, politically speaking, the people has a right to do whatever it pleases; and yet I have asserted that all authority originates in the will of the majority. Am I then in contradiction with myself? A general law, which bears the name of justice, has been made and sanctioned not only by a majority of this or that people, but by a majority of mankind. The rights of every people are consequently confined within the limits of what is just. A nation may be considered in the light of a jury which is empowered to represent society at large and to apply the great and general law of justice. Ought such a jury, which represents society, to have more power than the society in which the law it applies originates? When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right which the majority has of commanding, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind. It has been asserted that a people can never entirely outstep the boundaries of justice and of reason in those affairs which are more peculiarly its own; and that consequently, full power may fearlessly be given to the majority by which it is represented. But this language is that of a slave. [4] A majority, taken collectively, may be regarded as a being whose opinions, and most frequently whose interests are opposed to those of another being, which is styled a minority. If it be admitted that a man possessing absolute power may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries, why should a majority not be liable to the same reproach? Men are not apt to change their characters by agglomerating; nor does their patience in the presence of obstacles increase with the consciousness of their strength. And for these reasons I can never willingly invest any number of my fellow creatures with that unlimited authority which I should refuse to any one of them. I do not think that it is possible to combine several principles in the same government so as at the same time to maintain freedom and really to oppose them to one another. The form of government which is usually termed mixt has always appeared to me to be a mere chimera. Accurately speaking, there is no such thing as a mixt government, with the meaning usually given to that word; because in all communities some one principle of action may be discovered which preponderates over the others. England in the last century—which has been more especially cited as an example of this form of government—was in point of fact an essentially aristocratic state, altho it comprized very powerful elements of democracy; for the laws and customs of the country were such that the aristocracy could not but preponderate in the end, and subject the direction of public affairs to its own will. The error arose from too much attention being paid to the actual struggle that was going on between the nobles an