,
Dean of the Department of Arts and Sciences, and Professor of
English and History,
UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH, Sewanee, Tenn.
Dean of the Department of Arts and Sciences, and Professor of
English and History,
UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH, Sewanee, Tenn.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v06 to v10 - Cal to Fro
Neither can we look for the mythological animals
of the Persians,- creatures of a still bolder imagination, such
as the martichore, or destroyer of men, having a human head on
the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion; the griffin, or
guardian of hidden treasures, half eagle and half lion; or the
cartazonon, or wild ass, armed with a long horn on its forehead.
-
Ctesias, who reports these as actual living animals, has been
looked upon by some authors as an inventor of fables; whereas
he only attributes real existence to hieroglyphical representations.
These strange compositions of fancy have been seen in modern
times on the ruins of Persepolis. It is probable that their
hidden meanings may never be ascertained; but at all events we
are quite certain that they were never intended to be representa-
tions of real animals.
Agatharcides, another fabricator of animals, drew his informa-
tion in all probability from a similar source. The ancient
monuments of Egypt still furnish us with numerous fantastic
representations, in which the parts of different kinds of creatures
are strangely combined,-men with the heads of animals, and
animals with the heads of men,- which have given rise to cyno-
cephali, satyrs, and sphinxes. The custom of exhibiting in the
same sculpture, in bas-relief, men of very different heights,
of making kings and conquerors gigantic while their subjects
and vassals are represented as only a fourth or fifth part of their
## p. 4263 (#641) ###########################################
CUVIER
4263
size, must have given rise to the fable of the pigmies. In some
corner of these monuments Agatharcides must have discovered
his carnivorous bull, whose mouth, extending from ear to ear,
devoured every other animal that came in his way. But scarcely
any naturalist will acknowledge the existence of any such animal,
since nature has never joined cloven hoofs and horns with teeth
adapted for cutting and devouring animal food.
There may have been other figures equally strange with
these, either among those monuments of Egypt which have not
been able to resist the ravages of time, or in the ancient tem-
ples of Ethiopia and Arabia which have been destroyed by the
religious zeal of the Abyssinians and Mahometans. The monu-
ments of India teem with such figures; but the combinations in
these are so ridiculously extravagant that they have never im-
posed even upon the most credulous. Monsters with a hundred
arms and twenty heads of different kinds are far too absurd to
be believed.
Nay, the inhabitants of China and Japan have their imagin-
ary animals, which they represent as real, and that too in their
religious books. The Mexicans had them. In short, they are to
be found among every people whose idolatry has not yet
acquired some degree of refinement. But is there any one who
could possibly pretend to discover, amidst the realities of animal
nature, what are thus so plainly the productions of ignorance
and superstition? And yet some travelers, influenced by a
desire to make themselves famous, have gone so far as to pre-
tend that they saw these fancied beings; or, deceived by a
slight resemblance into which they were too careless to inquire,
they have identified these with creatures that actually exist. In
their eyes, large baboons or monkeys have become cynocephali,
and sphinxes real men with long tails. It is thus that St.
Augustine imagined he had seen a satyr.
Real animals, observed and described with equal inaccuracy,
may have given rise to some of these ideal monsters.
Thus we
can have no doubt of the existence of the hyena, though the back
of this animal is not supported by a single bone, and though
it does not change its sex yearly, as alleged by Pliny. Perhaps
the carnivorous bull may only have been the two-horned rhi-
noceros falsely described. M. de Weltheim considers the aurifer-
ous ants of Herodotus as the corsacs of modern naturalists.
## p. 4264 (#642) ###########################################
4264
CUVIER
The most famous among these fabulous animals of the an-
cients was the unicorn. Its real existence has been obstinately
asserted even in the present day, or at least proofs of its exist-
ence have been eagerly sought for. Three several animals are
frequently mentioned by the ancients as having only one horn
placed on the middle of the forehead. The oryx of Africa, hav-
ing cloven hoofs, the hair placed reversely to that of other
animals, its height equal to that of the bull, or even of the
rhinoceros, and said to resemble deer and goats in its form; the
Indian ass, having solid hoofs; and the monoceros, properly so
called, whose feet are sometimes compared to those of the lion
and sometimes to those of the elephant, and is therefore con-
sidered as having divided feet. The horse unicorn and the bull
unicorn are doubtless both referable to the Indian ass, for even
the latter is described as having solid hoofs. We may therefore
be fully assured that these animals have never really existed, as
no solitary horns have ever found their way into our collections,
excepting those of the rhinoceros and narwhal.
After careful consideration, it is impossible that we should
give any credit to rude sketches made by savages upon rocks.
Entirely ignorant of perspective, and wishing to represent the
outlines of a straight-horned antelope in profile, they could only
give the figure one horn, and thus they produced an oryx. The
oryxes that are seen on the Egyptian monuments, likewise, are
probably nothing more than productions of the stiff style im-
posed on the sculptors of the country by religious prejudices.
Several of their profiles of quadrupeds show only one fore and
one hinder leg; and it is probable that the same rule led them
also to represent only one horn. Perhaps their figures may have
been copied after individuals that had lost one of their horns by
accident, a circumstance that often happens to the chamois and
the saiga, species of the antelope genus; and this would be quite.
sufficient to establish the error. All the ancients, however, have
not represented the oryx as having only one horn. Oppian
expressly attributes two to this animal, and Ælian mentions one
that had four. Finally, if this animal was ruminant and cloven-
footed, we are quite certain that its frontal bone must have
been divided longitudinally into two, and that it could not pos-
sibly, as it is very justly remarked by Camper, have had a horn
placed upon the suture.
## p. 4265 (#643) ###########################################
CUVIER
4265
It may be asked, however: What two-horned animals could
have given an idea of the oryx in the forms in which it has
been transmitted down to us, even independent of the notion
of a single horn? To this I answer, as already done by Pallas,
that it was the straight-horned antelope oryx of Gmelin, improp-
erly named pasan by Buffon. This animal inhabits the deserts
of Africa, and must frequently approach the confines of Egypt,
and appears to be that which is represented in the hieroglyphics.
It equals the ox in height, while the shape of its body approaches
to that of a stag, and its straight horns present exceedingly
formidable weapons, hard almost as iron, and sharp-pointed like
javelins. Its hair is whitish; it has black spots and streaks on
its face, and the hair on its back points forward. Such is the
description given by naturalists; and the fables of the Egyptian
priests, which have occasioned the insertion of its figure among
their hieroglyphics, do not require to have been founded in
nature. Supposing that an individual of this species may have
been seen which had lost one of its horns by some accident, it
may have been taken as a representative of the entire race, and
erroneously adopted by Aristotle to be copied by all his succes-
sors. All this is quite possible and even natural, and gives not
the smallest evidence for the existence of a single-horned species
of antelope.
In regard to the Indian ass, of the alexipharmic virtues of
whose horn the ancients speak, we find the Eastern nations of
the present day attributing exactly the same property of counter-
acting poison to the horn of the rhinoceros. When this horn
was first imported into Greece, nothing probably was known
respecting the animal to which it belonged; and accordingly it
was not known to Aristotle. Agatharcides is the first author by
whom it is mentioned. In the same manner, ivory was known
to the ancients long before the animal from which it is pro-
cured; and perhaps some of their travelers may have given to
the rhinoceros the name of Indian ass, with as much propriety
as the Romans denominated the elephant the bull of Lucania.
Everything which they relate of the strength, size, and ferocity
of their wild ass of India corresponds sufficiently with the rhi-
noceros. In succeeding times, when the rhinoceros came to be
better known to naturalists, finding that former authors men-
tioned a single-horned animal under the name of Indian ass,
they concluded without any examination that it must be quite
## p. 4266 (#644) ###########################################
4266
CUVIER
a distinct creature, having solid hoofs. We have remaining a
detailed description of the Indian ass, written by Ctesias; but
as we have already seen that this must have been taken from
the ruins of Persepolis, it should go for nothing in the real
history of the animal.
When there afterwards appeared more exact descriptions of
an animal having several toes or hoofs on each foot, the ancients
conceived it to be a third species of one-horned animals, to which
they gave the name of monoceros. These double and even triple
references are most frequent among ancient writers, because most
of their works which have come down to us were mere compila-
tions; because even Aristotle himself has often mixed borrowed
facts with those which had come under his own observation; and
because the habit of critically investigating the authorities of
previous writers was as little known among ancient naturalists
as among their historians.
From all these reasonings and digressions, it may be fairly
concluded that the large animals of the ancient continent with
which we are now acquainted were known to the ancients; and
that all the animals of which the ancients have left descriptions,
and which are now unknown, were merely fabulous. It also fol-
lows that the large animals of the three anciently known quarters
of the world were very soon known to the people who frequented
their coasts.
It may also be concluded that no large species remains to be
discovered in America, as there is no good reason that can be
assigned why any such should exist in that country with which
we are unacquainted; and in fact none has been discovered there
during the last hundred and fifty years.
From all these considerations it may be safely concluded, as
shall be more minutely explained in the sequel,- that none of
the large species of quadrupeds, whose remains are now found
imbedded in regular rocky strata, are at all similar to any of the
known living species; that this circumstance is by no means
the mere effect of chance, or because the species to which these
fossil bones have belonged are still concealed in the desert and
uninhabited parts of the world, and have hitherto escaped the
observation of travelers, but-that this astonishing phenomenon
has proceeded from general causes, and that the careful investi-
gation of it affords one of the best means for discovering and
explaining the nature of these causes.
•
## p. (#645) ################################################
## p. (#646) ################################################
## p. (#647) ################################################
## p. (#648) ################################################
|
## p. (#649) ################################################
Xx
## p. (#650) ################################################
## p. (#651) ################################################
This book should be returned to
the Library on or before the last date
stamped below.
A fine is incurred by retaining it
beyond the specified time.
Please return promptly.
1
## p. (#652) ################################################
Widener Library
3 2044 094 449 691
This file was downloaded from HathiTrust Digital Library.
Find more books at https://www. hathitrust. org.
Title: Library of the world's best literature, ancient and modern;
Charles Dudley Warner, editor; Hamilton Wright Mabie, Lucia
Gilbert Runkle, George H. Warner, associate editors . . .
Publisher: New York, R. S. Peale and J. A. Hill [c1896-97]
Copyright:
Public Domain, Google-digitized
http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
We have determined this work to be in the public domain, meaning that it is
not subject to copyright. Users are free to copy, use, and redistribute the
work in part or in whole. It is possible that current copyright holders,
heirs or the estate of the authors of individual portions of the work, such
as illustrations or photographs, assert copyrights over these portions.
Depending on the nature of subsequent use that is made, additional rights
may need to be obtained independently of anything we can address. The
digital images and OCR of this work were produced by Google, Inc.
(indicated by a watermark on each page in the PageTurner). Google requests
that the images and OCR not be re-hosted, redistributed or used
commercially. The images are provided for educational, scholarly,
non-commercial purposes.
Find this book online: https://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044094449683
This file has been created from the computer-extracted text of scanned page
images. Computer-extracted text may have errors, such as misspellings,
unusual characters, odd spacing and line breaks.
Original from: Harvard University
Digitized by: Google
Generated at University of Chicago on 2023-04-19 01:27 GMT
## p. 4239 (#1) #############################################
KAM Anurday
## p. 4240 (#2) #############################################
Lit 2020. 18 (8)
VERI
TAS
Harvard College Library
FROM
the library. . . of. .
Charles Swain Thomas. . . . . .
## p. 4241 (#3) #############################################
## p. 4242 (#4) #############################################
要
## p. 4243 (#5) #############################################
i
## p. 4244 (#6) #############################################
## p. 4245 (#7) #############################################
## p. 4246 (#8) #############################################
## p. 4247 (#9) #############################################
1
## p. 4248 (#10) ############################################
## p. 4249 (#11) ############################################
i
## p. 4250 (#12) ############################################
CHAS. R. DARWIN.
20 Grosch
## p. 4251 (#13) ############################################
WORLDS DEST
CHAPHY
H MILTON MK-
1. . . .
FS PER I. A
1
## p. 4252 (#14) ############################################
CARA
## p. 4253 (#15) ############################################
LIBRARY
OF THE
WORLD'S BEST LITERATURE
Ancient and Modern
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER
EDITOR
HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE, LUCIA GILBERT RUNKLE,
GEORGE H. WARNER
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
THIRTY VOLUMES
VOL. VIII
NEW YORK
R. S. PEALE AND J. A. HILL
PUBLISHERS
## p. 4254 (#16) ############################################
Lit 2025. 18
MARVAKL
UNIVERSO
LIBRARY
དེའ ཏའ མ པ
ܚܐ ܬܝܐ ܀
COPYRIGHT 1897
By R. S. PEALE AND J. A. HILL
All rights reserved
THE WERNER COMPANY
PRINTERS
&
BINDERS
## p. 4255 (#17) ############################################
THE ADVISORY COUNCIL
CRAWFORD H. TOY, A. M. , LL. D. ,
Professor of Hebrew, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Cambridge, Mass.
THOMAS R. LOUNSBURY, LL. D. , L. H. D. ,
Professor of English in the Sheffield Scientific School of
YALE UNIVERSITY, New Haven, Conn.
WILLIAM M. SLOANE, PH. D. , L. H. D. ,
Professor of History and Political Science,
BRANDER MATTHEWS, A. M. , LL. B. ,
Professor of Literature, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, New York City.
JAMES B. ANGELL, LL. D. .
President of the
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, Princeton, N. J.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, Ann Arbor, Mich.
WILLARD FISKE, A. M. , PH. D. ,
Late Professor of the Germanic and Scandinavian Languages
and Literatures,
CORNELL UNIVERSITY, Ithaca, N. Y.
EDWARD S. HOLDEN, A. M. , LL. D. ,
Director of the Lick Observatory, and Astronomer,
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Berkeley, Cal.
ALCÉE FORTIER, LIT. D. ,
Professor of the Romance Languages,
TULANE UNIVERSITY, New Orleans, La.
WILLIAM P. TRENT, M. A.
,
Dean of the Department of Arts and Sciences, and Professor of
English and History,
UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH, Sewanee, Tenn.
PAUL SHOREY, PH. D. ,
Professor of Greek and Latin Literature,
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, Chicago, Ill.
WILLIAM T. HARRIS, LL. D. ,
United States Commissioner of Education,
BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D. C.
MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN, A. M. , LL. D. ,
Professor of Literature in the
CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, Washington, D. C.
## p. 4256 (#18) ############################################
## p. 4257 (#19) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
OLOF VON DALIN
TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOL. VIII
The Young Wife (Felicitas')
The Vengeance of Gothelindis (The Struggle for Rome')
1708-1763
From the Swedish Argus, No. XIII. —1733
BY WILLIAM H. CARPENTER
RICHARD HENRY DANA, SENIOR
The Island (The Buccaneer')
The Doom of Lee (same)
Paul and Abel (Paul Felton')
DANTE
RICHARD HENRY DANA, JUNIOR
1834-
LIVED
A Dry Gale (Two Years Before the Mast')
Every-Day Sea Life (same)
A Start; and Parting Company (same)
--
1787-1879
1815-1882
BY CHARLES ELIOT NORTON
1265-1321
From The New Life': Beginning of Love; First Saluta-
tion of His Lady; Praise of His Lady; Her Loveli-
ness; Her Death; The Anniversary of Her Death; The
Hope to Speak More Worthily of Her
From the Banquet': Consolation of Philosophy; Desire
of the Soul; The Noble Soul at the End of Life
From the Divine Comedy': Hell-Entrance on the Jour-
ney Through the Eternal World; Hell - Punishment
of Carnal Sinners; Purgatory - The Final Purgation;
Purgatory Meeting with his Lady in the Earthly
Paradise; Paradise - The Final Vision
PAGE
4267
4278
4285
4302
4315
## p. 4258 (#20) ############################################
JAMES DARMESTETER
Ernest Renan (Selected Essays')
Judaism (same)
CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN
vi
BY E. RAY LANKESTER
LIVED
1849-1894
Impressions of Travel (A Naturalist's Voyage')
Genesis of The Origin of Species' ('Life and Letters')
Curious Atrophy of Esthetic Taste (same)
Private Memorandum concerning His Little Daughter
1809-1882
(same)
Religious Views (same)
Letters: To Miss Julia Wedgwood; To J. D. Hooker; To
T. H. Huxley; To E. Ray Lankester; To J. D. Hooker
The Struggle for Existence (Origin of Species')
Geometrical Ratio of Increase (same)
ALPHONSE DAUDET
Of the Nature of the Checks to Increase (same)
Complex Relations of All Animals and Plants to Each
Other in the Struggle for Existence (same)
Of Natural Selection: or the Survival of the Fittest
(same)
Progressive Change Compared with Independent Creation
(same)
Creative Design (Variation of Animals and Plants under
Domestication')
Origin of the Human Species (The Descent of Man')
1840-
BY AUGUSTIN FILON
The Two Tartarins (Tartarin of Tarascon ')
Of Mental Mirage," as Distinguished from Lying (same)
Death of the Dauphin (Letters from My Windmill')
Jack Is Invited to Take Up a "Profession" ("Jack')
The City of Iron and Fire (same)
The Wrath of a Queen (Kings in Exile')
MADAME DU DEFFAND (Marie de Vichy-Chamrond)
1697-1780
Letters: To the Duchesse de Choiseul; To Mr. Crawford;
To Horace Walpole
Portrait of Horace Walpole
PAGE
4379
4385
4435
4471
## p. 4259 (#21) ############################################
vii
DANIEL DEFOE
BY CHARLES FREDERICK JOHNSON
<
From Robinson Crusoe': Crusoe's Shipwreck; Crusoe
Makes a New Home; A Footprint
From History of the Plague in London': Superstitious
Fears of the People; How Quacks and Impositors
Preyed on the Fears of the People; The People Are
Quarantined in Their Houses; Moral Effects of the
Plague; Terrible Scenes in the Streets; The Plague
Due to Natural Causes; Spread of the Plague through
Necessities of the Poor
From Colonel Jack': Colonel Jack and Captain Jack
Escape Arrest: Colonel Jack Finds Captain Jack Hard
to Manage; Colonel Jack's First Wife Is Not Disposed
to be Economical
EDUARD DOUWES DEKKER
The Devil Does Not Concern Himself with Petty Matters
(The Modern History of the Devil')
Defoe Addresses His Public (An Appeal to Honor and
Justice')
Engaging a Maid-Servant (Everybody's Business is No-
body's Business')
The Devil (The True-Born Englishman')
There Is a God (The Storm')
1820-1887
Multatuli's Last Words to the Reader (Max Havelaar')
Idyll of Saïdjah and Adinda (same)
THOMAS DEKKER
LIVED
1661-1731
1570? -1637?
From The Gul's Horne Booke': How a Gallant Should
Behave Himself in Powles Walk; Sleep
Praise of Fortune (Old Fortunatus')
Content (Patient Grissil')
Rustic Song (The Sun's Darling')
Lullaby (Patient Grissil')
JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
BY FREDERIC LOLIÉE
Confession of Louis XI
1793-1843
PAGE
4479
4513
4521
4528
## p. 4260 (#22) ############################################
DEMOSTHENES
THOMAS DE QUINCEY
The Third Philippic
Invective Against License of Speech
Justification of His Patriotic Policy
viii
BY ROBERT SHARP
PAUL DÉROULÈDE
Charles Lamb (Biographical Essays')
Despair (Confessions of an English Opium-Eater')
The Dead Sister (same)
Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow (same)
RENÉ DESCARTES
BY GEORGE R. CARPENTER
LIVED
384-322 B. C.
Savannah-La-Mar (same)
The Bishop of Beauvais and Joan of Arc (Miscellaneous
Essays')
PAUL DESJARDINS
The Harvest (Chants du Paysan')
In Good Quarters (Poèmes Militaires')
"Good Fighting” (same)
Last Wishes (same)
1785-1859
BY GRACE KING
1596-1650
Of Certain Principles of Elementary Logical Thought
('Discourse on Method')
An Elementary Method of Inquiry (same)
The Idea of God (Meditations')
SIR AUBREY DE VERE
The Crusaders
The Children Band (The Crusaders')
The Rock of Cashel
The Right Use of Prayer
The Church
Sonnet
1846-
The Present Duty
Conversion of the Church
Two Impressions (Notes Contemporaines')
1788-1846
PAGE
4535
4555
4580
4585
4596
4609
## p. 4261 (#23) ############################################
ix
LIVED
BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO
1498-1593
From the True History of the Conquest of Mexico': Cap-
ture of Guatimotzin; Mortality at the Conquest of
Mexico; Cortés; Of Divine Aid in the Battle of Santa
Maria de la Vitoria; Cortés Destroys Certain Idols
CHARLES DIBdin
Sea Song
Song: The Heart of a Tar
CHARLES DICKENS
DENIS DIDEROT
BY LAURENCE HUTTON
The One Thing Needful (Hard Times')
The Boy at Mugby (Mugby Junction')
Burning of Newgate (Barnaby Rudge')
Monseigneur ('A Tale of Two Cities')
The Ivy Green
From 'Rameau's Nephew'
FRANZ VON DINGELSTEDT
A Man of Business (The Amazon')
The Watchman
ISAAC D'ISRAELI
Poor Jack
Tom Bowling
SYDNEY DOBELL
1745-1814
1812-1870
DIOGENES LAERTIUS
200-250 A. D. ?
Life of Socrates (Lives and Sayings of the Philosophers')
Examples of Greek Wit and Wisdom: Bias; Plato; Aristip-
pus; Aristotle; Theophrastus; Demetrius; Antisthenes;
Diogenes; Cleanthes; Pythagoras
Epigram on the Death of Edward Forbes
How's My Boy?
The Sailor's Return
Afloat and Ashore
1713-1784
1814-1881
1766-1848
Poets, Philosophers, and Artists Made by Accident (Curi-
osities of Literature')
Martyrdom of Charles the First (Commentaries on the
Reign of Charles the First')
1824-1874
PAGE
4613
4620
4625
4689
4704
4711
4725
4733
## p. 4262 (#24) ############################################
SYDNEY DOBELL- Continued:
The Soul (Balder')
England (same)
America
Amy's Song of the Willow ('Balder')
AUSTIN DOBSON
On a Nankin Plate
The Old Sedan-Chair
Ballad of Prose and Rhyme
The Curé's Progress
"Good-Night, Babbette »
MARY MAPES DODGE
The Race (Hans Brinker')
JOHN DONNE
BY ESTHER SINGLETON
The Undertaking
A Valediction Forbidding
Mourning
X
EDWARD DOWDEN
FEODOR MIKHAILOVITCH DOSTOEVSKY
The Ladies of St. James's
Dora versus Rose
Une Marquise
A. CONAN DOYLE
LIVED
BY ISABEL F. HAPGOOD
1840-
A Ballad to Queen Elizabeth
The Princess De Lamballe
(Four French women')
1840? -
Song
Love's Growth
Song
From 'Poor People': Letter from Varvara Dobrosyeloff
to Makar Dyevushkin; Letter from Makar Dyevushkin
to Varvara Alexievna Dobrosyeloff
The Bible Reading (Crime and Punishment')
The Interpretation of Literature (same)
1573-1631
1843-
The Humor of Shakespeare (Shakespeare; a Critical
Study of His Mind and Art')
1821-1881
Shakespeare's Portraiture of Women (Transcripts and
Studies)
Holmes')
Bowmen's Song (The White Company')
1859-
The Red-Headed League (The Adventures of Sherlock
PAGE
4741
4757
4771
4779
4806
4815
## p. 4263 (#25) ############################################
xi
HOLGER DRACHMANN
JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE
1846-
The Skipper and His Ship (Paul and Virginia of a
Northern Zone')
The Prince's Song (Once Upon a Time')
LIVED
A Winter's Tale (The Croakers')
The Culprit Fay
The American Flag
1795-1820
PAGK
4840
4851
## p. 4264 (#26) ############################################
## p. 4265 (#27) ############################################
LIST OF PORTRAITS
IN VOL. VIII
Felix Dahn
Richard Henry Dana, Senior
Richard Henry Dana, Junior
Dante
Charles Darwin
Alphonse Daudet
Madame Du Deffand
Daniel Defoe
Casimir Delavigne
Demosthenes
Thomas De Quincey
Paul Déroulède
René Descartes
Paul Desjardins
Aubrey De Vere
Charles Dibdin
Charles Dickens
Denis Diderot
Franz von Dingelstedt
Isaac D'Israeli
Austin Dobson
Mary Mapes Dodge
John Donne
Feodor Mikhailovitch Dostoevsky
A. Conan Doyle
Holger Drachmann
Joseph Rodman Drake
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Full page
Full page
Full page
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Full page
Full page
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
## p. 4266 (#28) ############################################
## p. 4267 (#29) ############################################
4267
FELIX DAHN
(1834-)
ELIX DAHN was born at Hamburg, February 9th, 1834, but
when he was only six weeks old the family removed to
Munich. His parents, Friedrich and Constance Dahn, were
celebrated actors, and members of the Royal Theatre at Munich.
His childhood, youth, and early manhood were passed in Munich,
with the exception of one year (1852-3) spent at the University of
Berlin. A somewhat lonely but not unhappy childhood in the fine
old house in the Königinstrasse, with its surroundings of parks and
pleasant gardens, developed his dreamy,
poetic instincts. His first poem, written at
the age of fourteen, is the spontaneous
lyric outburst of a boy's joy in nature.
FELIX DAHN
Dahn was educated at the Latin school
and the University of Munich. He was
but a lad when Homer opened to him a
new world. He began to read the Iliad,
and scarcely left off night or day until it
was finished. The Odyssey followed in the
same way; and in two months he had read
them both and begun again at the begin-
ning. Poetry had rendered his mind sus-
ceptible to learning, and he read, in school
and out, every classic that fell into his hands. History as well as
poetry early became a passion to him, and the uniformity of his
intellectual development made every province of learning his own.
The Teutonic languages, old and new, Anglo-Saxon, Gothic, Norse,
etc. , as well as Latin, Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, and English,
were easily assimilated. At the university, both at Munich and Berlin,
he devoted himself to history, philosophy, and jurisprudence. In 1857
he became docent in the faculty of law at the University of Munich,
and in 1862 was made professor. In the following year he was
appointed professor of German law and jurisprudence at Würzburg,
and in 1872 he was called to Königsberg to the same chair, and in
1888 to Breslau. He took part in the war of 1870-71, and was
present at the battle of Sedan.
Dahn is distinguished as a historian, novelist, poet, and dramatist.
His principal historical works are -'Die Könige der Germanen'
## p. 4268 (#30) ############################################
4268
FELIX DAHN
(The Kings of the Germans), 1861-72, 6 vols. ; Urgeschichte der
Germanischen und Romanischen Völker' (Primitive History of the
Germanic and Romance Peoples), 1878. These two rank high among
the contributions to German history and ethnology in the nineteenth
century. Among his most prominent works in law is 'Die Vernunft
im Recht' (Reason in Law), 1879. As a poet and dramatist, several
of his performances have attained eminence. In 1857 he published
his first collection of poems, and a second collection followed in 1873.
'Zwölf Balladen' (Twelve Ballads) appeared in 1875, and 'Balladen
und Lieder' (Ballads and Songs) in 1878. By far his greatest
romance is 'Der Kampf um Rom' (The Struggle for Rome), 1876, a
work of pre-eminent power and merit. It is a voluminous study, a
series of elaborate pictures, dealing with the empires of the East and
the West in the sixth century. Its scenes are chiefly laid in
Ravenna, at the time of that city's great splendor under the Gothic
sovereignty, and at Rome. The fierce and beautiful Amalaswintha
(also called often Amalasonta) is a prominent character; and other
vivid types are Cassiodorus, Totila, and Mataswintha. Following
this novel, among others, appeared in 1878 Kämpfende Herzen'
(Struggling Hearts); in 1880, 'Odhins Trost' (Odin's Consolation);
and in 1882-90 a series of historical novels under the common title
'Kleine Romane aus der Völkerwanderung' (Short Novels from the
Wandering of the Nations), from the first of which, 'Felicitas,'
an appended extract is taken.
(
Among his dramas are 'Markgraf Rüdeger von Bechelaren ';
'König Roderich'; and 'Deutsche Treue' (German Fidelity).
THE YOUNG WIFE
From Felicitas': copyrighted by George S. Gottsberger, 1883. Reprinted by
permission of George G. Peck
IT
WAS a beautiful June evening. The sun, setting in golden
radiance, cast its glittering rays from the west, from Vinde-
licia, upon the Hill of Mercury and the modest villa crown-
ing it.
Only a subdued murmur reached this spot from the high-
way, along which ever and anon a two-wheeled cart, drawn by
Norican oxen, was moving homeward from the western gate of
Juvavum, the porta Vindelica,-as were also the country people
who had been selling vegetables, hens, and doves in the Forum
of Hercules during the day just ended.
## p. 4269 (#31) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4269
So it was quiet and peaceful on the hill; beyond the stone
wall, which was lower than the height of a man, and which in-
closed the garden, nothing was heard save the rippling of the
little rivulet which, after leaving its marble basin at its source,
fed the fountain, and then wound in graceful curves through the
carefully kept garden, and finally near the entrance, which was
surmounted by Hermes but destitute of door or grating, passed
under a gap in the wall and flowed down the hill in a stone
channel.
At the foot of this hill, towards the southeast, in the direc-
tion of the city, lay carefully tilled vegetable gardens and or-
chards, luxuriant green meadows, and fields of spelt, a grain
brought by the Romans to the land of the barbarians.
Behind the villa, on the ascending hillside, towered and
rustled a beautiful grove of beeches, from whose depths echoed
the metallic notes of the yellow thrush.
The scene was so beautiful, so peaceful; only in the west and
the southeast could a dark cloud be seen.
From the open gateway a straight path, strewn with white
sand, led through the spacious garden, and was bordered with
lofty evergreen oaks and clumps of yew-trees; the latter, accord
ing to a long prevailing fashion, clipped into all sorts of geo.
metrical figures, a token of taste, or the lack of it, the Rococo
age did not invent, but merely borrowed from the gardens of
the emperors.
――――――――
Statues stood at regular distances along the way from the
gate to the entrance of the dwelling; nymphs, a Flora, a
Silvanus, a Mercury, - poor specimens of work executed in
plaster; fat Crispus manufactured them by the dozen in his
workshop on the square of Vulcanus at Juvavum, and sold
them cheap; times were hard for men, and still worse for gods
and demigods, but these were a free gift. Crispus was
brother to the father of the young master of the house.
From the garden gate sounded a few hammer-strokes, echoed
back from the stone wall of the inclosure; they were light taps,
for they were cautiously guided by an artist's hand, apparently
the last finishing touches of a master.
The man who wielded the hammer now started up- he had
been kneeling behind the gate, beside which, piled one above
another, a dozen unhewn marble slabs announced the dwelling
of a stone-cutter. Thrusting the little hammer into the belt
## p. 4270 (#32) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4270
that fastened the leather apron over the blue tunic, he poured
from a small flask a few drops of oil on a woolen cloth, and
carefully rubbed the inscription upon the marble with it until
it was as smooth as a mirror; then turning his head a little
on one side, like a bird that wants to examine something
closely, with an approving nod he read aloud the words on
the slab:-
"Hic habitat Felicitas.
Nihil mali intret. "
"Yes, yes! Here dwells happiness: my happiness, our hap-
piness so long as my Felicitas lives here, happy herself and
making others happy. May misfortune never cross this thresh-
old! may every demon of ill be banished by this motto! The
house has now received a beautiful finish in these words. But
where is she? She must see it and praise me. Felicitas," he
called, turning towards the house, "come here! "
Wiping the perspiration from his brow, he stood erect-a
pliant youthful figure of middle height, not unlike the Mercury
in the garden, modeled by Crispus according to the ancient tra-
ditions of symmetry; dark-brown hair, cut short, curled closely,
almost like a cap, over his uncovered round head; a pair of
dark eyes, shaded by heavy brows, laughed merrily out into
the world; his bare feet and arms were beautifully formed,
but showed little strength,-it was only in the right arm that
the muscles stood forth prominently; the brown leather apron
was white with scrapings from the marble. He shook off the
dust and called again in a louder tone, "Felicitas! "
A white figure, framed like a picture between the two pilas-
ters of the entrance, appeared on the threshold, pushing back
the dark yellow curtain suspended from a bronze pole by mova-
ble rings. A very young girl-or was it a young wife? Yes,
this child, scarcely seventeen, must have already become a wife,
for she was undoubtedly the mother of the infant she pressed to
her bosom with her left arm; no one but a mother holds a child
with such an expression in face and attitude.
The young wife pressed two fingers of her right hand, with
the palm turned outward, warningly to her lips. "Hush," she
said; "our child is asleep. "
And now the slender figure, not yet wholly matured, floated
down the four stone steps leading from the threshold to the
garden, carefully lifting the child a little higher and holding it
## p. 4271 (#33) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4271
still more closely with her left arm, while her right hand raised
her snowy robe to the dainty ankle; the faultlessly beautiful oval
head was slightly bent forward: it was a vision of perfect grace,
even more youthful, more childlike than Raphael's Madonnas,
and not humble, yet at the same time mystically transfigured,
like the mother of the Christ-child; there was nothing compli-
cated, nothing miraculous, naught save the noblest simplicity
blended with royal grandeur in Felicitas's unconscious innocence
and dignity. The movements of this Hebe who had become a
mother were as measured and graceful as a perfect musical
harmony. A wife, yet still a maiden; purely human, perfectly
happy, absorbed and satisfied by her love for her young husband
and the child at her breast; so chaste in coloring was the per-
fect beauty of her form and face that every profane desire van-
ished in her presence as though she were a statue.
She wore no ornaments; her light-brown hair, gleaming with
a gold tinge where the sun kissed it, was drawn back in natural
waves from the beautiful temples, revealing the low forehead, and
was fastened in a loose knot at the nape of the neck; a milk-
white robe of the finest wool, fastened on the left shoulder by
an exquisitely shaped but plain silver clasp, fell in flowing folds.
around her figure,- revealing the neck, the upper part of the
swelling bosom, and the still childish arms which seemed a little
too long, and reached to the ankles, just touching the dainty
scarlet leather sandals; beneath the breast one end of the robe
was drawn through a bronze girdle a hand's-breadth wide.
So she glided noiselessly as a wave down the steps and up to
her husband. The narrow oval face possessed the marvelous,
almost bluish, white tint peculiar to the daughters of Ionia, which
no Southern noonday sun can brown; the semi-circular eyebrows,
as regular as if marked by a pair of compasses, might have
given the countenance a lifeless, almost statuesque expression,
had not under the long low-curling lashes the dark-brown ante-
lope eyes shone with the most vivid animation as she fixed them
on her beloved husband.
The latter rushed towards her with elastic steps; carefully
and tenderly taking the sleeping child from her arm, he laid it
under the shade of a rose-bush in the oval shallow straw lid of
his work-basket; one full-blown rose waving in the evening
breeze tossed fragrant petals on the little one, who smiled in
sleep.
## p. 4272 (#34) ############################################
4272
FELIX DAHN
The master of the house, throwing his arm around his young
wife's almost too slender waist, led her to the slab just completed
for the threshold of the entrance, saying:-
"The motto I have kept secret—which I have worked so
hard to finish-is now done; read it, and know, and feel” —
here he tenderly kissed her lips-"you you yourself are the
happiness; you dwell here. "
―――――――――
Translation of Mary J. Safford.
THE VENGEANCE OF GOTHELINDIS
From The Struggle for Rome ›
THE
HE slave silently opened a door in the marble walls. Amalas-
wintha entered, and stood in the narrow gallery which ran
around the basin. Just in front, low steps led into the
magnificent bath, from which already warm delicious odors were
rising. Light fell in from above through an octagonal dome of
finely cut glass. At the entrance was a flight of steps of cedar
wood, which led up twelve stairs to a spring-board. Round
about the marble walls of the gallery, as well as of the basin,
countless friezes hid the mouths of the pipes needed for the
water-works and the hot air.
Silently the bath-woman spread the bathing accessories over
the soft cushions and carpets that covered the floor of the gal-
lery, and turned toward the door.
"Why is it that I feel that I know you? " asked the princess,
looking at her thoughtfully. "How long have you been here ? »
"Since eight days. " And she took hold of the door.
"How long have you served Cassiodorus? "
"I have always served the Princess Gothelindis. "
With a cry of terror Amalaswintha started up at this name.
She turned and grasped at the garment of the woman - too late!
She was gone, the door fell to. Amalaswintha heard the key
drawn out of the lock.
-
In vain her eye sought for another place of exit. Then an
immense unnamable fear overcame the queen. She felt that
she had been terribly deceived, that here was hidden a disastrous
secret. Fear, nameless fear, fell upon her. Flight, flight out of
this chamber was her one thought.
## p. 4273 (#35) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4273
But flight seemed impossible; the door from this side was
now only a thick marble slab, like those at the right and the
left. Not even a pin could penetrate through the seams. In
despair her eyes traveled around the wall of the gallery. Only
the tritons and dolphins stared back at her.
At last her gaze
rested on the snake-enwreathed head of the Medusa just opposite,
and she uttered a cry of terror. The face of the Medusa was
pushed aside, and the oval space under the snaky hair was filled
by a human countenance!
Was a human countenance?
Trembling, she clutched the marble railing, and leaning far
forward peered over: yes, those were the features of Gothelindis,
drawn to a grimace; and a hell of hatred and scorn flamed in
her eyes.
Amalaswintha sank on her knees and hid her face.
"You-you here! "
Hoarse laughter answered her.
"Yes, Amelung woman! I am here, and to your ruin! This
island, this house, is mine! It shall be your grave! Dolios and
all slaves of Cassiodorus are mine, sold to me a week ago. I
have lured you hither. I have followed you as your shadow.
Through long days and long nights I have borne within me
burning hatred, at length to taste here full revenge. For hours
I will enjoy your mortal agony, will witness miserable, moaning
terror shake as in fever that proud body and cover that haughty
face! Oh, I will drink a sea of revenge! "
Amalaswintha rose, wringing her hands:-"Revenge, Gothe-
lindis! Wherefore? Whence this deadly hatred of me? "
"Ha, and you ask? To be sure, decades have passed by, and
the heart of the happy soon forgets. But hatred has a more
faithful memory. Have you forgotten how once upon a time
two young girls played beneath the plantains on the meadows of
Ravenna? Both were chief among their playmates.
Both were
young, beautiful, and charming; the one daughter of a king, the
other daughter of the Baltha. And the girls had to choose a
queen for their games: and they chose Gothelindis, for she was
yet more beautiful than you, and not as imperious; and they
chose her once, twice in succession. But the daughter of the
king stood by, consumed by wild untamable pride,- pride and
envy; and when they chose me for the third time, she took up
the sharp-pointed garden scissors->
VIII-268
## p. 4274 (#36) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4274
"Stop! oh, hush, Gothelindis! "
-And flung it at me. And it hit its mark, and crying out
and bloody I fell to the ground, my whole cheek a gaping
wound, and my eye, my eye pierced. Ah, how that hurts, even
now! "
«<
-
"Pardon, forgive, Gothelindis! " moaned the prisoner. "You
had forgiven me long ago. "
"Forgiven? I forgive you?
of the Persians,- creatures of a still bolder imagination, such
as the martichore, or destroyer of men, having a human head on
the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion; the griffin, or
guardian of hidden treasures, half eagle and half lion; or the
cartazonon, or wild ass, armed with a long horn on its forehead.
-
Ctesias, who reports these as actual living animals, has been
looked upon by some authors as an inventor of fables; whereas
he only attributes real existence to hieroglyphical representations.
These strange compositions of fancy have been seen in modern
times on the ruins of Persepolis. It is probable that their
hidden meanings may never be ascertained; but at all events we
are quite certain that they were never intended to be representa-
tions of real animals.
Agatharcides, another fabricator of animals, drew his informa-
tion in all probability from a similar source. The ancient
monuments of Egypt still furnish us with numerous fantastic
representations, in which the parts of different kinds of creatures
are strangely combined,-men with the heads of animals, and
animals with the heads of men,- which have given rise to cyno-
cephali, satyrs, and sphinxes. The custom of exhibiting in the
same sculpture, in bas-relief, men of very different heights,
of making kings and conquerors gigantic while their subjects
and vassals are represented as only a fourth or fifth part of their
## p. 4263 (#641) ###########################################
CUVIER
4263
size, must have given rise to the fable of the pigmies. In some
corner of these monuments Agatharcides must have discovered
his carnivorous bull, whose mouth, extending from ear to ear,
devoured every other animal that came in his way. But scarcely
any naturalist will acknowledge the existence of any such animal,
since nature has never joined cloven hoofs and horns with teeth
adapted for cutting and devouring animal food.
There may have been other figures equally strange with
these, either among those monuments of Egypt which have not
been able to resist the ravages of time, or in the ancient tem-
ples of Ethiopia and Arabia which have been destroyed by the
religious zeal of the Abyssinians and Mahometans. The monu-
ments of India teem with such figures; but the combinations in
these are so ridiculously extravagant that they have never im-
posed even upon the most credulous. Monsters with a hundred
arms and twenty heads of different kinds are far too absurd to
be believed.
Nay, the inhabitants of China and Japan have their imagin-
ary animals, which they represent as real, and that too in their
religious books. The Mexicans had them. In short, they are to
be found among every people whose idolatry has not yet
acquired some degree of refinement. But is there any one who
could possibly pretend to discover, amidst the realities of animal
nature, what are thus so plainly the productions of ignorance
and superstition? And yet some travelers, influenced by a
desire to make themselves famous, have gone so far as to pre-
tend that they saw these fancied beings; or, deceived by a
slight resemblance into which they were too careless to inquire,
they have identified these with creatures that actually exist. In
their eyes, large baboons or monkeys have become cynocephali,
and sphinxes real men with long tails. It is thus that St.
Augustine imagined he had seen a satyr.
Real animals, observed and described with equal inaccuracy,
may have given rise to some of these ideal monsters.
Thus we
can have no doubt of the existence of the hyena, though the back
of this animal is not supported by a single bone, and though
it does not change its sex yearly, as alleged by Pliny. Perhaps
the carnivorous bull may only have been the two-horned rhi-
noceros falsely described. M. de Weltheim considers the aurifer-
ous ants of Herodotus as the corsacs of modern naturalists.
## p. 4264 (#642) ###########################################
4264
CUVIER
The most famous among these fabulous animals of the an-
cients was the unicorn. Its real existence has been obstinately
asserted even in the present day, or at least proofs of its exist-
ence have been eagerly sought for. Three several animals are
frequently mentioned by the ancients as having only one horn
placed on the middle of the forehead. The oryx of Africa, hav-
ing cloven hoofs, the hair placed reversely to that of other
animals, its height equal to that of the bull, or even of the
rhinoceros, and said to resemble deer and goats in its form; the
Indian ass, having solid hoofs; and the monoceros, properly so
called, whose feet are sometimes compared to those of the lion
and sometimes to those of the elephant, and is therefore con-
sidered as having divided feet. The horse unicorn and the bull
unicorn are doubtless both referable to the Indian ass, for even
the latter is described as having solid hoofs. We may therefore
be fully assured that these animals have never really existed, as
no solitary horns have ever found their way into our collections,
excepting those of the rhinoceros and narwhal.
After careful consideration, it is impossible that we should
give any credit to rude sketches made by savages upon rocks.
Entirely ignorant of perspective, and wishing to represent the
outlines of a straight-horned antelope in profile, they could only
give the figure one horn, and thus they produced an oryx. The
oryxes that are seen on the Egyptian monuments, likewise, are
probably nothing more than productions of the stiff style im-
posed on the sculptors of the country by religious prejudices.
Several of their profiles of quadrupeds show only one fore and
one hinder leg; and it is probable that the same rule led them
also to represent only one horn. Perhaps their figures may have
been copied after individuals that had lost one of their horns by
accident, a circumstance that often happens to the chamois and
the saiga, species of the antelope genus; and this would be quite.
sufficient to establish the error. All the ancients, however, have
not represented the oryx as having only one horn. Oppian
expressly attributes two to this animal, and Ælian mentions one
that had four. Finally, if this animal was ruminant and cloven-
footed, we are quite certain that its frontal bone must have
been divided longitudinally into two, and that it could not pos-
sibly, as it is very justly remarked by Camper, have had a horn
placed upon the suture.
## p. 4265 (#643) ###########################################
CUVIER
4265
It may be asked, however: What two-horned animals could
have given an idea of the oryx in the forms in which it has
been transmitted down to us, even independent of the notion
of a single horn? To this I answer, as already done by Pallas,
that it was the straight-horned antelope oryx of Gmelin, improp-
erly named pasan by Buffon. This animal inhabits the deserts
of Africa, and must frequently approach the confines of Egypt,
and appears to be that which is represented in the hieroglyphics.
It equals the ox in height, while the shape of its body approaches
to that of a stag, and its straight horns present exceedingly
formidable weapons, hard almost as iron, and sharp-pointed like
javelins. Its hair is whitish; it has black spots and streaks on
its face, and the hair on its back points forward. Such is the
description given by naturalists; and the fables of the Egyptian
priests, which have occasioned the insertion of its figure among
their hieroglyphics, do not require to have been founded in
nature. Supposing that an individual of this species may have
been seen which had lost one of its horns by some accident, it
may have been taken as a representative of the entire race, and
erroneously adopted by Aristotle to be copied by all his succes-
sors. All this is quite possible and even natural, and gives not
the smallest evidence for the existence of a single-horned species
of antelope.
In regard to the Indian ass, of the alexipharmic virtues of
whose horn the ancients speak, we find the Eastern nations of
the present day attributing exactly the same property of counter-
acting poison to the horn of the rhinoceros. When this horn
was first imported into Greece, nothing probably was known
respecting the animal to which it belonged; and accordingly it
was not known to Aristotle. Agatharcides is the first author by
whom it is mentioned. In the same manner, ivory was known
to the ancients long before the animal from which it is pro-
cured; and perhaps some of their travelers may have given to
the rhinoceros the name of Indian ass, with as much propriety
as the Romans denominated the elephant the bull of Lucania.
Everything which they relate of the strength, size, and ferocity
of their wild ass of India corresponds sufficiently with the rhi-
noceros. In succeeding times, when the rhinoceros came to be
better known to naturalists, finding that former authors men-
tioned a single-horned animal under the name of Indian ass,
they concluded without any examination that it must be quite
## p. 4266 (#644) ###########################################
4266
CUVIER
a distinct creature, having solid hoofs. We have remaining a
detailed description of the Indian ass, written by Ctesias; but
as we have already seen that this must have been taken from
the ruins of Persepolis, it should go for nothing in the real
history of the animal.
When there afterwards appeared more exact descriptions of
an animal having several toes or hoofs on each foot, the ancients
conceived it to be a third species of one-horned animals, to which
they gave the name of monoceros. These double and even triple
references are most frequent among ancient writers, because most
of their works which have come down to us were mere compila-
tions; because even Aristotle himself has often mixed borrowed
facts with those which had come under his own observation; and
because the habit of critically investigating the authorities of
previous writers was as little known among ancient naturalists
as among their historians.
From all these reasonings and digressions, it may be fairly
concluded that the large animals of the ancient continent with
which we are now acquainted were known to the ancients; and
that all the animals of which the ancients have left descriptions,
and which are now unknown, were merely fabulous. It also fol-
lows that the large animals of the three anciently known quarters
of the world were very soon known to the people who frequented
their coasts.
It may also be concluded that no large species remains to be
discovered in America, as there is no good reason that can be
assigned why any such should exist in that country with which
we are unacquainted; and in fact none has been discovered there
during the last hundred and fifty years.
From all these considerations it may be safely concluded, as
shall be more minutely explained in the sequel,- that none of
the large species of quadrupeds, whose remains are now found
imbedded in regular rocky strata, are at all similar to any of the
known living species; that this circumstance is by no means
the mere effect of chance, or because the species to which these
fossil bones have belonged are still concealed in the desert and
uninhabited parts of the world, and have hitherto escaped the
observation of travelers, but-that this astonishing phenomenon
has proceeded from general causes, and that the careful investi-
gation of it affords one of the best means for discovering and
explaining the nature of these causes.
•
## p. (#645) ################################################
## p. (#646) ################################################
## p. (#647) ################################################
## p. (#648) ################################################
|
## p. (#649) ################################################
Xx
## p. (#650) ################################################
## p. (#651) ################################################
This book should be returned to
the Library on or before the last date
stamped below.
A fine is incurred by retaining it
beyond the specified time.
Please return promptly.
1
## p. (#652) ################################################
Widener Library
3 2044 094 449 691
This file was downloaded from HathiTrust Digital Library.
Find more books at https://www. hathitrust. org.
Title: Library of the world's best literature, ancient and modern;
Charles Dudley Warner, editor; Hamilton Wright Mabie, Lucia
Gilbert Runkle, George H. Warner, associate editors . . .
Publisher: New York, R. S. Peale and J. A. Hill [c1896-97]
Copyright:
Public Domain, Google-digitized
http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
We have determined this work to be in the public domain, meaning that it is
not subject to copyright. Users are free to copy, use, and redistribute the
work in part or in whole. It is possible that current copyright holders,
heirs or the estate of the authors of individual portions of the work, such
as illustrations or photographs, assert copyrights over these portions.
Depending on the nature of subsequent use that is made, additional rights
may need to be obtained independently of anything we can address. The
digital images and OCR of this work were produced by Google, Inc.
(indicated by a watermark on each page in the PageTurner). Google requests
that the images and OCR not be re-hosted, redistributed or used
commercially. The images are provided for educational, scholarly,
non-commercial purposes.
Find this book online: https://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044094449683
This file has been created from the computer-extracted text of scanned page
images. Computer-extracted text may have errors, such as misspellings,
unusual characters, odd spacing and line breaks.
Original from: Harvard University
Digitized by: Google
Generated at University of Chicago on 2023-04-19 01:27 GMT
## p. 4239 (#1) #############################################
KAM Anurday
## p. 4240 (#2) #############################################
Lit 2020. 18 (8)
VERI
TAS
Harvard College Library
FROM
the library. . . of. .
Charles Swain Thomas. . . . . .
## p. 4241 (#3) #############################################
## p. 4242 (#4) #############################################
要
## p. 4243 (#5) #############################################
i
## p. 4244 (#6) #############################################
## p. 4245 (#7) #############################################
## p. 4246 (#8) #############################################
## p. 4247 (#9) #############################################
1
## p. 4248 (#10) ############################################
## p. 4249 (#11) ############################################
i
## p. 4250 (#12) ############################################
CHAS. R. DARWIN.
20 Grosch
## p. 4251 (#13) ############################################
WORLDS DEST
CHAPHY
H MILTON MK-
1. . . .
FS PER I. A
1
## p. 4252 (#14) ############################################
CARA
## p. 4253 (#15) ############################################
LIBRARY
OF THE
WORLD'S BEST LITERATURE
Ancient and Modern
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER
EDITOR
HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE, LUCIA GILBERT RUNKLE,
GEORGE H. WARNER
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
THIRTY VOLUMES
VOL. VIII
NEW YORK
R. S. PEALE AND J. A. HILL
PUBLISHERS
## p. 4254 (#16) ############################################
Lit 2025. 18
MARVAKL
UNIVERSO
LIBRARY
དེའ ཏའ མ པ
ܚܐ ܬܝܐ ܀
COPYRIGHT 1897
By R. S. PEALE AND J. A. HILL
All rights reserved
THE WERNER COMPANY
PRINTERS
&
BINDERS
## p. 4255 (#17) ############################################
THE ADVISORY COUNCIL
CRAWFORD H. TOY, A. M. , LL. D. ,
Professor of Hebrew, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Cambridge, Mass.
THOMAS R. LOUNSBURY, LL. D. , L. H. D. ,
Professor of English in the Sheffield Scientific School of
YALE UNIVERSITY, New Haven, Conn.
WILLIAM M. SLOANE, PH. D. , L. H. D. ,
Professor of History and Political Science,
BRANDER MATTHEWS, A. M. , LL. B. ,
Professor of Literature, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, New York City.
JAMES B. ANGELL, LL. D. .
President of the
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, Princeton, N. J.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, Ann Arbor, Mich.
WILLARD FISKE, A. M. , PH. D. ,
Late Professor of the Germanic and Scandinavian Languages
and Literatures,
CORNELL UNIVERSITY, Ithaca, N. Y.
EDWARD S. HOLDEN, A. M. , LL. D. ,
Director of the Lick Observatory, and Astronomer,
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Berkeley, Cal.
ALCÉE FORTIER, LIT. D. ,
Professor of the Romance Languages,
TULANE UNIVERSITY, New Orleans, La.
WILLIAM P. TRENT, M. A.
,
Dean of the Department of Arts and Sciences, and Professor of
English and History,
UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH, Sewanee, Tenn.
PAUL SHOREY, PH. D. ,
Professor of Greek and Latin Literature,
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, Chicago, Ill.
WILLIAM T. HARRIS, LL. D. ,
United States Commissioner of Education,
BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D. C.
MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN, A. M. , LL. D. ,
Professor of Literature in the
CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, Washington, D. C.
## p. 4256 (#18) ############################################
## p. 4257 (#19) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
OLOF VON DALIN
TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOL. VIII
The Young Wife (Felicitas')
The Vengeance of Gothelindis (The Struggle for Rome')
1708-1763
From the Swedish Argus, No. XIII. —1733
BY WILLIAM H. CARPENTER
RICHARD HENRY DANA, SENIOR
The Island (The Buccaneer')
The Doom of Lee (same)
Paul and Abel (Paul Felton')
DANTE
RICHARD HENRY DANA, JUNIOR
1834-
LIVED
A Dry Gale (Two Years Before the Mast')
Every-Day Sea Life (same)
A Start; and Parting Company (same)
--
1787-1879
1815-1882
BY CHARLES ELIOT NORTON
1265-1321
From The New Life': Beginning of Love; First Saluta-
tion of His Lady; Praise of His Lady; Her Loveli-
ness; Her Death; The Anniversary of Her Death; The
Hope to Speak More Worthily of Her
From the Banquet': Consolation of Philosophy; Desire
of the Soul; The Noble Soul at the End of Life
From the Divine Comedy': Hell-Entrance on the Jour-
ney Through the Eternal World; Hell - Punishment
of Carnal Sinners; Purgatory - The Final Purgation;
Purgatory Meeting with his Lady in the Earthly
Paradise; Paradise - The Final Vision
PAGE
4267
4278
4285
4302
4315
## p. 4258 (#20) ############################################
JAMES DARMESTETER
Ernest Renan (Selected Essays')
Judaism (same)
CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN
vi
BY E. RAY LANKESTER
LIVED
1849-1894
Impressions of Travel (A Naturalist's Voyage')
Genesis of The Origin of Species' ('Life and Letters')
Curious Atrophy of Esthetic Taste (same)
Private Memorandum concerning His Little Daughter
1809-1882
(same)
Religious Views (same)
Letters: To Miss Julia Wedgwood; To J. D. Hooker; To
T. H. Huxley; To E. Ray Lankester; To J. D. Hooker
The Struggle for Existence (Origin of Species')
Geometrical Ratio of Increase (same)
ALPHONSE DAUDET
Of the Nature of the Checks to Increase (same)
Complex Relations of All Animals and Plants to Each
Other in the Struggle for Existence (same)
Of Natural Selection: or the Survival of the Fittest
(same)
Progressive Change Compared with Independent Creation
(same)
Creative Design (Variation of Animals and Plants under
Domestication')
Origin of the Human Species (The Descent of Man')
1840-
BY AUGUSTIN FILON
The Two Tartarins (Tartarin of Tarascon ')
Of Mental Mirage," as Distinguished from Lying (same)
Death of the Dauphin (Letters from My Windmill')
Jack Is Invited to Take Up a "Profession" ("Jack')
The City of Iron and Fire (same)
The Wrath of a Queen (Kings in Exile')
MADAME DU DEFFAND (Marie de Vichy-Chamrond)
1697-1780
Letters: To the Duchesse de Choiseul; To Mr. Crawford;
To Horace Walpole
Portrait of Horace Walpole
PAGE
4379
4385
4435
4471
## p. 4259 (#21) ############################################
vii
DANIEL DEFOE
BY CHARLES FREDERICK JOHNSON
<
From Robinson Crusoe': Crusoe's Shipwreck; Crusoe
Makes a New Home; A Footprint
From History of the Plague in London': Superstitious
Fears of the People; How Quacks and Impositors
Preyed on the Fears of the People; The People Are
Quarantined in Their Houses; Moral Effects of the
Plague; Terrible Scenes in the Streets; The Plague
Due to Natural Causes; Spread of the Plague through
Necessities of the Poor
From Colonel Jack': Colonel Jack and Captain Jack
Escape Arrest: Colonel Jack Finds Captain Jack Hard
to Manage; Colonel Jack's First Wife Is Not Disposed
to be Economical
EDUARD DOUWES DEKKER
The Devil Does Not Concern Himself with Petty Matters
(The Modern History of the Devil')
Defoe Addresses His Public (An Appeal to Honor and
Justice')
Engaging a Maid-Servant (Everybody's Business is No-
body's Business')
The Devil (The True-Born Englishman')
There Is a God (The Storm')
1820-1887
Multatuli's Last Words to the Reader (Max Havelaar')
Idyll of Saïdjah and Adinda (same)
THOMAS DEKKER
LIVED
1661-1731
1570? -1637?
From The Gul's Horne Booke': How a Gallant Should
Behave Himself in Powles Walk; Sleep
Praise of Fortune (Old Fortunatus')
Content (Patient Grissil')
Rustic Song (The Sun's Darling')
Lullaby (Patient Grissil')
JEAN FRANÇOIS CASIMIR DELAVIGNE
BY FREDERIC LOLIÉE
Confession of Louis XI
1793-1843
PAGE
4479
4513
4521
4528
## p. 4260 (#22) ############################################
DEMOSTHENES
THOMAS DE QUINCEY
The Third Philippic
Invective Against License of Speech
Justification of His Patriotic Policy
viii
BY ROBERT SHARP
PAUL DÉROULÈDE
Charles Lamb (Biographical Essays')
Despair (Confessions of an English Opium-Eater')
The Dead Sister (same)
Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow (same)
RENÉ DESCARTES
BY GEORGE R. CARPENTER
LIVED
384-322 B. C.
Savannah-La-Mar (same)
The Bishop of Beauvais and Joan of Arc (Miscellaneous
Essays')
PAUL DESJARDINS
The Harvest (Chants du Paysan')
In Good Quarters (Poèmes Militaires')
"Good Fighting” (same)
Last Wishes (same)
1785-1859
BY GRACE KING
1596-1650
Of Certain Principles of Elementary Logical Thought
('Discourse on Method')
An Elementary Method of Inquiry (same)
The Idea of God (Meditations')
SIR AUBREY DE VERE
The Crusaders
The Children Band (The Crusaders')
The Rock of Cashel
The Right Use of Prayer
The Church
Sonnet
1846-
The Present Duty
Conversion of the Church
Two Impressions (Notes Contemporaines')
1788-1846
PAGE
4535
4555
4580
4585
4596
4609
## p. 4261 (#23) ############################################
ix
LIVED
BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO
1498-1593
From the True History of the Conquest of Mexico': Cap-
ture of Guatimotzin; Mortality at the Conquest of
Mexico; Cortés; Of Divine Aid in the Battle of Santa
Maria de la Vitoria; Cortés Destroys Certain Idols
CHARLES DIBdin
Sea Song
Song: The Heart of a Tar
CHARLES DICKENS
DENIS DIDEROT
BY LAURENCE HUTTON
The One Thing Needful (Hard Times')
The Boy at Mugby (Mugby Junction')
Burning of Newgate (Barnaby Rudge')
Monseigneur ('A Tale of Two Cities')
The Ivy Green
From 'Rameau's Nephew'
FRANZ VON DINGELSTEDT
A Man of Business (The Amazon')
The Watchman
ISAAC D'ISRAELI
Poor Jack
Tom Bowling
SYDNEY DOBELL
1745-1814
1812-1870
DIOGENES LAERTIUS
200-250 A. D. ?
Life of Socrates (Lives and Sayings of the Philosophers')
Examples of Greek Wit and Wisdom: Bias; Plato; Aristip-
pus; Aristotle; Theophrastus; Demetrius; Antisthenes;
Diogenes; Cleanthes; Pythagoras
Epigram on the Death of Edward Forbes
How's My Boy?
The Sailor's Return
Afloat and Ashore
1713-1784
1814-1881
1766-1848
Poets, Philosophers, and Artists Made by Accident (Curi-
osities of Literature')
Martyrdom of Charles the First (Commentaries on the
Reign of Charles the First')
1824-1874
PAGE
4613
4620
4625
4689
4704
4711
4725
4733
## p. 4262 (#24) ############################################
SYDNEY DOBELL- Continued:
The Soul (Balder')
England (same)
America
Amy's Song of the Willow ('Balder')
AUSTIN DOBSON
On a Nankin Plate
The Old Sedan-Chair
Ballad of Prose and Rhyme
The Curé's Progress
"Good-Night, Babbette »
MARY MAPES DODGE
The Race (Hans Brinker')
JOHN DONNE
BY ESTHER SINGLETON
The Undertaking
A Valediction Forbidding
Mourning
X
EDWARD DOWDEN
FEODOR MIKHAILOVITCH DOSTOEVSKY
The Ladies of St. James's
Dora versus Rose
Une Marquise
A. CONAN DOYLE
LIVED
BY ISABEL F. HAPGOOD
1840-
A Ballad to Queen Elizabeth
The Princess De Lamballe
(Four French women')
1840? -
Song
Love's Growth
Song
From 'Poor People': Letter from Varvara Dobrosyeloff
to Makar Dyevushkin; Letter from Makar Dyevushkin
to Varvara Alexievna Dobrosyeloff
The Bible Reading (Crime and Punishment')
The Interpretation of Literature (same)
1573-1631
1843-
The Humor of Shakespeare (Shakespeare; a Critical
Study of His Mind and Art')
1821-1881
Shakespeare's Portraiture of Women (Transcripts and
Studies)
Holmes')
Bowmen's Song (The White Company')
1859-
The Red-Headed League (The Adventures of Sherlock
PAGE
4741
4757
4771
4779
4806
4815
## p. 4263 (#25) ############################################
xi
HOLGER DRACHMANN
JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE
1846-
The Skipper and His Ship (Paul and Virginia of a
Northern Zone')
The Prince's Song (Once Upon a Time')
LIVED
A Winter's Tale (The Croakers')
The Culprit Fay
The American Flag
1795-1820
PAGK
4840
4851
## p. 4264 (#26) ############################################
## p. 4265 (#27) ############################################
LIST OF PORTRAITS
IN VOL. VIII
Felix Dahn
Richard Henry Dana, Senior
Richard Henry Dana, Junior
Dante
Charles Darwin
Alphonse Daudet
Madame Du Deffand
Daniel Defoe
Casimir Delavigne
Demosthenes
Thomas De Quincey
Paul Déroulède
René Descartes
Paul Desjardins
Aubrey De Vere
Charles Dibdin
Charles Dickens
Denis Diderot
Franz von Dingelstedt
Isaac D'Israeli
Austin Dobson
Mary Mapes Dodge
John Donne
Feodor Mikhailovitch Dostoevsky
A. Conan Doyle
Holger Drachmann
Joseph Rodman Drake
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Full page
Full page
Full page
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Full page
Full page
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
## p. 4266 (#28) ############################################
## p. 4267 (#29) ############################################
4267
FELIX DAHN
(1834-)
ELIX DAHN was born at Hamburg, February 9th, 1834, but
when he was only six weeks old the family removed to
Munich. His parents, Friedrich and Constance Dahn, were
celebrated actors, and members of the Royal Theatre at Munich.
His childhood, youth, and early manhood were passed in Munich,
with the exception of one year (1852-3) spent at the University of
Berlin. A somewhat lonely but not unhappy childhood in the fine
old house in the Königinstrasse, with its surroundings of parks and
pleasant gardens, developed his dreamy,
poetic instincts. His first poem, written at
the age of fourteen, is the spontaneous
lyric outburst of a boy's joy in nature.
FELIX DAHN
Dahn was educated at the Latin school
and the University of Munich. He was
but a lad when Homer opened to him a
new world. He began to read the Iliad,
and scarcely left off night or day until it
was finished. The Odyssey followed in the
same way; and in two months he had read
them both and begun again at the begin-
ning. Poetry had rendered his mind sus-
ceptible to learning, and he read, in school
and out, every classic that fell into his hands. History as well as
poetry early became a passion to him, and the uniformity of his
intellectual development made every province of learning his own.
The Teutonic languages, old and new, Anglo-Saxon, Gothic, Norse,
etc. , as well as Latin, Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, and English,
were easily assimilated. At the university, both at Munich and Berlin,
he devoted himself to history, philosophy, and jurisprudence. In 1857
he became docent in the faculty of law at the University of Munich,
and in 1862 was made professor. In the following year he was
appointed professor of German law and jurisprudence at Würzburg,
and in 1872 he was called to Königsberg to the same chair, and in
1888 to Breslau. He took part in the war of 1870-71, and was
present at the battle of Sedan.
Dahn is distinguished as a historian, novelist, poet, and dramatist.
His principal historical works are -'Die Könige der Germanen'
## p. 4268 (#30) ############################################
4268
FELIX DAHN
(The Kings of the Germans), 1861-72, 6 vols. ; Urgeschichte der
Germanischen und Romanischen Völker' (Primitive History of the
Germanic and Romance Peoples), 1878. These two rank high among
the contributions to German history and ethnology in the nineteenth
century. Among his most prominent works in law is 'Die Vernunft
im Recht' (Reason in Law), 1879. As a poet and dramatist, several
of his performances have attained eminence. In 1857 he published
his first collection of poems, and a second collection followed in 1873.
'Zwölf Balladen' (Twelve Ballads) appeared in 1875, and 'Balladen
und Lieder' (Ballads and Songs) in 1878. By far his greatest
romance is 'Der Kampf um Rom' (The Struggle for Rome), 1876, a
work of pre-eminent power and merit. It is a voluminous study, a
series of elaborate pictures, dealing with the empires of the East and
the West in the sixth century. Its scenes are chiefly laid in
Ravenna, at the time of that city's great splendor under the Gothic
sovereignty, and at Rome. The fierce and beautiful Amalaswintha
(also called often Amalasonta) is a prominent character; and other
vivid types are Cassiodorus, Totila, and Mataswintha. Following
this novel, among others, appeared in 1878 Kämpfende Herzen'
(Struggling Hearts); in 1880, 'Odhins Trost' (Odin's Consolation);
and in 1882-90 a series of historical novels under the common title
'Kleine Romane aus der Völkerwanderung' (Short Novels from the
Wandering of the Nations), from the first of which, 'Felicitas,'
an appended extract is taken.
(
Among his dramas are 'Markgraf Rüdeger von Bechelaren ';
'König Roderich'; and 'Deutsche Treue' (German Fidelity).
THE YOUNG WIFE
From Felicitas': copyrighted by George S. Gottsberger, 1883. Reprinted by
permission of George G. Peck
IT
WAS a beautiful June evening. The sun, setting in golden
radiance, cast its glittering rays from the west, from Vinde-
licia, upon the Hill of Mercury and the modest villa crown-
ing it.
Only a subdued murmur reached this spot from the high-
way, along which ever and anon a two-wheeled cart, drawn by
Norican oxen, was moving homeward from the western gate of
Juvavum, the porta Vindelica,-as were also the country people
who had been selling vegetables, hens, and doves in the Forum
of Hercules during the day just ended.
## p. 4269 (#31) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4269
So it was quiet and peaceful on the hill; beyond the stone
wall, which was lower than the height of a man, and which in-
closed the garden, nothing was heard save the rippling of the
little rivulet which, after leaving its marble basin at its source,
fed the fountain, and then wound in graceful curves through the
carefully kept garden, and finally near the entrance, which was
surmounted by Hermes but destitute of door or grating, passed
under a gap in the wall and flowed down the hill in a stone
channel.
At the foot of this hill, towards the southeast, in the direc-
tion of the city, lay carefully tilled vegetable gardens and or-
chards, luxuriant green meadows, and fields of spelt, a grain
brought by the Romans to the land of the barbarians.
Behind the villa, on the ascending hillside, towered and
rustled a beautiful grove of beeches, from whose depths echoed
the metallic notes of the yellow thrush.
The scene was so beautiful, so peaceful; only in the west and
the southeast could a dark cloud be seen.
From the open gateway a straight path, strewn with white
sand, led through the spacious garden, and was bordered with
lofty evergreen oaks and clumps of yew-trees; the latter, accord
ing to a long prevailing fashion, clipped into all sorts of geo.
metrical figures, a token of taste, or the lack of it, the Rococo
age did not invent, but merely borrowed from the gardens of
the emperors.
――――――――
Statues stood at regular distances along the way from the
gate to the entrance of the dwelling; nymphs, a Flora, a
Silvanus, a Mercury, - poor specimens of work executed in
plaster; fat Crispus manufactured them by the dozen in his
workshop on the square of Vulcanus at Juvavum, and sold
them cheap; times were hard for men, and still worse for gods
and demigods, but these were a free gift. Crispus was
brother to the father of the young master of the house.
From the garden gate sounded a few hammer-strokes, echoed
back from the stone wall of the inclosure; they were light taps,
for they were cautiously guided by an artist's hand, apparently
the last finishing touches of a master.
The man who wielded the hammer now started up- he had
been kneeling behind the gate, beside which, piled one above
another, a dozen unhewn marble slabs announced the dwelling
of a stone-cutter. Thrusting the little hammer into the belt
## p. 4270 (#32) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4270
that fastened the leather apron over the blue tunic, he poured
from a small flask a few drops of oil on a woolen cloth, and
carefully rubbed the inscription upon the marble with it until
it was as smooth as a mirror; then turning his head a little
on one side, like a bird that wants to examine something
closely, with an approving nod he read aloud the words on
the slab:-
"Hic habitat Felicitas.
Nihil mali intret. "
"Yes, yes! Here dwells happiness: my happiness, our hap-
piness so long as my Felicitas lives here, happy herself and
making others happy. May misfortune never cross this thresh-
old! may every demon of ill be banished by this motto! The
house has now received a beautiful finish in these words. But
where is she? She must see it and praise me. Felicitas," he
called, turning towards the house, "come here! "
Wiping the perspiration from his brow, he stood erect-a
pliant youthful figure of middle height, not unlike the Mercury
in the garden, modeled by Crispus according to the ancient tra-
ditions of symmetry; dark-brown hair, cut short, curled closely,
almost like a cap, over his uncovered round head; a pair of
dark eyes, shaded by heavy brows, laughed merrily out into
the world; his bare feet and arms were beautifully formed,
but showed little strength,-it was only in the right arm that
the muscles stood forth prominently; the brown leather apron
was white with scrapings from the marble. He shook off the
dust and called again in a louder tone, "Felicitas! "
A white figure, framed like a picture between the two pilas-
ters of the entrance, appeared on the threshold, pushing back
the dark yellow curtain suspended from a bronze pole by mova-
ble rings. A very young girl-or was it a young wife? Yes,
this child, scarcely seventeen, must have already become a wife,
for she was undoubtedly the mother of the infant she pressed to
her bosom with her left arm; no one but a mother holds a child
with such an expression in face and attitude.
The young wife pressed two fingers of her right hand, with
the palm turned outward, warningly to her lips. "Hush," she
said; "our child is asleep. "
And now the slender figure, not yet wholly matured, floated
down the four stone steps leading from the threshold to the
garden, carefully lifting the child a little higher and holding it
## p. 4271 (#33) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4271
still more closely with her left arm, while her right hand raised
her snowy robe to the dainty ankle; the faultlessly beautiful oval
head was slightly bent forward: it was a vision of perfect grace,
even more youthful, more childlike than Raphael's Madonnas,
and not humble, yet at the same time mystically transfigured,
like the mother of the Christ-child; there was nothing compli-
cated, nothing miraculous, naught save the noblest simplicity
blended with royal grandeur in Felicitas's unconscious innocence
and dignity. The movements of this Hebe who had become a
mother were as measured and graceful as a perfect musical
harmony. A wife, yet still a maiden; purely human, perfectly
happy, absorbed and satisfied by her love for her young husband
and the child at her breast; so chaste in coloring was the per-
fect beauty of her form and face that every profane desire van-
ished in her presence as though she were a statue.
She wore no ornaments; her light-brown hair, gleaming with
a gold tinge where the sun kissed it, was drawn back in natural
waves from the beautiful temples, revealing the low forehead, and
was fastened in a loose knot at the nape of the neck; a milk-
white robe of the finest wool, fastened on the left shoulder by
an exquisitely shaped but plain silver clasp, fell in flowing folds.
around her figure,- revealing the neck, the upper part of the
swelling bosom, and the still childish arms which seemed a little
too long, and reached to the ankles, just touching the dainty
scarlet leather sandals; beneath the breast one end of the robe
was drawn through a bronze girdle a hand's-breadth wide.
So she glided noiselessly as a wave down the steps and up to
her husband. The narrow oval face possessed the marvelous,
almost bluish, white tint peculiar to the daughters of Ionia, which
no Southern noonday sun can brown; the semi-circular eyebrows,
as regular as if marked by a pair of compasses, might have
given the countenance a lifeless, almost statuesque expression,
had not under the long low-curling lashes the dark-brown ante-
lope eyes shone with the most vivid animation as she fixed them
on her beloved husband.
The latter rushed towards her with elastic steps; carefully
and tenderly taking the sleeping child from her arm, he laid it
under the shade of a rose-bush in the oval shallow straw lid of
his work-basket; one full-blown rose waving in the evening
breeze tossed fragrant petals on the little one, who smiled in
sleep.
## p. 4272 (#34) ############################################
4272
FELIX DAHN
The master of the house, throwing his arm around his young
wife's almost too slender waist, led her to the slab just completed
for the threshold of the entrance, saying:-
"The motto I have kept secret—which I have worked so
hard to finish-is now done; read it, and know, and feel” —
here he tenderly kissed her lips-"you you yourself are the
happiness; you dwell here. "
―――――――――
Translation of Mary J. Safford.
THE VENGEANCE OF GOTHELINDIS
From The Struggle for Rome ›
THE
HE slave silently opened a door in the marble walls. Amalas-
wintha entered, and stood in the narrow gallery which ran
around the basin. Just in front, low steps led into the
magnificent bath, from which already warm delicious odors were
rising. Light fell in from above through an octagonal dome of
finely cut glass. At the entrance was a flight of steps of cedar
wood, which led up twelve stairs to a spring-board. Round
about the marble walls of the gallery, as well as of the basin,
countless friezes hid the mouths of the pipes needed for the
water-works and the hot air.
Silently the bath-woman spread the bathing accessories over
the soft cushions and carpets that covered the floor of the gal-
lery, and turned toward the door.
"Why is it that I feel that I know you? " asked the princess,
looking at her thoughtfully. "How long have you been here ? »
"Since eight days. " And she took hold of the door.
"How long have you served Cassiodorus? "
"I have always served the Princess Gothelindis. "
With a cry of terror Amalaswintha started up at this name.
She turned and grasped at the garment of the woman - too late!
She was gone, the door fell to. Amalaswintha heard the key
drawn out of the lock.
-
In vain her eye sought for another place of exit. Then an
immense unnamable fear overcame the queen. She felt that
she had been terribly deceived, that here was hidden a disastrous
secret. Fear, nameless fear, fell upon her. Flight, flight out of
this chamber was her one thought.
## p. 4273 (#35) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4273
But flight seemed impossible; the door from this side was
now only a thick marble slab, like those at the right and the
left. Not even a pin could penetrate through the seams. In
despair her eyes traveled around the wall of the gallery. Only
the tritons and dolphins stared back at her.
At last her gaze
rested on the snake-enwreathed head of the Medusa just opposite,
and she uttered a cry of terror. The face of the Medusa was
pushed aside, and the oval space under the snaky hair was filled
by a human countenance!
Was a human countenance?
Trembling, she clutched the marble railing, and leaning far
forward peered over: yes, those were the features of Gothelindis,
drawn to a grimace; and a hell of hatred and scorn flamed in
her eyes.
Amalaswintha sank on her knees and hid her face.
"You-you here! "
Hoarse laughter answered her.
"Yes, Amelung woman! I am here, and to your ruin! This
island, this house, is mine! It shall be your grave! Dolios and
all slaves of Cassiodorus are mine, sold to me a week ago. I
have lured you hither. I have followed you as your shadow.
Through long days and long nights I have borne within me
burning hatred, at length to taste here full revenge. For hours
I will enjoy your mortal agony, will witness miserable, moaning
terror shake as in fever that proud body and cover that haughty
face! Oh, I will drink a sea of revenge! "
Amalaswintha rose, wringing her hands:-"Revenge, Gothe-
lindis! Wherefore? Whence this deadly hatred of me? "
"Ha, and you ask? To be sure, decades have passed by, and
the heart of the happy soon forgets. But hatred has a more
faithful memory. Have you forgotten how once upon a time
two young girls played beneath the plantains on the meadows of
Ravenna? Both were chief among their playmates.
Both were
young, beautiful, and charming; the one daughter of a king, the
other daughter of the Baltha. And the girls had to choose a
queen for their games: and they chose Gothelindis, for she was
yet more beautiful than you, and not as imperious; and they
chose her once, twice in succession. But the daughter of the
king stood by, consumed by wild untamable pride,- pride and
envy; and when they chose me for the third time, she took up
the sharp-pointed garden scissors->
VIII-268
## p. 4274 (#36) ############################################
FELIX DAHN
4274
"Stop! oh, hush, Gothelindis! "
-And flung it at me. And it hit its mark, and crying out
and bloody I fell to the ground, my whole cheek a gaping
wound, and my eye, my eye pierced. Ah, how that hurts, even
now! "
«<
-
"Pardon, forgive, Gothelindis! " moaned the prisoner. "You
had forgiven me long ago. "
"Forgiven? I forgive you?