Having ears and
understanding
not, they are like deaf men.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v13 - Her to Hux
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. 32044094449964
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 01:30 GMT
## p. 7221 (#1) #############################################
Contras
## p. 7222 (#2) #############################################
Lit 2020. 18 (13)
VERI
TAS
Harvard College Library
FROM
The Library of
Prof. Charles Thomas
!
1
## p. 7223 (#3) #############################################
## p. 7224 (#4) #############################################
## p. 7225 (#5) #############################################
## p. 7226 (#6) #############################################
## p. 7227 (#7) #############################################
E
. . .
## p. 7228 (#8) #############################################
## p. 7229 (#9) #############################################
## p. 7230 (#10) ############################################
O Grosch
HUMBOLDT.
## p. 7231 (#11) ############################################
LIBRARY
OF IFE
WORLD'S BEST LITERATURE
Videot 3d Mittern
! ! !
DUPLA WARNFI
1.
TR
1.
## p. 7232 (#12) ############################################
## p. 7233 (#13) ############################################
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. XIII
NEW YORK
R. S. PEALE AND J. A. HILL
PUBLISHERS
## p. 7234 (#14) ############################################
Lit 2 32 0. 15
(13)
HARVARL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
COPYRIGHT 1897
BY R. S. PEALE AND J. A. HILL
All rights reserved
WERNER COMPANY
PRINTERS
BINDERS
AMBONG
## p. 7235 (#15) ############################################
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,
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, Princeton, N. J.
BRANDER MATTHEWS, A. M. , LL. B. ,
Professor of Literature, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, New York City.
JAMES B. ANGELL, LL. D. ,
President of the
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 1
CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, Washington, D. C.
## p. 7236 (#16) ############################################
## p. 7237 (#17) ############################################
HERACLITUS
Fragments
GEORGE HERBERT
The Collar
Love
The Elixir
TABLE OF CONTENTS
JOHANN GOTTFRIED HERDER
VOL. XIII
JOSÉ-MARIA DE HÉRÉDIA
HERODOTUS
BY KUNO FRANCKE
The Conquerors
The Samurai
On Pierre Ronsard's Book
of Love
On an Antique Medal
Sunset
LIVED
535-475 B. C.
The Pilgrimage
The Pulley
Virtue
Principles of Human Development (Philosophy of the
History of Man')
Apotheosis of Humanity (same)
1593-1634
1744-1803
BY MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN
The King and the Philosopher
A Tyrant's Fortune
1842-
To the Tragedian Rossi
Michelangelo
After Petrarch
Epitaph
"'Tis Noon; the Light is
Fierce »
Curious Scythian Customs
King Rhampsinitus and the Robber
490-426? B. C.
BY BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER
Heroism of Athens During the Persian Invasion
"Lopping the Tall Ears"
Close of the History
PAGE
7247
7252
7259
7277
7285
## p. 7238 (#18) ############################################
ROBERT HERRICK
A Thanksgiving
To Keep a True Lent
To Find God
To Daffodils
To Daisies, not to Shut so
Soon
To Carnations
HENRIK HERTZ
HESIOD
vi
The Blind Princess (King René's Daughter')
The Awakening to Sight (same)
THOMAS HEYWOOD
Pandora
Tartarus and the Styx (The Theogony')
Maxims
LIVED
1591-1674
To Primroses Filled with
Morning Dew
To Meadows
To Violets
The Night Piece-To Julia
To Mrs. Eliz. Wheeler
Delight in Disorder
THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON
1798-1870
RICHARD HILDRETH
Ninth Century B. C. ?
PAUL HEYSE
1830-
Balder's Philosophy (Children of the World')
Countess Toinette Sets Out for "the Promised Land" (same)
Song (The Rape of Lucrece ')
Apuleius's Song (same)
Harvest Song (The Silver Age')
Song (The Fair Maid of the Exchange')
Frankford's Soliloquy ('A Woman Killed with Kindness')
Hierarchy of Angels
Shepherds' Song
15-? -16-?
1824-
My Outdoor Study ('Outdoor Papers')
The Scenes and the Actors ('Mademoiselle's Campaigns')
"Since Cleopatra Died"
PAGE
7307
1807-1865
Customs of the Colonists (History of the United States')
The Capture of André (same)
James Madison (same)
7317
7326
7333
7345
7351
7371
## p. 7239 (#19) ############################################
vii
THOMAS HOBBES
Of Love (Human Nature')
Certain Qualities in Men (Leviathan')
Of Almighty God (same)
JAMES HOGG
ERNST THEODOR WILHELM HOFFMANN
From The Golden Pot'
Nutcracker and the King of Mice (The Serapion Breth-
ren')
When Maggy Gangs Away
The Skylark
Donald M'Donald
When the Kye Come Hame
LUDVIG HOLBERG
(
From Ulysses von Ithacia '
From The Political Pewterer'
From Erasmus Montanus ›
A Defense of the Devil (The Epistles')
The Society of Women (same)
RAPHAEL HOLINSHED
BY WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE
Macbeth's Witches (The Chronicles')
The Murder of the Young Princes (same)
JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND
Cradle Song (Bittersweet')
The Song of the Cider (same)
Wanted
Daniel Gray
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
BY MRS. JAMES T. FIELDS
Old Ironsides
The Last Leaf
On Lending a Punch-Bowl
The Chambered Nautilus
LIVED
1588-1679
1776-1822
Dorothy Q.
1770-1835
1684-1754
-? -1580?
1819-1881
1809-1894
The Deacon's Masterpiece
A Sun-Day Hymn
The Voiceless
Bill and Joe
PAGE
7381
7389
7403
7409
7445
7451
7457
## p. 7240 (#20) ############################################
viii
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES- Continued:
The Three Professions (The Poet at the Breakfast-table')
Elsie at the Sprowle "Party" (Elsie Venner')
On Rattlesnake Ledge (same)
My Last Walk with the Schoolmistress (The Autocrat of
the Breakfast-table')
The Lark on Salisbury Plain (Our Hundred Days in
Europe')
HERMANN EDUARD VON HOLST
1841-
Mirabeau (The French Revolution Tested by Mirabeau's
Career')
LIVED
LUDWIG HEINRICH CHRISTOPH HÖLTY
Country Life
Spring Song
Harvest Song
Winter Song
Death of the Nightingale
The Old Farmer's Advice to his Son
Call to Joy
The Dream-Image
Homage
To a Violet
Elegy at the Grave of my Father
THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL
1748-1776
BY GEORGE MCLEAN HARPER
The Boy Perceval (The Parzival' of Wolfram von Eschen-
bach)
The Mystic Damsel Announces the Visit of the Grail to
Arthur's Hall: And the Vow is Made (Malory's 'Morte
d'Arthur')
Sir Launcelot Fails of the Quest (same)
The Grail is Achieved by Sir Galahad (same)
King Arthur Addresses the Grail-Seekers (The Quest of
the Sangreal' of Robert Stephen Hawker)
Sir Percivale's Tale to Ambrosius (Tennyson's 'Idylls of
the King')
Sir Launcelot's Tale (same)
Sir Galahad Achieves the Grail-Quest (same)
The Knight Lohengrin's Narrative of the Grail (Wagner's
'Lohengrin')
PAGE
7496
7595
7515
## p. 7241 (#21) ############################################
ix
HOMER
THE HOMERIC HYMNS
The Trojan Elders and Helen (The Iliad)
Paris, Hector, and Helen (same)
Hector to his Wife (same)
Father and Son (same)
Achilles Refuses to Aid the Greeks (same)
Hector Pursued by Achilles around Troy (same)
Hector's Funeral Rites (same)
The Episode of Nausicaa (The Odyssey)
THOMAS HOOD
BY THOMAS D. SEYMOUR
Origin of the Lyre (Hymn to Mercury')
Power of Aphrodite ('Hymn to Venus')
Dionysus and the Pirates.
Close of the Hymn to Delian Apollo
Hymn to Demeter
LIVED
Ninth Century B. C. ?
Ruth
Fair Ines
A Song: for Music
The Bridge of Sighs
The Song of the Shirt
Ode to Melancholy
The Death-Bed
I Remember, I Remember
Stanzas
THEODORE HOOK
BY LUCIA GILBERT RUNKLE
Faithless Sally Brown
An Ironic Requiem ('A Lament for the Decline of Chiv-
alry')
A Parental Ode to my Son, Aged Three Years and Five
Months
A Nocturnal Sketch
PIETER CORNELISZOON HOOFT
Anacreontic
1799-1845
The March of Intellect (John Bull')
1581-1647
1788-1841
PAGE
7551
7579
7589
7610
7613
## p. 7242 (#22) ############################################
HORACE (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
To Leucono
To Thaliarchus
To the Ship of State
To Chloe
To Virgil
To Quintus Dellius
Ad Amphoram
BY HARRIET WATERS PRESTON
To Phidyle
An Invitation to Mæcenas
Horrida Tempestas
Satire
JULIA WARD HOWE
X
RICHARD HENRY HENGIST HORNE
Morning (Orion')
THOMAS HUGHES
Battle Hymn of the Republic
Our Orders
Pardon
'Hamlet' at the Boston Theatre
A New Sculptor
VICTOR HUGO
LIVED
65 B. C. -8 B. C.
The Art of Poetry
Contentment
Horace's Farm
To His Book
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS
The Bewildered Guest
Hope
Society
Another Day
A Midsummer-Day's Dream (Their Wedding Journey')
The Street-Car Strike (A Hazard of New Fortunes')
Arrival and First Days in Venice (Venetian Life')
1823-1896
The Cities of the Plain
The Sacking of the City
Old Ocean
1803-1884
BY ADOLPHE COHN
1819? -
The Boat Race (Tom Brown at Oxford')
The Fight Between Tom Brown and Williams (Tom
Brown's School Days')
1837-
1802-1885
PAGE
7619
7641
7645
7653
7695
7709
## p. 7243 (#23) ############################################
xi
VICTOR HUGO - Continued:
Prayer
My Thoughts of Ye
ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
Napoleon
The Retreat from Moscow
The Lions
The Conspiracy (Hernani')
The Chain-Gang for the Galleys ('Les Misérables')
The Combat with the Octopus (The Toilers of the Sea')
1769-1859
DAVID HUME
The Beauty and Unity of Nature (Cosmos')
The Study of the Natural Sciences (same)
Of Refinement in the Arts
LEIGH HUNT
Jaffár
The Nile
BY M. A. MIKKELSEN
BY ERNEST RHYS
To Hampstead
To the Grasshopper and the Cricket
Abou Ben Adhem
Rondeau
The Old Lady
The Old Gentleman
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
LIVED
BY E. RAY LANKESTER
On a Piece of Chalk
Materialism and Idealism
Evolution and Ethics
On the Physical Basis of Life
Westminster Abbey
1711-1776
1784-1859
1825-1895
PAGE
7768
7777
7791
7805
## p. 7244 (#24) ############################################
## p. 7245 (#25) ############################################
LIST OF PORTRAITS
IN VOL. XIII
Heraclitus
George Herbert
Johann Gottfried Herder
José-Maria de Hérédia
Herodotus
Robert Herrick
Henrik Hertz
Paul Heyse
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Richard Hildreth
Thomas Hobbes
Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann
James Hogg
Ludvig Holberg
Josiah Gilbert Holland
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Hermann Eduard von Holst
Ludwig Heinrich Christoph Hölty
Homer
Thomas Hood
Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft
Richard Henry Hengist Horne
Julia Ward Howe
William Dean Howells
Thomas Hughes
Victor Hugo
Alexander von Humboldt
David Hume
Leigh Hunt
Thomas Henry Huxley
Vignette
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Full page
Full page
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Full page
Full page
Full page
Vignette
Full page
## p. 7246 (#26) ############################################
## p. 7247 (#27) ############################################
7247
HERACLITUS
(535-475 B. C. )
H
ERACLITUS, the most original of the pre-Socratic Greek philoso-
phers, was born at Ephesus about 535 B. C. His father's
name is uncertain; but he belonged to the nobility, and
claimed descent from Androclus the founder of Ephesus, a son of the
Athenian king Codrus. He had even a claim to the royal title him-
self, doubtless as the titular head of the State religion; but resigned it
to his brother when he devoted himself to philosophy. He remained,
however, always an aristocrat, and bitterly opposed to the growing
democracy of Ephesus, which banished his
uncle Hermodorus. The latter is said to
have gone to Rome and assisted in drawing
up the laws of the Twelve Tables. Heracli-
tus seems to have lived a retired life, and to
have died about 475 B. C. He was known
in later times as "the weeping philosopher. "
Few men have influenced the world by
their thought more deeply than Heraclitus.
He was the inventor of the Logos, from
which the science of Logic is named, and
on which the first principle of Stoicism and
the Christian doctrine of "the Word" are
based. His one book, 'On Nature,' was
written in Ionic prose, in a form so difficult
as to earn him in subsequent times the title of "the Dark. " This
darkness, however, was due far more to the matter than to the style
of the book. The latter indeed, if abrupt and terse, is powerful and
sublime, reminding us of the Hebrew prophets; while of the former,
Socrates said that its depth was so great as to require "a Delian
diver. "
HERACLITUS
Heraclitus claims to be self-taught; nevertheless he shows acquaint-
ance not only with Homer and Hesiod, but also with Pythagoras,
Xenophanes, Hecatæus, Archilochus, and Bias - and inveighs against
the whole of them, except the last. His originality therefore con-
sisted in the attitude of opposition which he assumed to his prede-
cessors. Combining the material principle of his Ionian predecessors
with the numerical proportion of Pythagoras and the all-embracing
unity of being of Xenophanes, he set up as his absolute a universal
fire, determining itself according to measure and number. Through
## p. 7248 (#28) ############################################
7248
HERACLITUS
the regulated self-transformation of this, the universe with all its
phenomena, including thought, arises. In this universe everything is
in perpetual change, except the Logos or law of change, which is
conceived as one with the primal fire. The universal life is a pro-
cess from fire and to fire, -a continual differentiation and a continual
overcoming of differentiation.
Heraclitus is the first materialistic monist, and all subsequent sys-
tems of monism descend from him. His views are discussed in the
'Cratylus of Plato, and are often referred to by Aristotle.
>
He
founded no school; but about 308 B. C. , Zeno of Citium, adopting his
leading principles, his Logos and his monism,-founded Stoicism,
which is thus mainly a development of Heracliteanism. Stoicism
played a great part in the world for six or seven hundred years, and
some of the noblest spirits of the ancient world professed it,― Marcus
Aurelius, Epictetus, Seneca, etc. It finds a very noble expression in
the Hymn to Zeus' by Cleanthes.
In modern times Hegel, by his own admission, adopted into his
Logic all the principles of Heraclitus, - the self-determining, world-
creating Logos, the identity of opposites, the universal process, etc. ,-
and thus gave them a new lease of life. Hegel himself by this
means reached an all-embracing idealism, which professed to furnish
a new basis for all the old notions of Church and State, which the
French Revolution had rudely shaken; but his disciple Ferdinand Las-
salle, who wrote a large work in two volumes on Heraclitus, empha-
sizing the latter's materialism, made it the basis of that view of the
world and of society which calls for Socialism as its true expression.
Indeed, Socialism is merely Heracliteanism in politics and economics.
Thus, in a very important sense, Heraclitus may be said to be the
father of Socialism, and to be very much alive among us to-day.
Besides Lassalle's work, already referred to (Die Philosophie
Herakleitos des Dunklen von Ephesos': Berlin, 1858), there are many
works on Heraclitus,- by Schleiermacher, Bernays, Schuster, Teich-
müller, Pfleiderer, and others. The best edition of the 'Fragments'
is that by I. Bywater, 'Heracliti Ephesii Fragmenta,' Oxford, 1877;
of the pseudo-Heraclitean letters, that by Jac. Bernays, Berlin, 1869.
-
FRAGMENTS
L
ISTENING, not to me, but to the Word, it is wise for men to
confess that all things are one.
Though the Word always speaks, yet men are born with-
out understanding for it, both before they hear it, and at first
after they have heard it. For though all things are produced
## p. 7249 (#29) ############################################
HERACLITUS
7249
according to this Word, men seem to be unaware of it, making
attempts at such words and deeds as I explain by separating
them according to their nature, and telling them as they are.
But other men fail as completely to recognize what they do
while they are awake as they forget what they do when asleep.
Having ears and understanding not, they are like deaf men. To
them the proverb applies: "While they're here they're yonder. "
Evil witnesses to men are the eyes and ears of them that
have barbarous souls.
For many men have no wisdom regarding those things with
which they come in contact, nor do they learn by experience.
They are opinions even to themselves.
If thou hope for that which is past hope, thou shalt not find
it; for it is past searching and past finding out.
Those who search for gold, dig much earth and find little.
Nature loves to hide herself.
The King whose oracle is in Delphi neither reveals nor con-
ceals, but indicates.
The Sibyl, with inspired lips, uttering words unmeet for laugh-
ter, unadorned, unanointed, reaches with her voice across a thou-
sand years, because of the god that is in her.
Eyes are more accurate witnesses than ears.
Much learning doth not teach understanding; else it had
taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, yea, and Xenophanes, and Heca-
tæus.
Pythagoras, the son of Mnesarchus, pursued information most
of all men, and making selections from these writings, he pro-
duced a wisdom of his own-much learning, little wit!
Of all the men whose words I have heard, no one hath gone
far enough to recognize that the Wise is separate from all things.
For the Wise is one-to know the principle whereby all
things are steered through all.
This world, which is the same for all, neither any god nor
any man made; but it was always, is, and ever shall be, an ever-
living fire, kindling by measure and dying out by measure.
Of fire, the transformations are, first, sea; and of sea half is
earth, half fire.
All things are exchanged for fire, and fire for all things; as
all goods are exchanged for gold, and gold for all goods.
The sea is spread abroad, and meted out with the same meas-
ure as it was before the earth was brought forth.
XIII-454
## p. 7250 (#30) ############################################
HERACLITUS
7250
Fire lives the death of earth, and air the death of fire. Water
lives the death of air, and earth the death of water.
The fire, when it cometh, shall try all things and overcome
all things.
The thunderbolt is at the helm of the universe.
The Sun shall not transgress his bounds; else the Fates, the
handmaids of Justice, will find it out.
God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace,
surfeit and famine. He changeth as fire when it is mingled with
spices, and is named as each man listeth.
You cannot step twice into the same river; for other and ever
other waters flow on.
War is the father of all things and the king of all things:
yea, some it appointed gods, and others men; some it made
slaves, and others free.
They understand not that that which differs agrees with itself:
a back-returning harmony, as of the bow and the lyre.
An invisible harmony is better than a visible.
Let us make no random guesses about the greatest things.
Asses would prefer garbage to gold.
The sea is the purest and the foulest water: for fishes drink-
able and wholesome; for men undrinkable and hurtful.
Immortals are mortal; mortals immortal, living each other's
death and dying each other's life.
It is death for souls to become water; and for water it is
death to become earth. But from earth is born water, and from
water soul.
The upward and the downward way are one and the same.
Beginning and end are identical.
The bounds of the soul thou shalt not find, though thou travel
every way.
Like a torch in the night, man is lit and extinguished.
A world-period is a child playing with dice. To a child be-
longs the sovereignty.
Into the same stream we step in and step not in; we are and
are not.
Common to all is wisdom. They who speak with reason must
take their stand upon that which is common to all, as firmly as a
State does upon its law, and much more firmly. For all human
laws are fed by the one Divine law; it prevaileth as far as it
listeth, and sufficeth for all, and surviveth all.
## p. 7251 (#31) ############################################
HERACLITUS
7251
Even they that sleep are laborers and co-workers in all that
is done in the world.
Though the Word is universal, most men live as if each had a
wisdom of his own.
We must not act and speak as if we were asleep.
When we
are awake we have one common world; but when we are asleep
each turns aside to a world of his own.
A foolish man bears the same relation to a divinity as a child
to a man.
The people must fight for its law as for a wall.
Those that fall in war, gods and men honor.
It is not better that what men desire should befall them: for
it is disease that causes health; sweet, bitter; evil, good; hunger,
satisfaction; fatigue, rest.
It is hard to fight with passion; for what it desires to happen,
it buys with life.
One man to me is ten thousand, if he be the best. For what
is their mind or sense? They follow [strolling] minstrels, and
make the mob their schoolmaster, not knowing that the evil are
many, the good few. For the best choose one thing in prefer-
ence to all, eternal glory among mortals; but the many glut
themselves like cattle. In Priene was born Bias, the son of
Teutames, whose intelligence was superior to that of all others.
It were fitting that the Ephesians should hang themselves on
reaching manhood, and leave the city to the boys; for that they
cast out Hermodorus, the worthiest man among them, saying:
"Let there be no one worthiest man among us; if there be, let
him be elsewhere and with others. "
Dogs bark at every one they do not know. A foolish man is
wont to be scared at every [new] idea.
Justice will overtake the framers and abettors of lies.
With man, character is destiny.
There remaineth for men after death that which they nei-
ther hope for nor believe. Then they desire to rise and become
guardians of the quick and the dead.
Polluted [murderers] are cleansed with blood, as if one, hav-
ing stepped into mud, should wipe himself with mud.
## p. 7252 (#32) ############################################
7252
GEORGE HERBERT
(1593-1633)
YOOX HE country clergyman whose verse made the little vicarage
at Bemerton in Wiltshire a place of pilgrimage for several
generations, was not a pious rustic, but the descendant of
an illustrious house and the favorite of a court. He came of the line
of Pembroke,- that handsome and learned swaggerer Lord Herbert
of Cherbury being his elder brother. Among his intimate friends.
were the poets Donne and Wotton, and his "best lover » Izaak Wal-
ton, who says of him that "he enjoyed his genteel humor for clothes
and courtlike company, and seldom looked
toward Cambridge (where he had a fellow-
ship) unless the King were there; and then
he never failed. " In short, "holy George
Herbert," handsome and ready-witted, full
of parts and ambition, singled out by King
James for special kindnesses, very naturally
expected and longed for that advancement
which less deserving courtiers found no dif-
ficulty in securing. But the death of the
King in 1625, followed by the death of the
young poet's powerful friends the Duke
of Richmond and the Marquis of Hamilton,
shattered his prospect of a Secretaryship.
Not long after, he took orders; partly, per-
haps, because his brilliant and persuasive mother had always wished
it, partly because no other profession becoming a gentleman was
open to a man already past thirty, with fine aptitudes but with no
special training, but surely in great part because the whole tone and
bent of his soul was not worldliness but other-worldliness. "
GEORGE HERBERT
In 1630 King Charles presented him, quite unexpectedly, with the
benefice of Bemerton near Salisbury.
"The third day after he was made rector," says Walton, "and had changed
his sword and silk clothes into a canonical habit, he returned so habited with
his friend Mr. Woodnot to Bainton; and immediately after he had seen and
saluted his wife (a kinswoman of the Earl of Danby), he said to her:- You
are now a minister's wife, and must now so far forget your father's house
as not to claim precedence of any of your parishioners; for you are to know
that a priest's wife can challenge no precedence or place but that which she
## p. 7253 (#33) ############################################
GEORGE HERBERT
7253
purchases by her obliging humility; and I am sure, places so purchased do
best become them. And let me tell you, I am so good a herald as to assure
you that this is truth. > And she was so meek a wife (though she was but
lately wed, after a three-days' courtship) as to assure him it was no vexing
news to her, and that he should see her observe it with a cheerful willingness. ”
Herbert took up his duties with an ardor that made them pleas-
In the first year of his priesthood he wrote:-
ures.
--
"I now look back upon my aspiring thoughts, and think myself more happy
than if I had attained what then I so ambitiously thirsted for; and I can
now behold the court with an impartial eye, and see plainly that it is made
up of fraud, and titles, and flattery, and many other such empty, imaginary,
painted pleasures-pleasures that are so empty as not to satisfy when they
are enjoyed. "
Nor were good Mr. Herbert's grapes really sour. For there was
that in his nature which made asceticism welcome, though his self-
abasement was not the less sincere because it was pleasurable. In-
deed, the chief attribute of his poetry is its quaint sincerity, often
expressed with the utmost artificiality. With scarcely an exception,
it is all of a religious character, frequently tinged with the ascetic's
ever-present sense of his shortcomings. But such little poems as the
ones entitled 'Virtue,' 'The Pulley,' and 'The Collar' have force,
condensation of thought, and withal poetic grace; while 'Life' and
'The Rose' possess an Elizabethan freshness and charm.
One long poem, The Church Porch,' stands in marked contrast
to the rest of his work. It shows him as a young man, as yet un-
touched by thoughts of priestly consecration and the mental strug-
gles which afterwards beset him. Some of the terse couplets have
become almost proverbs:-
"Dare to be true. Nothing can need a lie:
A fault which needs it most, grows two thereby. "
"For he that needs five thousand pounds to live
Is full as poor as he that needs but five. "
"Kneeling ne'er spoiled silk stockings. "
The quaintness of Herbert's verse is not its most engaging quality.
What is called quaintness is often mere perverseness of ingenuity,
showy affectation. Herbert's taste was like that of the red Indian,
preferring the bizarre, the artificial, and the ugly; while yet his inspi-
ration was genuine. His friendship for Donne no doubt confirmed
his liking for fantastic and over-labored verse. But with all his
defects, his best poetry has delighted pious hearts for more than two
centuries. The Temple, or Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations,'
which contains his principal verses, was not published until after his
## p. 7254 (#34) ############################################
7254
GEORGE HERBERT
death. Walton said it was "a book in which, by declaring his own
spiritual conflicts, he hath comforted and raised many a dejected and
discomposed soul and charmed them with sweet and quiet thoughts. "
The pious Richard Baxter found, "next the Scripture poems," "none
so savoury" as Herbert's, who "speaks to God as a man really believ-
ing in God"; and Charles I. read the little book in his last melancholy
days in prison, and found "much comfort" in it.
hi
Of Herbert's sincere and even passionate piety in later life, there
is no doubt. He worked early and late for the bodies and souls of
flock, preaching, teaching, comforting, exposing himself to storms
and to sickness, wearing himself out in their service. Three years of
this terrible toil exhausted a constitution never strong, and he died
at Bemerton, loved and honored, at the early age of thirty-nine. In
his prose volume 'A Priest to the Temple' he has set forth the code
of duty which he followed:-
"The Country Parson desires to be all to his parish, and not only a pastor,
but a lawyer also, and a physician. Therefore he endures not that any of his
flock should go to law; but in any controversy, that they should resort to him
as their judge. To this end he hath gotten to himself some insight in things
ordinarily incident and controverted, by experience and by reading.
"Then he shows them how to go to law, even as brethren, and not as
enemies, neither avoiding therefore one another's company, much less defam-
ing one another. Now, as the parson is in law, so is he in sickness also: if
there be any of his flock sick, he is their physician,- or at least his wife, of
whom, instead of the qualities of the world, he asks no other but to have the
skill of healing a wound or helping the sick. . . . Accordingly, for salves,
his wife seeks not the city, but prefers her garden and fields before all out-
landish gums.
And surely hyssop, valerian, mercury, adder's-tongue, yarrow,
melilot, and St. John's-wort made into a salve, and elder, camomile, mallows,
comphrey, and smallage made into a poultice, have done great and rare
cures. In curing of any, the parson and his family use to premise prayers;
for this is to cure like a parson, and this raiseth the action from the shop
to the Church. »
[All the selections are from 'The Temple']
THE COLLAR
I
STRUCK the board and cried, "No more!
I will abroad.
What, shall I ever sigh and pine?
My lines and life are free; free as the road,
Loose as the wind, as large as store.
Shall I be still in suit?
## p. 7255 (#35) ############################################
GEORGE HERBERT
7255
Have I no harvest but a thorn
To let me blood, and not restore
What I have lost with cordial fruit?
Sure, there was wine
Before my sighs did dry it: there was corn
Before my tears did drown it.
Is the year only lost to me?
Have I no bays to crown it?
No flowers, no garlands gay? All blasted?
All wasted?
Not so, my heart; but there is fruit,
And thou hast hands.
Recover all thy sigh-blown age
On double pleasures; leave thy cold dispute
Of what is fit and not; forsake thy cage,
Thy rope of sands,
Which petty thoughts have made, and make to thee
Good cable, to enforce and draw,
And be thy law,
While thou didst wink and wouldst not see.
Awake, take heed:
I will abroad.
Call in thy death's-head there: tie up thy fears.
He that forbears
To suit and serve his need,
Deserves his load. "
But as I raved, and grew more fierce and wild
At every word,
Methought I heard one calling, "Child! »
And I replied, "My Lord! "
LOVE
L
OVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of lust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
"If I lacked anything. "
"A guest," I answered, "worthy to be here. "
Love said, "You shall be he. "
"I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on Thee. "
## p. 7256 (#36) ############################################
7256
GEORGE HERBERT
Love took my hand, and smiling, did reply,
"Who made the eyes but I? »
"Truth, Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve. "
"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame ? »
"My dear, then I will serve. "
"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat. "
So I did sit and eat.
THE ELIXIR
EACH me, my God and King,
In all things thee to see,
And what I do in anything,
To do it as for thee.
T
Not rudely, as a beast,
To run into an action;
But still to make thee prepossest,
And give it his perfection.
A man that looks on glass,
On it may stay his eye;
Or, if he pleaseth, through it pass,
And then the heaven espy.
All may of thee partake:
Nothing can be so mean,
Which with his tincture (for thy sake)
Will not grow bright and clean.
A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine:
Who sweeps a room as for thy laws
Makes that and th' action fine.
This is the famous stone
That turneth all to gold;
For that which God doth touch and own
Cannot for less be told.
## p. 7257 (#37) ############################################
GEORGE HERBERT
THE PILGRIMAGE
TRAVELED on, seeing the hill where lay
My expectation.
A long it was and weary way.
The gloomy cave of Desperation
I left on the one, and on the other side
The rock of Pride.
And so I came to Fancy's meadow, strowed
With many a flower;
Fain would I here have made abode,
But I was quickened by my hour.
So to Care's copse I came, and there got through
With much ado.
That led me to the wild of Passion, which
Some call the wold;
A wasted place, but sometimes rich.
Here I was robbed of all my gold,-
Save one good angel,* which a friend had tied
Close to my side.
At length I got unto the gladsome hill
Where lay my hope,
Where lay my heart; and climbing still,
When I had gained the brow and top
A lake of brackish waters on the ground
Was all I found.
With that, abashed and struck with many a sting
Of swarming fears,
I fell, and cried, "Alas, my King!
Can both the way and end be tears? "
Yet taking heart, I rose, and then perceived
I was deceived.
My hill was farther; so I flung away,
Yet heard a cry
Just as I went,-"None goes that way
And lives. " "If that be all," said I,
"After so foul a journey, death is fair,
And but a chair. "
7257
* A gold angel was a piece of money of the value of ten shillings, bearing
the figure of an angel.
## p. 7258 (#38) ############################################
7258
GEORGE HERBERT
THE PULLEY
HEN God at first made man,
W Having a glass of blessings standing by,—
"Let us," said he, "pour on him all we can:
Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie,
Contract into a span. ”
So Strength first made a way;
Then Beauty flowed, then Wisdom, Honor, Pleasure:
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that alone of all his treasure
Rest in the bottom lay.
"For if I should," said he,
"Bestow this jewel also on my creature,
He would adore my gifts instead of me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature:
So both should losers be.
"Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlessness:
Let him be rich and weary, that at least,
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
May toss him to my breast. "
VIRTUE
SW
WEET Day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky,
The dew shall weep thy fall to-night;
For thou must die.
Sweet Rose, whose hue, angry and brave,
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye,
Thy root is ever in its grave,
And thou must die.
Sweet Spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie,
My music shows ye have your closes,
And all must die.
Only a sweet and virtuous soul,
Like seasoned timber, never gives;
But though the whole world turn to coal,
Then chiefly lives.
## p. 7258 (#39) ############################################
## p. 7258 (#40) ############################################
HERDER.
## p. 7258 (#41) ############################################
7259
JOHANN GOTTFRIED HERDER*
(1744-1803)
BY KUNO FRANCKE
ERDER does not belong to the few men of highest genius whose
works have become the common property of mankind. As
a poet he was receptive rather than creative.
Of his verse
only the Volkslieder' (Folk Songs: 1778-79), and 'Der Cid' (The Cid:
1803), have permanent value; and these are valuable not as additions
to the store of original conceptions of poetic fancy, but as marvels of
divinatory interpretation and sympathetic reproduction. As a prose
writer, he lacked the clearness of thought and the precision of speech
which are necessary elements of true literary greatness: even the best
of his essays are made unpalatable by a constant wavering between
diffuseness and abruptness, between vague generalities and dithyram-
bic effusions; and the most ambitious of his efforts, the 'Ideen zur
Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit' (Philosophy of the History
of Man: 1784-91), is a huge fragment.
Herder's greatness, then, does not lie in the form of his writings.
It lies in the suggestiveness of their substance. It lies in the wide
range of his vision, in the wonderful universality of his mind, which
enabled him to see the interdependence of all things and to divine
the unity of all life. It lies, above all, in the manifold application
of a single idea, an idea through which he became the father of the
modern evolutionary philosophy: the idea of organic growth.
Herder once for all did away with the rationalistic fallacy of the
eighteenth century, that the course of human history is nothing but
a succession of individual acts by individual men. He once for all
did away with the rationalistic fallacy that the great creations of the
human mind are the result of conscious and deliberate effort. He
once for all made the conception of national instincts and of national
culture the basis of all historical inquiry.
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. 32044094449964
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 01:30 GMT
## p. 7221 (#1) #############################################
Contras
## p. 7222 (#2) #############################################
Lit 2020. 18 (13)
VERI
TAS
Harvard College Library
FROM
The Library of
Prof. Charles Thomas
!
1
## p. 7223 (#3) #############################################
## p. 7224 (#4) #############################################
## p. 7225 (#5) #############################################
## p. 7226 (#6) #############################################
## p. 7227 (#7) #############################################
E
. . .
## p. 7228 (#8) #############################################
## p. 7229 (#9) #############################################
## p. 7230 (#10) ############################################
O Grosch
HUMBOLDT.
## p. 7231 (#11) ############################################
LIBRARY
OF IFE
WORLD'S BEST LITERATURE
Videot 3d Mittern
! ! !
DUPLA WARNFI
1.
TR
1.
## p. 7232 (#12) ############################################
## p. 7233 (#13) ############################################
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. XIII
NEW YORK
R. S. PEALE AND J. A. HILL
PUBLISHERS
## p. 7234 (#14) ############################################
Lit 2 32 0. 15
(13)
HARVARL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
COPYRIGHT 1897
BY R. S. PEALE AND J. A. HILL
All rights reserved
WERNER COMPANY
PRINTERS
BINDERS
AMBONG
## p. 7235 (#15) ############################################
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,
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, Princeton, N. J.
BRANDER MATTHEWS, A. M. , LL. B. ,
Professor of Literature, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, New York City.
JAMES B. ANGELL, LL. D. ,
President of the
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 1
CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, Washington, D. C.
## p. 7236 (#16) ############################################
## p. 7237 (#17) ############################################
HERACLITUS
Fragments
GEORGE HERBERT
The Collar
Love
The Elixir
TABLE OF CONTENTS
JOHANN GOTTFRIED HERDER
VOL. XIII
JOSÉ-MARIA DE HÉRÉDIA
HERODOTUS
BY KUNO FRANCKE
The Conquerors
The Samurai
On Pierre Ronsard's Book
of Love
On an Antique Medal
Sunset
LIVED
535-475 B. C.
The Pilgrimage
The Pulley
Virtue
Principles of Human Development (Philosophy of the
History of Man')
Apotheosis of Humanity (same)
1593-1634
1744-1803
BY MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN
The King and the Philosopher
A Tyrant's Fortune
1842-
To the Tragedian Rossi
Michelangelo
After Petrarch
Epitaph
"'Tis Noon; the Light is
Fierce »
Curious Scythian Customs
King Rhampsinitus and the Robber
490-426? B. C.
BY BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER
Heroism of Athens During the Persian Invasion
"Lopping the Tall Ears"
Close of the History
PAGE
7247
7252
7259
7277
7285
## p. 7238 (#18) ############################################
ROBERT HERRICK
A Thanksgiving
To Keep a True Lent
To Find God
To Daffodils
To Daisies, not to Shut so
Soon
To Carnations
HENRIK HERTZ
HESIOD
vi
The Blind Princess (King René's Daughter')
The Awakening to Sight (same)
THOMAS HEYWOOD
Pandora
Tartarus and the Styx (The Theogony')
Maxims
LIVED
1591-1674
To Primroses Filled with
Morning Dew
To Meadows
To Violets
The Night Piece-To Julia
To Mrs. Eliz. Wheeler
Delight in Disorder
THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON
1798-1870
RICHARD HILDRETH
Ninth Century B. C. ?
PAUL HEYSE
1830-
Balder's Philosophy (Children of the World')
Countess Toinette Sets Out for "the Promised Land" (same)
Song (The Rape of Lucrece ')
Apuleius's Song (same)
Harvest Song (The Silver Age')
Song (The Fair Maid of the Exchange')
Frankford's Soliloquy ('A Woman Killed with Kindness')
Hierarchy of Angels
Shepherds' Song
15-? -16-?
1824-
My Outdoor Study ('Outdoor Papers')
The Scenes and the Actors ('Mademoiselle's Campaigns')
"Since Cleopatra Died"
PAGE
7307
1807-1865
Customs of the Colonists (History of the United States')
The Capture of André (same)
James Madison (same)
7317
7326
7333
7345
7351
7371
## p. 7239 (#19) ############################################
vii
THOMAS HOBBES
Of Love (Human Nature')
Certain Qualities in Men (Leviathan')
Of Almighty God (same)
JAMES HOGG
ERNST THEODOR WILHELM HOFFMANN
From The Golden Pot'
Nutcracker and the King of Mice (The Serapion Breth-
ren')
When Maggy Gangs Away
The Skylark
Donald M'Donald
When the Kye Come Hame
LUDVIG HOLBERG
(
From Ulysses von Ithacia '
From The Political Pewterer'
From Erasmus Montanus ›
A Defense of the Devil (The Epistles')
The Society of Women (same)
RAPHAEL HOLINSHED
BY WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE
Macbeth's Witches (The Chronicles')
The Murder of the Young Princes (same)
JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND
Cradle Song (Bittersweet')
The Song of the Cider (same)
Wanted
Daniel Gray
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
BY MRS. JAMES T. FIELDS
Old Ironsides
The Last Leaf
On Lending a Punch-Bowl
The Chambered Nautilus
LIVED
1588-1679
1776-1822
Dorothy Q.
1770-1835
1684-1754
-? -1580?
1819-1881
1809-1894
The Deacon's Masterpiece
A Sun-Day Hymn
The Voiceless
Bill and Joe
PAGE
7381
7389
7403
7409
7445
7451
7457
## p. 7240 (#20) ############################################
viii
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES- Continued:
The Three Professions (The Poet at the Breakfast-table')
Elsie at the Sprowle "Party" (Elsie Venner')
On Rattlesnake Ledge (same)
My Last Walk with the Schoolmistress (The Autocrat of
the Breakfast-table')
The Lark on Salisbury Plain (Our Hundred Days in
Europe')
HERMANN EDUARD VON HOLST
1841-
Mirabeau (The French Revolution Tested by Mirabeau's
Career')
LIVED
LUDWIG HEINRICH CHRISTOPH HÖLTY
Country Life
Spring Song
Harvest Song
Winter Song
Death of the Nightingale
The Old Farmer's Advice to his Son
Call to Joy
The Dream-Image
Homage
To a Violet
Elegy at the Grave of my Father
THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL
1748-1776
BY GEORGE MCLEAN HARPER
The Boy Perceval (The Parzival' of Wolfram von Eschen-
bach)
The Mystic Damsel Announces the Visit of the Grail to
Arthur's Hall: And the Vow is Made (Malory's 'Morte
d'Arthur')
Sir Launcelot Fails of the Quest (same)
The Grail is Achieved by Sir Galahad (same)
King Arthur Addresses the Grail-Seekers (The Quest of
the Sangreal' of Robert Stephen Hawker)
Sir Percivale's Tale to Ambrosius (Tennyson's 'Idylls of
the King')
Sir Launcelot's Tale (same)
Sir Galahad Achieves the Grail-Quest (same)
The Knight Lohengrin's Narrative of the Grail (Wagner's
'Lohengrin')
PAGE
7496
7595
7515
## p. 7241 (#21) ############################################
ix
HOMER
THE HOMERIC HYMNS
The Trojan Elders and Helen (The Iliad)
Paris, Hector, and Helen (same)
Hector to his Wife (same)
Father and Son (same)
Achilles Refuses to Aid the Greeks (same)
Hector Pursued by Achilles around Troy (same)
Hector's Funeral Rites (same)
The Episode of Nausicaa (The Odyssey)
THOMAS HOOD
BY THOMAS D. SEYMOUR
Origin of the Lyre (Hymn to Mercury')
Power of Aphrodite ('Hymn to Venus')
Dionysus and the Pirates.
Close of the Hymn to Delian Apollo
Hymn to Demeter
LIVED
Ninth Century B. C. ?
Ruth
Fair Ines
A Song: for Music
The Bridge of Sighs
The Song of the Shirt
Ode to Melancholy
The Death-Bed
I Remember, I Remember
Stanzas
THEODORE HOOK
BY LUCIA GILBERT RUNKLE
Faithless Sally Brown
An Ironic Requiem ('A Lament for the Decline of Chiv-
alry')
A Parental Ode to my Son, Aged Three Years and Five
Months
A Nocturnal Sketch
PIETER CORNELISZOON HOOFT
Anacreontic
1799-1845
The March of Intellect (John Bull')
1581-1647
1788-1841
PAGE
7551
7579
7589
7610
7613
## p. 7242 (#22) ############################################
HORACE (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
To Leucono
To Thaliarchus
To the Ship of State
To Chloe
To Virgil
To Quintus Dellius
Ad Amphoram
BY HARRIET WATERS PRESTON
To Phidyle
An Invitation to Mæcenas
Horrida Tempestas
Satire
JULIA WARD HOWE
X
RICHARD HENRY HENGIST HORNE
Morning (Orion')
THOMAS HUGHES
Battle Hymn of the Republic
Our Orders
Pardon
'Hamlet' at the Boston Theatre
A New Sculptor
VICTOR HUGO
LIVED
65 B. C. -8 B. C.
The Art of Poetry
Contentment
Horace's Farm
To His Book
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS
The Bewildered Guest
Hope
Society
Another Day
A Midsummer-Day's Dream (Their Wedding Journey')
The Street-Car Strike (A Hazard of New Fortunes')
Arrival and First Days in Venice (Venetian Life')
1823-1896
The Cities of the Plain
The Sacking of the City
Old Ocean
1803-1884
BY ADOLPHE COHN
1819? -
The Boat Race (Tom Brown at Oxford')
The Fight Between Tom Brown and Williams (Tom
Brown's School Days')
1837-
1802-1885
PAGE
7619
7641
7645
7653
7695
7709
## p. 7243 (#23) ############################################
xi
VICTOR HUGO - Continued:
Prayer
My Thoughts of Ye
ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
Napoleon
The Retreat from Moscow
The Lions
The Conspiracy (Hernani')
The Chain-Gang for the Galleys ('Les Misérables')
The Combat with the Octopus (The Toilers of the Sea')
1769-1859
DAVID HUME
The Beauty and Unity of Nature (Cosmos')
The Study of the Natural Sciences (same)
Of Refinement in the Arts
LEIGH HUNT
Jaffár
The Nile
BY M. A. MIKKELSEN
BY ERNEST RHYS
To Hampstead
To the Grasshopper and the Cricket
Abou Ben Adhem
Rondeau
The Old Lady
The Old Gentleman
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
LIVED
BY E. RAY LANKESTER
On a Piece of Chalk
Materialism and Idealism
Evolution and Ethics
On the Physical Basis of Life
Westminster Abbey
1711-1776
1784-1859
1825-1895
PAGE
7768
7777
7791
7805
## p. 7244 (#24) ############################################
## p. 7245 (#25) ############################################
LIST OF PORTRAITS
IN VOL. XIII
Heraclitus
George Herbert
Johann Gottfried Herder
José-Maria de Hérédia
Herodotus
Robert Herrick
Henrik Hertz
Paul Heyse
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Richard Hildreth
Thomas Hobbes
Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann
James Hogg
Ludvig Holberg
Josiah Gilbert Holland
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Hermann Eduard von Holst
Ludwig Heinrich Christoph Hölty
Homer
Thomas Hood
Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft
Richard Henry Hengist Horne
Julia Ward Howe
William Dean Howells
Thomas Hughes
Victor Hugo
Alexander von Humboldt
David Hume
Leigh Hunt
Thomas Henry Huxley
Vignette
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Full page
Full page
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Vignette
Full page
Vignette
Full page
Full page
Full page
Vignette
Full page
## p. 7246 (#26) ############################################
## p. 7247 (#27) ############################################
7247
HERACLITUS
(535-475 B. C. )
H
ERACLITUS, the most original of the pre-Socratic Greek philoso-
phers, was born at Ephesus about 535 B. C. His father's
name is uncertain; but he belonged to the nobility, and
claimed descent from Androclus the founder of Ephesus, a son of the
Athenian king Codrus. He had even a claim to the royal title him-
self, doubtless as the titular head of the State religion; but resigned it
to his brother when he devoted himself to philosophy. He remained,
however, always an aristocrat, and bitterly opposed to the growing
democracy of Ephesus, which banished his
uncle Hermodorus. The latter is said to
have gone to Rome and assisted in drawing
up the laws of the Twelve Tables. Heracli-
tus seems to have lived a retired life, and to
have died about 475 B. C. He was known
in later times as "the weeping philosopher. "
Few men have influenced the world by
their thought more deeply than Heraclitus.
He was the inventor of the Logos, from
which the science of Logic is named, and
on which the first principle of Stoicism and
the Christian doctrine of "the Word" are
based. His one book, 'On Nature,' was
written in Ionic prose, in a form so difficult
as to earn him in subsequent times the title of "the Dark. " This
darkness, however, was due far more to the matter than to the style
of the book. The latter indeed, if abrupt and terse, is powerful and
sublime, reminding us of the Hebrew prophets; while of the former,
Socrates said that its depth was so great as to require "a Delian
diver. "
HERACLITUS
Heraclitus claims to be self-taught; nevertheless he shows acquaint-
ance not only with Homer and Hesiod, but also with Pythagoras,
Xenophanes, Hecatæus, Archilochus, and Bias - and inveighs against
the whole of them, except the last. His originality therefore con-
sisted in the attitude of opposition which he assumed to his prede-
cessors. Combining the material principle of his Ionian predecessors
with the numerical proportion of Pythagoras and the all-embracing
unity of being of Xenophanes, he set up as his absolute a universal
fire, determining itself according to measure and number. Through
## p. 7248 (#28) ############################################
7248
HERACLITUS
the regulated self-transformation of this, the universe with all its
phenomena, including thought, arises. In this universe everything is
in perpetual change, except the Logos or law of change, which is
conceived as one with the primal fire. The universal life is a pro-
cess from fire and to fire, -a continual differentiation and a continual
overcoming of differentiation.
Heraclitus is the first materialistic monist, and all subsequent sys-
tems of monism descend from him. His views are discussed in the
'Cratylus of Plato, and are often referred to by Aristotle.
>
He
founded no school; but about 308 B. C. , Zeno of Citium, adopting his
leading principles, his Logos and his monism,-founded Stoicism,
which is thus mainly a development of Heracliteanism. Stoicism
played a great part in the world for six or seven hundred years, and
some of the noblest spirits of the ancient world professed it,― Marcus
Aurelius, Epictetus, Seneca, etc. It finds a very noble expression in
the Hymn to Zeus' by Cleanthes.
In modern times Hegel, by his own admission, adopted into his
Logic all the principles of Heraclitus, - the self-determining, world-
creating Logos, the identity of opposites, the universal process, etc. ,-
and thus gave them a new lease of life. Hegel himself by this
means reached an all-embracing idealism, which professed to furnish
a new basis for all the old notions of Church and State, which the
French Revolution had rudely shaken; but his disciple Ferdinand Las-
salle, who wrote a large work in two volumes on Heraclitus, empha-
sizing the latter's materialism, made it the basis of that view of the
world and of society which calls for Socialism as its true expression.
Indeed, Socialism is merely Heracliteanism in politics and economics.
Thus, in a very important sense, Heraclitus may be said to be the
father of Socialism, and to be very much alive among us to-day.
Besides Lassalle's work, already referred to (Die Philosophie
Herakleitos des Dunklen von Ephesos': Berlin, 1858), there are many
works on Heraclitus,- by Schleiermacher, Bernays, Schuster, Teich-
müller, Pfleiderer, and others. The best edition of the 'Fragments'
is that by I. Bywater, 'Heracliti Ephesii Fragmenta,' Oxford, 1877;
of the pseudo-Heraclitean letters, that by Jac. Bernays, Berlin, 1869.
-
FRAGMENTS
L
ISTENING, not to me, but to the Word, it is wise for men to
confess that all things are one.
Though the Word always speaks, yet men are born with-
out understanding for it, both before they hear it, and at first
after they have heard it. For though all things are produced
## p. 7249 (#29) ############################################
HERACLITUS
7249
according to this Word, men seem to be unaware of it, making
attempts at such words and deeds as I explain by separating
them according to their nature, and telling them as they are.
But other men fail as completely to recognize what they do
while they are awake as they forget what they do when asleep.
Having ears and understanding not, they are like deaf men. To
them the proverb applies: "While they're here they're yonder. "
Evil witnesses to men are the eyes and ears of them that
have barbarous souls.
For many men have no wisdom regarding those things with
which they come in contact, nor do they learn by experience.
They are opinions even to themselves.
If thou hope for that which is past hope, thou shalt not find
it; for it is past searching and past finding out.
Those who search for gold, dig much earth and find little.
Nature loves to hide herself.
The King whose oracle is in Delphi neither reveals nor con-
ceals, but indicates.
The Sibyl, with inspired lips, uttering words unmeet for laugh-
ter, unadorned, unanointed, reaches with her voice across a thou-
sand years, because of the god that is in her.
Eyes are more accurate witnesses than ears.
Much learning doth not teach understanding; else it had
taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, yea, and Xenophanes, and Heca-
tæus.
Pythagoras, the son of Mnesarchus, pursued information most
of all men, and making selections from these writings, he pro-
duced a wisdom of his own-much learning, little wit!
Of all the men whose words I have heard, no one hath gone
far enough to recognize that the Wise is separate from all things.
For the Wise is one-to know the principle whereby all
things are steered through all.
This world, which is the same for all, neither any god nor
any man made; but it was always, is, and ever shall be, an ever-
living fire, kindling by measure and dying out by measure.
Of fire, the transformations are, first, sea; and of sea half is
earth, half fire.
All things are exchanged for fire, and fire for all things; as
all goods are exchanged for gold, and gold for all goods.
The sea is spread abroad, and meted out with the same meas-
ure as it was before the earth was brought forth.
XIII-454
## p. 7250 (#30) ############################################
HERACLITUS
7250
Fire lives the death of earth, and air the death of fire. Water
lives the death of air, and earth the death of water.
The fire, when it cometh, shall try all things and overcome
all things.
The thunderbolt is at the helm of the universe.
The Sun shall not transgress his bounds; else the Fates, the
handmaids of Justice, will find it out.
God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace,
surfeit and famine. He changeth as fire when it is mingled with
spices, and is named as each man listeth.
You cannot step twice into the same river; for other and ever
other waters flow on.
War is the father of all things and the king of all things:
yea, some it appointed gods, and others men; some it made
slaves, and others free.
They understand not that that which differs agrees with itself:
a back-returning harmony, as of the bow and the lyre.
An invisible harmony is better than a visible.
Let us make no random guesses about the greatest things.
Asses would prefer garbage to gold.
The sea is the purest and the foulest water: for fishes drink-
able and wholesome; for men undrinkable and hurtful.
Immortals are mortal; mortals immortal, living each other's
death and dying each other's life.
It is death for souls to become water; and for water it is
death to become earth. But from earth is born water, and from
water soul.
The upward and the downward way are one and the same.
Beginning and end are identical.
The bounds of the soul thou shalt not find, though thou travel
every way.
Like a torch in the night, man is lit and extinguished.
A world-period is a child playing with dice. To a child be-
longs the sovereignty.
Into the same stream we step in and step not in; we are and
are not.
Common to all is wisdom. They who speak with reason must
take their stand upon that which is common to all, as firmly as a
State does upon its law, and much more firmly. For all human
laws are fed by the one Divine law; it prevaileth as far as it
listeth, and sufficeth for all, and surviveth all.
## p. 7251 (#31) ############################################
HERACLITUS
7251
Even they that sleep are laborers and co-workers in all that
is done in the world.
Though the Word is universal, most men live as if each had a
wisdom of his own.
We must not act and speak as if we were asleep.
When we
are awake we have one common world; but when we are asleep
each turns aside to a world of his own.
A foolish man bears the same relation to a divinity as a child
to a man.
The people must fight for its law as for a wall.
Those that fall in war, gods and men honor.
It is not better that what men desire should befall them: for
it is disease that causes health; sweet, bitter; evil, good; hunger,
satisfaction; fatigue, rest.
It is hard to fight with passion; for what it desires to happen,
it buys with life.
One man to me is ten thousand, if he be the best. For what
is their mind or sense? They follow [strolling] minstrels, and
make the mob their schoolmaster, not knowing that the evil are
many, the good few. For the best choose one thing in prefer-
ence to all, eternal glory among mortals; but the many glut
themselves like cattle. In Priene was born Bias, the son of
Teutames, whose intelligence was superior to that of all others.
It were fitting that the Ephesians should hang themselves on
reaching manhood, and leave the city to the boys; for that they
cast out Hermodorus, the worthiest man among them, saying:
"Let there be no one worthiest man among us; if there be, let
him be elsewhere and with others. "
Dogs bark at every one they do not know. A foolish man is
wont to be scared at every [new] idea.
Justice will overtake the framers and abettors of lies.
With man, character is destiny.
There remaineth for men after death that which they nei-
ther hope for nor believe. Then they desire to rise and become
guardians of the quick and the dead.
Polluted [murderers] are cleansed with blood, as if one, hav-
ing stepped into mud, should wipe himself with mud.
## p. 7252 (#32) ############################################
7252
GEORGE HERBERT
(1593-1633)
YOOX HE country clergyman whose verse made the little vicarage
at Bemerton in Wiltshire a place of pilgrimage for several
generations, was not a pious rustic, but the descendant of
an illustrious house and the favorite of a court. He came of the line
of Pembroke,- that handsome and learned swaggerer Lord Herbert
of Cherbury being his elder brother. Among his intimate friends.
were the poets Donne and Wotton, and his "best lover » Izaak Wal-
ton, who says of him that "he enjoyed his genteel humor for clothes
and courtlike company, and seldom looked
toward Cambridge (where he had a fellow-
ship) unless the King were there; and then
he never failed. " In short, "holy George
Herbert," handsome and ready-witted, full
of parts and ambition, singled out by King
James for special kindnesses, very naturally
expected and longed for that advancement
which less deserving courtiers found no dif-
ficulty in securing. But the death of the
King in 1625, followed by the death of the
young poet's powerful friends the Duke
of Richmond and the Marquis of Hamilton,
shattered his prospect of a Secretaryship.
Not long after, he took orders; partly, per-
haps, because his brilliant and persuasive mother had always wished
it, partly because no other profession becoming a gentleman was
open to a man already past thirty, with fine aptitudes but with no
special training, but surely in great part because the whole tone and
bent of his soul was not worldliness but other-worldliness. "
GEORGE HERBERT
In 1630 King Charles presented him, quite unexpectedly, with the
benefice of Bemerton near Salisbury.
"The third day after he was made rector," says Walton, "and had changed
his sword and silk clothes into a canonical habit, he returned so habited with
his friend Mr. Woodnot to Bainton; and immediately after he had seen and
saluted his wife (a kinswoman of the Earl of Danby), he said to her:- You
are now a minister's wife, and must now so far forget your father's house
as not to claim precedence of any of your parishioners; for you are to know
that a priest's wife can challenge no precedence or place but that which she
## p. 7253 (#33) ############################################
GEORGE HERBERT
7253
purchases by her obliging humility; and I am sure, places so purchased do
best become them. And let me tell you, I am so good a herald as to assure
you that this is truth. > And she was so meek a wife (though she was but
lately wed, after a three-days' courtship) as to assure him it was no vexing
news to her, and that he should see her observe it with a cheerful willingness. ”
Herbert took up his duties with an ardor that made them pleas-
In the first year of his priesthood he wrote:-
ures.
--
"I now look back upon my aspiring thoughts, and think myself more happy
than if I had attained what then I so ambitiously thirsted for; and I can
now behold the court with an impartial eye, and see plainly that it is made
up of fraud, and titles, and flattery, and many other such empty, imaginary,
painted pleasures-pleasures that are so empty as not to satisfy when they
are enjoyed. "
Nor were good Mr. Herbert's grapes really sour. For there was
that in his nature which made asceticism welcome, though his self-
abasement was not the less sincere because it was pleasurable. In-
deed, the chief attribute of his poetry is its quaint sincerity, often
expressed with the utmost artificiality. With scarcely an exception,
it is all of a religious character, frequently tinged with the ascetic's
ever-present sense of his shortcomings. But such little poems as the
ones entitled 'Virtue,' 'The Pulley,' and 'The Collar' have force,
condensation of thought, and withal poetic grace; while 'Life' and
'The Rose' possess an Elizabethan freshness and charm.
One long poem, The Church Porch,' stands in marked contrast
to the rest of his work. It shows him as a young man, as yet un-
touched by thoughts of priestly consecration and the mental strug-
gles which afterwards beset him. Some of the terse couplets have
become almost proverbs:-
"Dare to be true. Nothing can need a lie:
A fault which needs it most, grows two thereby. "
"For he that needs five thousand pounds to live
Is full as poor as he that needs but five. "
"Kneeling ne'er spoiled silk stockings. "
The quaintness of Herbert's verse is not its most engaging quality.
What is called quaintness is often mere perverseness of ingenuity,
showy affectation. Herbert's taste was like that of the red Indian,
preferring the bizarre, the artificial, and the ugly; while yet his inspi-
ration was genuine. His friendship for Donne no doubt confirmed
his liking for fantastic and over-labored verse. But with all his
defects, his best poetry has delighted pious hearts for more than two
centuries. The Temple, or Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations,'
which contains his principal verses, was not published until after his
## p. 7254 (#34) ############################################
7254
GEORGE HERBERT
death. Walton said it was "a book in which, by declaring his own
spiritual conflicts, he hath comforted and raised many a dejected and
discomposed soul and charmed them with sweet and quiet thoughts. "
The pious Richard Baxter found, "next the Scripture poems," "none
so savoury" as Herbert's, who "speaks to God as a man really believ-
ing in God"; and Charles I. read the little book in his last melancholy
days in prison, and found "much comfort" in it.
hi
Of Herbert's sincere and even passionate piety in later life, there
is no doubt. He worked early and late for the bodies and souls of
flock, preaching, teaching, comforting, exposing himself to storms
and to sickness, wearing himself out in their service. Three years of
this terrible toil exhausted a constitution never strong, and he died
at Bemerton, loved and honored, at the early age of thirty-nine. In
his prose volume 'A Priest to the Temple' he has set forth the code
of duty which he followed:-
"The Country Parson desires to be all to his parish, and not only a pastor,
but a lawyer also, and a physician. Therefore he endures not that any of his
flock should go to law; but in any controversy, that they should resort to him
as their judge. To this end he hath gotten to himself some insight in things
ordinarily incident and controverted, by experience and by reading.
"Then he shows them how to go to law, even as brethren, and not as
enemies, neither avoiding therefore one another's company, much less defam-
ing one another. Now, as the parson is in law, so is he in sickness also: if
there be any of his flock sick, he is their physician,- or at least his wife, of
whom, instead of the qualities of the world, he asks no other but to have the
skill of healing a wound or helping the sick. . . . Accordingly, for salves,
his wife seeks not the city, but prefers her garden and fields before all out-
landish gums.
And surely hyssop, valerian, mercury, adder's-tongue, yarrow,
melilot, and St. John's-wort made into a salve, and elder, camomile, mallows,
comphrey, and smallage made into a poultice, have done great and rare
cures. In curing of any, the parson and his family use to premise prayers;
for this is to cure like a parson, and this raiseth the action from the shop
to the Church. »
[All the selections are from 'The Temple']
THE COLLAR
I
STRUCK the board and cried, "No more!
I will abroad.
What, shall I ever sigh and pine?
My lines and life are free; free as the road,
Loose as the wind, as large as store.
Shall I be still in suit?
## p. 7255 (#35) ############################################
GEORGE HERBERT
7255
Have I no harvest but a thorn
To let me blood, and not restore
What I have lost with cordial fruit?
Sure, there was wine
Before my sighs did dry it: there was corn
Before my tears did drown it.
Is the year only lost to me?
Have I no bays to crown it?
No flowers, no garlands gay? All blasted?
All wasted?
Not so, my heart; but there is fruit,
And thou hast hands.
Recover all thy sigh-blown age
On double pleasures; leave thy cold dispute
Of what is fit and not; forsake thy cage,
Thy rope of sands,
Which petty thoughts have made, and make to thee
Good cable, to enforce and draw,
And be thy law,
While thou didst wink and wouldst not see.
Awake, take heed:
I will abroad.
Call in thy death's-head there: tie up thy fears.
He that forbears
To suit and serve his need,
Deserves his load. "
But as I raved, and grew more fierce and wild
At every word,
Methought I heard one calling, "Child! »
And I replied, "My Lord! "
LOVE
L
OVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of lust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
"If I lacked anything. "
"A guest," I answered, "worthy to be here. "
Love said, "You shall be he. "
"I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on Thee. "
## p. 7256 (#36) ############################################
7256
GEORGE HERBERT
Love took my hand, and smiling, did reply,
"Who made the eyes but I? »
"Truth, Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve. "
"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame ? »
"My dear, then I will serve. "
"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat. "
So I did sit and eat.
THE ELIXIR
EACH me, my God and King,
In all things thee to see,
And what I do in anything,
To do it as for thee.
T
Not rudely, as a beast,
To run into an action;
But still to make thee prepossest,
And give it his perfection.
A man that looks on glass,
On it may stay his eye;
Or, if he pleaseth, through it pass,
And then the heaven espy.
All may of thee partake:
Nothing can be so mean,
Which with his tincture (for thy sake)
Will not grow bright and clean.
A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine:
Who sweeps a room as for thy laws
Makes that and th' action fine.
This is the famous stone
That turneth all to gold;
For that which God doth touch and own
Cannot for less be told.
## p. 7257 (#37) ############################################
GEORGE HERBERT
THE PILGRIMAGE
TRAVELED on, seeing the hill where lay
My expectation.
A long it was and weary way.
The gloomy cave of Desperation
I left on the one, and on the other side
The rock of Pride.
And so I came to Fancy's meadow, strowed
With many a flower;
Fain would I here have made abode,
But I was quickened by my hour.
So to Care's copse I came, and there got through
With much ado.
That led me to the wild of Passion, which
Some call the wold;
A wasted place, but sometimes rich.
Here I was robbed of all my gold,-
Save one good angel,* which a friend had tied
Close to my side.
At length I got unto the gladsome hill
Where lay my hope,
Where lay my heart; and climbing still,
When I had gained the brow and top
A lake of brackish waters on the ground
Was all I found.
With that, abashed and struck with many a sting
Of swarming fears,
I fell, and cried, "Alas, my King!
Can both the way and end be tears? "
Yet taking heart, I rose, and then perceived
I was deceived.
My hill was farther; so I flung away,
Yet heard a cry
Just as I went,-"None goes that way
And lives. " "If that be all," said I,
"After so foul a journey, death is fair,
And but a chair. "
7257
* A gold angel was a piece of money of the value of ten shillings, bearing
the figure of an angel.
## p. 7258 (#38) ############################################
7258
GEORGE HERBERT
THE PULLEY
HEN God at first made man,
W Having a glass of blessings standing by,—
"Let us," said he, "pour on him all we can:
Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie,
Contract into a span. ”
So Strength first made a way;
Then Beauty flowed, then Wisdom, Honor, Pleasure:
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that alone of all his treasure
Rest in the bottom lay.
"For if I should," said he,
"Bestow this jewel also on my creature,
He would adore my gifts instead of me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature:
So both should losers be.
"Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlessness:
Let him be rich and weary, that at least,
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
May toss him to my breast. "
VIRTUE
SW
WEET Day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky,
The dew shall weep thy fall to-night;
For thou must die.
Sweet Rose, whose hue, angry and brave,
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye,
Thy root is ever in its grave,
And thou must die.
Sweet Spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie,
My music shows ye have your closes,
And all must die.
Only a sweet and virtuous soul,
Like seasoned timber, never gives;
But though the whole world turn to coal,
Then chiefly lives.
## p. 7258 (#39) ############################################
## p. 7258 (#40) ############################################
HERDER.
## p. 7258 (#41) ############################################
7259
JOHANN GOTTFRIED HERDER*
(1744-1803)
BY KUNO FRANCKE
ERDER does not belong to the few men of highest genius whose
works have become the common property of mankind. As
a poet he was receptive rather than creative.
Of his verse
only the Volkslieder' (Folk Songs: 1778-79), and 'Der Cid' (The Cid:
1803), have permanent value; and these are valuable not as additions
to the store of original conceptions of poetic fancy, but as marvels of
divinatory interpretation and sympathetic reproduction. As a prose
writer, he lacked the clearness of thought and the precision of speech
which are necessary elements of true literary greatness: even the best
of his essays are made unpalatable by a constant wavering between
diffuseness and abruptness, between vague generalities and dithyram-
bic effusions; and the most ambitious of his efforts, the 'Ideen zur
Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit' (Philosophy of the History
of Man: 1784-91), is a huge fragment.
Herder's greatness, then, does not lie in the form of his writings.
It lies in the suggestiveness of their substance. It lies in the wide
range of his vision, in the wonderful universality of his mind, which
enabled him to see the interdependence of all things and to divine
the unity of all life. It lies, above all, in the manifold application
of a single idea, an idea through which he became the father of the
modern evolutionary philosophy: the idea of organic growth.
Herder once for all did away with the rationalistic fallacy of the
eighteenth century, that the course of human history is nothing but
a succession of individual acts by individual men. He once for all
did away with the rationalistic fallacy that the great creations of the
human mind are the result of conscious and deliberate effort. He
once for all made the conception of national instincts and of national
culture the basis of all historical inquiry.
