E-text prepared by Joseph R. Hauser, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 24563-h.htm or 24563-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/5/6/24563/24563-h/24563-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/5/6/24563/24563-h.zip) THE BEST _of the_ WORLD'S CLASSICS RESTRICTED TO PROSE HENRY CABOT LODGE Editor-in-Chief FRANCIS W. HALSEY Associate Editor With an Introduction, Biographical and Explanatory Notes, etc. In Ten Volumes Vol. VII CONTINENTAL EUROPE--I [Illustration: RABELAIS, VOLTAIRE, HUGO, MONTAIGNE] Funk & Wagnalls Company New York and London Copyright, 1909, by Funk & Wagnalls Company The Best of the World's Classics VOL. VII CONTINENTAL EUROPE--I CONTENTS VOL. VII--CONTINENTAL EUROPE--I EARLY CONTINENTAL WRITERS 354--1380 ST. AURELIUS AUGUSTINE--(Born in Numidia, Africa, in 354; died in 430.) Imperial Power for Good and Bad Men. (From Book IV, Chapter III, of "De Civitate Dei") ANICIUS BOETHIUS--(Born about 475, died about 524.) The Highest Happiness. (From "The Consolations of Philosophy." Translated by Alfred the Great) ST. THOMAS AQUINAS--(Born near Aquino, Italy, probably in 1225; died in 1274.) A Definition of Happiness. (From the "Ethics") THOMAS À KEMPIS--(Born in Rhenish Prussia about 1380, died in the Netherlands in 1471.) Of Eternal Life and of Striving for It. (From "The Imitation of Christ") FRANCE Twelfth Century--1885 GEOFFREY DE VILLE-HARDOUIN--(Born between 1150 and 1165; died in 1212.) The Sack of Constantinople. (From "The Chronicles." Translated by Eric Arthur Bell) JEAN DE JOINVILLE--(Born in 1224, died in 1317.) Greek Fire in Battle. (From "The Memoirs of Louis IX, King of France." Translated by Thomas Johnes) "AUCASSIN AND NICOLETTE." (A French romance of the 12th Century, the author's name unknown) JEAN FROISSART--(Born in 1337, died in 1410.) The Battle of Crécy (1346). (From the "Chronicles." Translated by Thomas Johnes) PHILIPPE DE COMINES--(Born in France about 1445, died in 1511.) Of the Character of Louis XI (From the "Memoirs." Translated by Andrew R. Scoble) MARGUERITE D'ANGOULÊME--(Born in 1492, died in 1549.) Of Husbands Who Are Unfaithful. (From the "Heptameron") FRANÇOIS RABELAIS--(Born in 1495, died in 1553.) I Gargantua in His Childhood. (From "The Inestimable Life of the Great Gargantua." Translated by Urquhart and Motteux) II Gargantua's Education. (From "The Inestimable Life of the Great Gargantua." Translated by Urquhart and Motteux) III Of the Founding of an Ideal Abbey.