For the prolific authors of the flood of stories, which every month bears on its broad bosom many tons of advertisements, no such allowance need be made. They are not compelled to furnish copy between daylight and dark. They need a course of study in English prose more than anyone else, and they would profit by the effort. As a class they seem to be like the young man in Du Maurier's picture, who, being asked if he had read Thackeray, replies, "No. I nevah read novels; I write them." In this age of quickening movement and restless haste it is, above all things, important to struggle against the well-nigh universal inclination to abandon all efforts for form and style. They are the great preservers of what is best in literature, the salt which ought never to lose its savor. Those who use English in public speech and public writing have a serious responsibility too generally forgotten and disregarded. I would fain call attention to it altho no single man can hope to effect much by any plea he can make in behalf of the use of good English, whether written or spoken. Yet no one, I think, can read the great masterpieces of English prose and not have both lesson and responsibility brought home to him. He would be insensible, indeed, if he did not feel after such reading that he was a sharer in a noble heritage which it behooved him to guard and cherish. If this series serves no other purpose, it will exhibit to those who read it some of the splendors and the beauties of English prose. It will at least open the gates of literature and perhaps lead its readers to authors they have not known before, or recall the words of writers who have entered into their lives and thoughts and thus make them more mindful of the ineffable value to them and their children of the great language which is at once their birthright and their inheritance. HENRY CABOT LODGE. _Washington, D. C., July 15, 1909._ CONTENTS VOL. I--GREECE INTRODUCTION. By Henry Cabot Lodge. HERODOTUS--(Born probably in 484 B.C., died probably in 424.) I Solon's Words of Wisdom to Croesus. (From Book I of the "History." Translated by Rawlinson) II Babylon and Its Capture by Cyrus. (From Book I of the "History." Translated by Taylor) III The Pyramid of Cheops. (From Book II of the "History." Translated by Rawlinson) IV The Story of Periander's Son. (From Book III of the "History." Translated by Rawlinson) THUCYDIDES--(Born about 471 B.C., died about 401.) I The Athenians and Spartans Contrasted. (From Book I of the "Peloponnesian War." Translated by Benjamin Jowett) II The Plague at Athens. (From Book II of the "Peloponnesian War." Translated by Benjamin Jowett) III The Sailing of the Athenian Fleet for Sicily. (From Book VI of the "Peloponnesian War." Translated by Benjamin Jowett)