Transcriber's notes: Several chapters were omitted from the English translation of which this is a transcription. The reasons for this are given in the footnotes. Words originally printed in Greek are shown that way in some versions of this eBook. English transliterations were added to all versions by the Transcribers and are enclosed in {curly braces}. Other notes will be found at the end of this eBook. [Illustration] UNIVERSAL CLASSICS LIBRARY EDITOR'S AUTOGRAPH EDITION ATTEST: Robert Arnot MANAGING EDITOR [Illustration] UNIVERSAL CLASSICS LIBRARY ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAVURES ON JAPAN VELLUM HAND PAINTED REPRODUCTIONS AND FULL PAGE PORTRAITS OF AUTHORS M. WALTER DUNNE PUBLISHER NEW YORK AND LONDON COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY M. WALTER DUNNE, PUBLISHER GENERAL PREFACE [Illustration] Of the Library of Universal Classics and Rare Manuscripts, twenty volumes are devoted to the various branches of Government, Philosophy, Law, Ethics, English and French Belles Lettres, Hebraic, Ottoman, and Arabian Literature, and one to a collection of 150 reproductions, bound in English vellum, of the autographs, papers and letters of Rulers, Statesmen, Poets, Artists and Celebrities ranging through three centuries, crowned by an illuminated facsimile of that historic Document, the Magna Carta. The series in itself is an epitome of the best in History, Philosophy and Literature. The great writers of past ages are accessible to readers in general solely through translations. It was, therefore, necessary that translations of such rare Classics as are embodied in this series should be of the best, and should possess exactitude in text and supreme faithfulness in rendering the author's thought. Under the vigilant scholarship of the Editorial Council this has been accomplished with unvarying excellence. The classification, selection and editing of the various volumes have been the subject of much earnest thought and consultation on the part of more than twenty of the best known scholars of the day.