ANCIENT CLASSICS FOR ENGLISH READERS BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. EDITED BY REV. W. LUCAS COLLINS, M.A. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. "We gladly avail ourselves of this opportunity to recommend the other volumes of this useful series, most of which are executed with discrimination and ability."-Quarterly Review. "These Ancient Classics have, without an exception, a twofold value. They are rich in literary interest, and they are rich in social and historical interest. We not only have a faithful presentation of the stamp and quality of the literature which the master-minds of the classical world have bequeathed to the modern world, but we have a series of admirably vivid and graphic pictures of what life at Athens and Rome was. We are not merely taken back over a space of twenty centuries, and placed immediately under the shadow of the Acropolis, or in the very heart of the Forum, but we are at once brought behind the scenes of the old Roman and Athenian existence. As we see how the heroes of this 'new world which is the old' plotted, intrigued, and planned; how private ambition and political partisanship were dominant and active motives then as they are now; how the passions and the prejudices which reign supreme now reigned supreme then; above all, as we discover how completely many of what we may have been accustomed to consider our most essentially modern thoughts and sayings have been anticipated by the poets and orators, the philosophers and historians, who drank their inspiration by the banks of Ilissus or on the plains of Tiber, we are prompted to ask whether the advance of some twenty centuries has worked any great change in humanity, and whether, substituting the coat for the toga, the park for the Campus Martius, the Houses of Parliament for the Forum, Cicero might not have been a public man in London as well as an orator in Rome?"-Morning Advertiser. "A series which has done, and is doing, so much towards spreading among Englishmen intelligent and appreciative views of the chief classical authors."-Standard. "To sum up in a phrase our sincere and hearty commendation of one of the best serial publications we have ever examined, we may just say that to the student and the scholar, and to him who is neither scholar nor student, they are simply priceless as a means of acquiring and extending a familiar acquaintance with the great classic writers of Greece and Rome."-Belfast Northern Whig. ANCIENT CLASSICS FOR ENGLISH READERS. 13 OPINIONS-continued. "It is difficult to estimate too highly the value of such a series as this in giving English readers' an insight, exact as far as it goes, into those olden times which are so remote and yet to many of us so close. It is in no wise to be looked upon as a rival to the translations which have at no time been brought forth in greater abundance or in greater excellence than in our own day. On the contrary, we should hope that these little volumes would be in many cases but a kind of stepping-stone to the larger works, and would lead many who otherwise would have remained in ignorance of them to turn to the versions of Conington, Worsley, Derby, or Lytton. In any case a reader would come with far greater knowledge, and therefore with far greater enjoyment, to the complete translation, who had first had the ground broken for him by one of these volumes."—Saturday Review, Jan. 18. List of the Volumes published. I.-HOMER: THE ILIAD. By THE EDITOR. "We can confidently recommend this first volume of 'Ancient Classics for English Readers' to all who have forgotten their Greek and desire to refresh their knowledge of Homer. As to those to whom the series is chiefly addressed, who have never learnt Greek at all, this little book gives them an opportunity which they had not before-an opportunity not only of remedying a want they must often have felt, but of remedying it by no patient and irksome toil, but by a few hours of pleasant reading."-Times. II.-HOMER: THE ODYSSEY. By THE EDITOR. "Mr Collins has gone over the 'Odyssey' with loving hands, and he tells its eternally fresh story so admirably, and picks out the best passages so skilfully, that he gives us a charming volume. In the 'Odyssey,' as treated by Mr Collins, we have a story-book that might charm a child or amuse and instruct the wisest man."-Scotsman. III.-HERODOTUS. By GEORGE C. SWAYNE, M.A. "This volume altogether confirms the highest anticipations that were formed as to the workmanship and the value of the series."—Daily Telegraph. IV. THE COMMENTARIES OF CAESAR. By ANTHONY TROLLOPE. "We can only say that all admirers of Mr Trollope will find his 'Cæsar' almost if not quite, as attractive as his most popular novel, while they will so find that the exigencies of faithful translation have not been able to subdue the charm of his peculiar style. The original part of his little book-the introduction and conclusion-are admirably written, and the whole work is quite up to the standard of its predecessors, than saying which, we can give no higher praise."— Vanity Fair. V. VIRGIL. BY THE EDITOR. "Such a volume cannot fail to enhance the reputation of this promising series, and deserves the perusal of the most devoted Latinists, not less than of the English readers for whom it is designed."-Contemporary Review. "It would be difficult to describe the 'Eneid' better than it is done here, and still more difficult to find three more delightful works than the 'Iliad, the Odyssey,' and the 'Virgil' of Mr Collins."-Standard. · VI.-HORACE. By THEODORE MARTIN. Though we have neither quoted it, nor made use of it, we have no hesitation in saying that the reader who is wholly or for the most part unable to appreciate Horace untranslated, may, with the insight he gains from the lively, bright, and, for its size, exhaustive little volume to which we refer, account himself hereafter familiar with the manysided charms of the Venusian, and able to enjoy allusions to his life and works which would otherwise have been a sealed book to him."-Quarterly Review. "We wish, after closing his book, to be able to read it again for the first time; it is suited to every occasion; a pleasant travelling companion; welcome in the library where Horace himself may be consulted; welcome also in the intervals of business, or when leisure is abundant.' -Edinburgh Review. "In our judgment, no volume (of the series) hitherto has come up to the singular excellence of that now under consideration. The secret of this is, that its author so completely puts himself in Horace's place, scans the phases of his life with such an insight into the poet's character and motives, and leaves on the reader's mind so little of an impression that he is following the attempts of a mere modern to realise the feelings and expressions of an ancient. Real genius is a freemasonry, by which the touch of one hand transmits its secret to another; and a capital proof of this is to be found in the skill, tact, and fellow-feeling with which Mr Martin has executed a task, the merit and value of which is quite out of proportion to the size and pretensions of his volume."-Saturday Review. FOR ENGLISH READERS. VII.-ÆSCHYLUS. By REGINALD S. COPLESTON, B.A. "A really delightful little volume."-The Examiner. 15 "The author with whom Mr Copleston has here to deal exemplifies the advantage of the method which has been used in this series. Mr Copleston has apprehended this main principle, as we take it to be, of his work has worked it out with skill and care, and has given to the public a volume which fulfils its intention as perfectly as any of the series."-Spectator. VIII-XENOPHON. By SIR ALEXAnder Grant, Bart., "Sir Alexander Grant tells the story of Xenophon's life with much eloquence and power. It has evidently been with him a labour of love; while his wide reading and accurate scholarship are manifest on nearly every page."-The Examiner. IX. CICERO. BY THE EDITOR. "No charm of style, no facility and eloquence of illustration, is wanting to enable us to see the great Roman advocate, statesman, and orator, in the days of Rome's grandeur, in the time of her first fatal hastening to her decadence, with whom fell her liberty two thousand years ago. The first lines of introduction to this fascinating book are full of help and light to the student of the classical times who has not mastered the classical literature, and in whose interests this book is done, simply to perfection."-Saunders' News-Letter. X.-SOPHOCLES. By CLIFTON W. COLLINS, M.A. "Sophocles has now been added to the acceptable and singularly equal series of 'Ancient Classics for English Readers.' Mr Collins shows great skill and judgment in analysing and discriminating the plays of the sweet singer of Colonus."-Guardian. By the Rev. ALFRED CHURCH, M.A., and The Rev. W. J. BRODRIBB, M.A. This is one of the best volumes of the series called 'Ancient Classics for English Readers.' This graceful little volume will introduce Pliny to many who have hitherto known nothing of the Silver Age.”— Athenæum. "Mr Lucas Collins's very useful and popular series has afforded a fit opportunity for a sketch of the life and writings of the younger Pliny; and the writers of the volume before us have contrived, out of their intimate and complete familiarity with their subject, to place the man, his traits of character, his friends, and his surroundings so vividly before us, that a hitherto shadowy acquaintance becomes a distinct and real personage."-Saturday Review. 16 ANCIENT CLASSICS FOR ENGLISH READERS. XII.-EURIPIDES. "Mr Donne's earlier chapters will be found extremely serviceable in helping to a right conception of the times, the scenes, and the characters amidst which Euripides was matured. In no Theatre of the Greeks' do we find so vivid and distinct an expression of the aspect of the Attic clime, its amusements, and its representative men, in the days of the youngest member of the dramatic triumvirate. We take leave of a tribute to the merit of 'Euripides' which is calculated to enhance the appreciation of the most pathetic and philosophic of Greek dramatists."-Saturday Review. XIII.-JUVENAL. By EDWARD WALFORD, M.A. "This is one of the best executed volumes of the whole series of 'Ancient Classics,' and exhibits Mr Walford's critical powers in a very favourable light."-Pall Mall Gazette. "In the excellent 'Ancient Classics for English Readers' no single volume has been better done than 'Aristophanes' by the Rev. W. Lucas Collins, who edits the whole of the Series. He has made liberal use of Mr Hookham Frere's translation of the Comedies, and has occasionally ventured, with no meagre success, on versions of passages of which Mr Frere seems to have failed to bring out the full meaning. Some of those who are already familiar with the Plays of Aristophanes may, here and there, be inclined to cavil at Mr Collins' dicta-as, for instance, where he estimates 'The Wasps' at a lower level than its companions, but on the whole there has been no work yet published which brings the great Greek comedian better within the comprehension of the average Englishman. As a mere literary treat this volume is dirt cheap at half-a-crown, and, as we have said, we incline to rank it among the very best of the marvellous series for which they who are not Classical scholars, and some who have half forgotten their College lore, have to thank the publishers of Maga."—Standard, Oct. 21. XV. HESIOD, AND THEOGNIS. "If all the other works of this series are written with the same ability as 'Hesiod,' and 'Theognis,' a very valuable addition, in an unpretending form, will have been made to the literature of the country."—Saturday Review, Jan. 18. XVI.-TERENCE AND PLAUTUS. XVII.-T A CITUS. By W. B. DONNE. A Volume is published Quarterly, price 2s. 6d. 45 GEORGE Street, EdinbURGH; 37 PATErnoster Row, LONDON. |