The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1863-06-13
New Publications.

HARPER 8 GREEK AND LATIN TEXTS.
The Harpers have done more for the cause of
sound classical learnn than any other publishing
house in America. 1t is something like forty years
since they began to publish DIR. Anthons series of
annotated classics. The tendency and in no small
degree the result of DIR. Anthons well seconded Ia
bors have been to enfranchse American scholarship
The English methods of instruction transferred TO
these shores incongruous the trcncher cap
and gown which long survived as part of the ira
ditional costume regte for the spectacular COM
mencement week, but are going down gradually
into the abyss of trumpery and shams. AS the cap
and gown marked class set apart for studious lives
in scholastic retreats the English methods of in
struction were adapted with more less wisdom to
the long, slow process of laying foundations fit to
build LIES work on. There is no such class here
Society is too much in the rough this continent
for such exquisite division of labor as yet But we
cannot afford to cut loose from tho ancient civiliza-
ton. There is work to do-agrcultural m chanicaI
ay and military too has been recently discovered
enough to task the energies of our young democ-
racy to the utmost. But before that work begins
shall our youngsters have no chance to learn how
brave men did their duty years ago. and read the
golden words which enshrine these far, fragrant
memoriess And if they do take up the ancient
authors how preposterous to pursue precisely the
possible candidates for English fellowship, 1t
precisely this folly, that Dr. Anthems labors
were designed to correct, by placing within reach of
every classical student in the land, the results the
profoundest researches in the whole field of Greek
and Latin philology, not without making occasion
al excursions into the proper domain of linguistics
His books have everywhere set free students cropping
and toiling in the regulation darkness, shedding
upon the dim and perhaps mutilated page light such
as libraries contained and professors of,
but such was before wholly inaccessible to the
crowd in the lecture or recitation room.
Conservative professors were of course greatly
shocked on the appearance of DR.. Anthon's books.
There danger that the benches might have SUBJ
stantial advantage over the platform. Then there
was all Boston, including Cambridge, shaking its
head the Athens of America receive lessons in the
art of nst,uction from New York, the American
Corinth, Impossible and all the country colleges
of New England made haste to wag the head and
put out the tongue with much of the Harvard air
could conveniently be assumed Meanwhile the
undergraduates knowing for their part, that Dr.
Anthon's books were serviceable. kept constantly
purchasing them, in preference to all Others.
But here arose a difficulty. Some of these books
(Anthons Homer, for examplel contain, besides the
text and commentary complete translation
There good ground for objection to the of such
volume in recitation. And furthermore the Glass
ical Library" of the Harpers contains literal trans
laions of all the works usually read in American
colleges, and these can by means be admitted to
the public examinations. They and will be used
more or less by students, who at least have the
rant of scaligers example for the practice; but
they cannot be used in public recitation.
The Classical Texts now in course of publication
Inv tIo an; a,
Tauchnitzes and Teubncrs, dear TO the scholarsof
the last generation and the expensive pocket class
les of the English press, replaced by series of
volumes which, for perfection of mechanical execu-
ton and cheapness of price. unrivaled. Print
ed on clear, white paper, firm but thin, with red
edges and flexible covers each compact little volume
seems fitted for long companonship through days
and nights OF studous toll. And what volumes they
are. for fifty cents! Herodotus, the father and
Thucydides, the master of history; the thunderous
Eschylus and the pathetic Euripdes in tragedy the
poetic philosophy of Lucretius Virgil's manual of
hnsbandry and his epic, unfinished, but worth many
completed work; Horace's gay verses of society ;
Cicero's essays Old Age and Friendship, with a
selection from his volumnous correspondence; and
Casar's mastery account of the conquest of Gaul,
which only soldier appreciate. The texts have
been revised by the best English scholars and
Pfh'eo III is country from stereotype Plates lhere
is Coningtons Virgil Macleane's Horace, Caesar and
Cicero cared for by the veteran George Long, Mum
roes Lucretius, Frederick Palcy's 4Eschylus and
Blakesley's Herodotus, and Donadsons Thucydides
and however eccentric in some of his theories few
men knew more about hucydides than DIR. Donald
son. Most of these editors have already published
larger annotated editions of the same authors and
all are well known tosscholars at home and abroad.
In every respect, this new undertaking is which
deserves and to deserve, when includes in desert
right forecasting of opportunity and the like, is TO
insure-success.